Earlier this month, Will Grant, owner of Kingston’s Sourdough Willy’s and Bainbridge Island’s That’s a Some Pizza, returned to his alma mater, Olympic College’s Bremerton campus, to guest-teach the fundamentals of pizza-making to its culinary students.
Grant, who is the first American to receive the Premio Follie Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pizza World Cup in Rome, felt that his return to the college was more than a visit — it was an opportunity to reflect on where his journey began.
“I went through the Running Start program at Olympic College in 1997, which allowed me to get a jump on college credits while I was still in high school,” Grant said. “I came back in 2000 specifically to take accounting and business management classes — I knew I wanted to open a restaurant, and I wanted to do it right. Those classes gave me a real foundation.”
The free-to-attend two-day course focused on practical and accessible skills. The first day, which Grant coined “Pizza 101,” focused on students getting hands-on experience with dough and proper gluten formation. The second day dove deeper into baker’s percentages, commercial mixers, and baking the dough that was made the previous day.
“We had nine students the first day and 12 the second,” he said. “The energy in the room was great. You could see the moment it clicked for people, when they understood why the dough feels the way it does, or why the percentages matter. That’s what I live for as an instructor.”
After the two-day course’s success, Grant is already looking forward to potentially returning to the Bremerton college to guest-teach more culinary students.
“Pizza gave me everything; a career, a community, a way to connect with people across the world,” he said. “The least I can do is pass that on. Coming back to Olympic College specifically felt full circle. That school helped me build the business foundation to pursue this craft professionally. If I can give even one student a spark the way this place gave me a spark, that’s a win.”