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Dave Hale, known by many online as @DavesPizzaOven, holds up a slice of a cheese pizza while filming at his home kitchen in East Dallas. During the week, Hale sells eye equipment to optometrists. On weekends, he makes pizzas for a\u00a0fanbase of well over 1 million followers on social media.<\/p>\n
Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
On weekends, Dave Hale obsessively bakes cheese pizzas<\/a> from his East Dallas kitchen. He slaps a bubbling pie on his cutting board, rips a pizza slicer through crispy crust and presents a triangular slice to his iPhone camera. Thousands watch online, probably drooling, as Hale eats and analyzes his pizza, then offers tips on how to make it at home.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t call him an influencer, despite the 675,000 followers he\u2019s amassed on @DavesPizzaOven<\/a> on Instagram and another 300,000 on TikTok<\/a>. He has about 300,000 more followers on YouTube and Facebook, combined.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A self-taught baker from St. Louis, 36-year-old Hale considers pizzamaking a hobby.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s \u201cjust a normal guy making pizza at home,\u201d as his social media bio reads. It\u2019s not an annoying undersell; about 500,000 or more of those followers joined him in the past year, after he posted a seven-day pizza tutorial that catapulted him into the online pizzaverse.\u00a0<\/p>\n He gives credit to his wife \u2014 \u201cnot even the biggest pizza lover,\u201d he admitted \u2014 who came up with the idea to make pizzas from scratch during date night in 2022.<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n She \u201cprobably regretted it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI started making almost the same exact pizza every single night, with minor adjustments.\u201d He was on a quest to find the perfect cheese pizza recipe.<\/p>\n Dave Hale records Instagram videos on his iPhone while he makes pizzas at home. He’s a one-man show.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Hale\u2019s videos are informative and casual, the type that\u2019ll inspire a bored\u00a0doomscroller to get off the couch and make dough on date night. @DavesPizzaOven\u2019s quick rise to fame has earned him a collaboration with Alex Snodgrass, the Dallas-area creator of The Defined Dish cookbooks. He just finished a pizzamaking demo at Pizza Fest at Eataly<\/a> in Dallas on April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll never hear me talk about myself as the expert,\u201d Hale said. His day job is selling eye equipment to Dallas optometrists and ophthalmologists.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As Hale continues baking crispy pies from his Lakewood-area home, we ask why he loves pizza, how he garnered so much social media attention and if he\u2019s a secret millionaire.<\/p>\n How did you get interested in pizza?<\/p>\n \u201cA pizza obsession has been with me through my whole life,\u201d Hale said, \u201cand I mean the love of pizza, not the science behind it.”<\/p>\n His first time baking from scratch \u2014 ever \u2014 was in 2022.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He started by sharing pizza pics on his personal Instagram page. \u201cI just thought it was cool: Who doesn\u2019t love pizza? A friend or two encouraged me to make my own page.\u201d He laughed: \u201cI was kind of clogging up my own page with this. I mean, maybe everybody doesn\u2019t care about my pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n The Instagram page started with \u201czero intention.\u201d \u201cIt was just to share my creations \u2026 and I loved the editing process. I think I only had 2,000 followers for two straight years.\u201d<\/p>\n Dave Hale tosses pizza dough at his home kitchen in Dallas before making a pizza for Instagram on @DavesPizzaOven.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n How did you go from 2,000 followers to 650,000 on Instagram alone?<\/p>\n \u201cI wish I had an answer for you. I have impostor syndrome. It\u2019s really hard to comprehend. I think it\u2019s because I started to get pretty good at the tutorial side of things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He felt \u201cembarrassed\u201d to show his face in videos, so he didn\u2019t do that for about three years<\/a>. But then he did a seven-day pizza tutorial<\/a> \u2014 one video a day, for a week, offering tips like what kitchen gear to buy, best practices to make dough and how to dial in your oven to get crispy crust at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s what really made it explode. \u2026 I can\u2019t pretend to explain how the algorithm works, but that series got people interested in pizzamaking. And it got people believing they can actually do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Dave Hale sprinkles\u00a0cheese on his pizza during an Instagram video for @DavesPizzaOven.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Are you a secret millionaire?<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI am making some money from it, and it\u2019s starting to snowball. Facebook,\u00a0TikTok, YouTube, they all have ad dollars they contribute around your videos,\u201d he said. \u201cI do have a subscription website for people. It\u2019s all the same recipes I have on my pages, but it\u2019s for people who want something more organized. \u2026 More step by step. And more searchable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s life-changing in the sense that I never thought I\u2019d generate a single dollar on my passion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He paused. \u201cIt\u2019s not quit-my-job money.\u201d<\/p>\n “When you’re baking, you spend a lot of time looking at the oven,” said Dallas baker Dave Hale, of @DavesPizzaOven on Instagram.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n You say you\u2019re not an influencer. Why?<\/p>\n \u201cI have a gripe with the term \u2018influencer.\u2019 I am a content creator, and there\u2019s a difference. I am focused on creating. And educating and tutorials. I\u2019m more making a product and offering a service.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI think influencing is more about yourself, or more about your daily life. Or selling other products directly for other companies.\u201d<\/p>\n Your Instagram handle is @DavesPizzaOven. The oven is actually a KitchenAid in your house, right?<\/p>\n Yes. (And no, the oven was not free.) <\/p>\n The name @DavesPizzaOven isn\u2019t about the oven, however. \u201cI wish I had a better story for you on that name,\u201d he said. \u201cI came up with something generic. Instead of Dave\u2019s Pizza, I called it Dave\u2019s Pizza Oven.\u201d<\/p>\n Dave Hale drizzles olive oil on the crust of a cheese pizza at his home kitchen in East Dallas. He said it’s one of the little secrets he does to make the pizza taste better.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Is that part of the allure, that you\u2019re using a \u2018regular\u2019 oven?<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s really what people resonate with. It\u2019s achievable for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He also has three outdoor pizza ovens and enjoys using them now and then. But his preferred styles, New York and pan pizza, he makes in his home oven.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Where do you shop?<\/p>\n Hale gets most of his ingredients from Jimmy\u2019s Food Store in Old East Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey use the ingredients that 80% of the New York shops use,\u201d he said. Go-to grocery items include Bianco Dinapoli crushed\u00a0tomatoes and Grande mozzarella cheese.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Other than cheese, Dave Hale’s favorite pizza combo is pepperoni, burrata, basil and hot honey.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n We\u2019re here for the geeky details, so describe your crust.<\/p>\n \u201cMy go-to dough recipe is a three-day process.\u201d (Get out your pen and paper!) \u201cI let it slow ferment for two-three days. During that time, the gluten is getting stronger, the flavor is developing, the bread itself is getting more digestible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He bakes it for 8 minutes at 550 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, he usually puts olive oil around the freshly baked crust. \u201cOne, I think it looks awesome. But two, it tastes good.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He describes the crust as \u201clight, crunchy and airy, with a little char. We call it a deep bake. So the crust isn\u2019t pale, it\u2019s on the darker side.\u201d<\/p>\n Dave Hale always wears an apron with pizzas all over it when he bakes pizzas for his Instagram page, @DavesPizzaOven.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n You\u2019re known for cheese pizza. What\u2019s up with cheese?<\/p>\n \u201cCheese is the blankest canvas. You can hide a bad pizza with toppings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He added, \u201cit\u2019s more complex than you think, to find the perfect balance of cheese, sauce and bread.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n He hatches an idea: \u201cI was thinking of doing a series of all the ways you could make a cheese pizza. Using sliced cheese [and] shredded cheese. The way it melts, the way it protects the tomato layer: It comes out completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have so much respect for pizza shop owners. I don\u2019t know how they could ever decide one way to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking of, would you ever open a restaurant?<\/p>\n \u201cI respect these guys so much. I don\u2019t know. I think it would be really fun, in the sense that I get to share my creation with everybody. But I know how hard they work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He reconsidered. \u201cNever say never.\u201d<\/p>\n How’s it cookin’? Dave Hale of @DavesPizzaOven gives the camera a thumbs up while filming an Instagram video at his home kitchen in East Dallas.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n If you weren\u2019t making pizzas, what might you be doing?<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI like dabbling with the experimental side of things,\u201d he said. Hale was a biology major at the University of Missouri.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n At one point he wanted to be a dentist, but he worried he wasn\u2019t as smart as some of the other medical students. \u201cI always had an interest in the science side of things. \u2026 When I learned there were all these different variables [with pizza], my mind was drawn to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish I could be interested in more healthy food, honestly. But pizza was my calling.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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