At a state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen, chefs adept at diverse cuisines are sharing their secrets with home cooks in classes at the newly opened North American Pizza & Culinary Academy in Lisle. Several celebrity chefs will be guest faculty this autumn. In addition, the academy and a center in San Francisco are the only two professional schools in the U.S. accredited in the art of making pizza, including wood-fired techniques, by the Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli in Venice.

Holding the Italian school's title of master istruttore (or instructor) is Leo Spizzirri, who co-founded the academy in Lisle with Anthony Iannone. Spizzirri, an expert in the dough industry, instructs five-day courses for professional accreditation, as well as home-cooking pizza classes that use an electric oven.