Pizza Expo Correspondence - Day 0

Well. There's my badge. Right now it's in Vegas, gallivanting around on a neck that isn't mine. It's my dream to attend Pizza Expo and report on the finest pizza technologies, interview pizza innovators and document the Olympic Feats of pizza. While I couldn't make it this year, my dad was more than eager to take my place. 

When he isn't investigating buffets for his rival blog, Buffet Eat With Me, he's rubbing elbows with pizza elite. In his first day he somehow managed to find the author of The Pizza Bible, Tony Gemignani! 

That's my dad, Tom, on the left with pizza legend, Tony, on the right. Of all the hotel lobbies in all of Vegas, right? The press badge holds a mystic power to draw you to legends. It certainly seems to be working in this instance.

Amateur Pizza Journalist Tom Tallarico did send me some notes from his first pizza seminar. These are updates from "Finding Customer" with my comments in italics.

PIZZA EXPO SEMINAR:
Differentiation Be different than other pizza places. But how - ranch on the pizza? Hm.
What are you selling besides Pizza, No, Pizza is only a Tool. Sell community? Or pleasant memories?
Have a selling proposition
Sell the 2nd visit!!!!! "Here's a magnent, tell your kids I say hello." This works on my dad.
Focus within a 1-2 mile radius Great advice for city pizzerias!
Who are your customers; what are their expectations. Hungry people who expect pizza. Obviously.
If you know what customers expect & like, you'll know where to find them. Marketing basics, I love it.
Then train staff to appeal to them. A friendly staff is 99% of the reason I like a pizza place.

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My dad sent over a shot from the expo floor. There's all sorts of ovens and machinery ready to woo pizzaiolos from across the globe.

And day 0 wouldn't be complete without running into another pizza celebrity: Scott Anthony. I met Scott when he coordinated Tony's Pizza Bible tour in Pittsburgh. He's an award winning pizza maker with an outstanding pizza place in Punxsutawney.

Stay tuned for more updates from Pizza Walk With Me at Pizza Expo!

Mastering the Pizza Master Class - Day 1 Recap

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve enrolled myself in Tony’s Master Class of pizza found within the first few pages of The Pizza Bible. You can take this class (and probably much more) at Tony’s International School of Pizza in San Francisco.

Yes, I am trying to uncover and learn the subtleties of pizza, an age old tradition, from a book with a solid spine. I’ll guide myself through this education and come out the other end with no degree or credits, but a humble knowledge that I can make a pizza. A pizza that I know is better, and more importantly, how it’s better.

Is this the equivalent of a plucky young kid checking out a Calculus book from her local library before her brain is developed enough to understand the equations that lie within? It ain't too far off, except that you can't eat equations.

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The Master Class is split up into three days of activity. Day 1 has you weighing ingredients, chilling water to the perfect temperature, exciting yeast then freezing it within an inch of its life as it festers in some dough. 

Day 2 is simple - the degassing phase. This pizza takes 48 hours to make and in the middle of that process, the yeast reproduces and fills the dough with gas. This gas is what makes the dough rise. There’s also a very excellent gluten network developing within the dough. I never took notice of it before, but like the spider that weaves a wondrous web in the corner of your home, the yeast forms a peculiar network of gluten that connects the pizza together, allows it to stretch and grow. It’s nature’s most beautiful work.

Day 3 is the nerve wracking. Not only do you pray to the pizza gods above that the yeast, oil, salt, flour, and water all worked together to make the perfect dough ball, but now you have to cook it.

It’s possible that on day 3 you find out that it’s all been in vain. Maybe due to a prior pizza sin or a sloppy corner cut, your ball deflated. Or your gluten network crashed like it was Y2K. If your dough is in tact you still have to carefully stretch the dough - a tight-rope of an act that requires extreme dexterity or else you’ll tear a hole right down the center.

Then you have to negotiate the pizza off the peel onto your 500 degree pizza stone. A stressful move that Tony compares to a magician pulling a tablecloth off of a fully dressed table. Only, the magician is at risk of losing some china. Here, 48 hours of work could vanish with a muscle twitch.

With all of this in mind you have to hit day 1 with the enthusiasm of a thousand pizzaiolos touring old pizzerias in the heart of Naples.

DAY ONE

On day one I did a lot of measuring. The Pizza Bible has “The Ten Commandments of Pizza” and the first thing on the list is Thou Shalt Use a Scale to Weigh Ingredients. It’s the only way to be sure the measurements are correct. And precision (and consistency) is key to pizza making.

I measured the flour. I measured oil, salt, water (both ice cold and warm) and yeast. After measuring out all your ingredients it’s as simple as combining them together in a mixer. There’s a hastiness to the process because, to quote Tony, “A mistake I often see with beginners—and even some pros—is over mixing or over kneading pizza dough. Too much working of the dough makes it tough, and you’ll end up with pizza that gives you a sore jaw from chewing.

In total, you’ll knead the dough for three minutes and mix it for four. It’s a quick process—it’s so exact that Tony provides the temperature you should expect the dough to be at each stage. The temperature is important as it dictates the activity of the yeast, the keystone of the dough.

Once everything is mixed together you knead the dough and a non-wood, non-flour surface and let it sit out for an hour. After an hour you pop it into the fridge and you’re done for the day.

Hey, that was fun. 

Here’s some takeaways from Day 1:

• You can’t find diastatic malt anywhere. It’s an optional ingredient that helps to brown the crust. I tried three different shops but had no luck. You’re better off buying it off of Amazon.

• Penn Mac, in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, is actually a Tony Gemignani certified ingredient outlet. Gemignani lists sources where you can find key ingredients - and Penn Mac is highlights for their wonderful cheese and meat selection.

• I couldn’t find the Sir Lancelot flour (which has a higher % of protein) so I settled for King Arthur’s Bread Flour. Plan ahead!

• After the first time you make the dough, subsequent creations take a sliver of the time. I made another batch of dough a half-hour after getting home from work!

• My first batch of dough was slightly sticky, but after a minute of kneading the dough smoothed out. The second batch was sticky in the way scotch tape is sticky. I wonder if I added a gram or three too much of water...we'll find out in 48 hours. 

• Waiting 48 hours for pizza sucks.

I’ll write about my day 2 experience soon. That’s the degassing phase—a key technique that promotes yeast production and gives a stronger rise.

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Welcome to Pizza School: Tony Gemignani's Pizza Master Class

My 2016 Goal is to unearth the divine truths hidden inside The Pizza Bible. 

Last year Tony Gemignani, an 11-time World Pizza Champ, published a book detailing the pizza craft. According to the intro, titled Respect the Craft, he says:

 Pizza is simple. It's dough, tomato, cheese, and toppings. But as someone who has devoted more than half of my life to it, I can tell you that, like all really great, really simple things, pizza is infinite...And what I can tell you for sure is that pizza doesn't come down to just recipes or formulas. It's a craft.

To up my game as a pizza journalist I know I need to embed myself in the pizza religion. It's something I've been practicing as a hobby for a while, but this year I'm making a covenant with pizza. It should be exciting.

Me and my pizza pal Chad will work our way through The Pizza Bible. We'll have more details to follow, but before you can make a pizza you need to pass The Master Class.

The book begins with The Master Class. This is a 19 page journey into the philosophy of pizza making according to Tony Gemignani. Before you touch a single ounce of flour he would rather you read all 19 pages - this covers everything from gadgets to ovens and key ingredients. It’s the fundamental information you’ll need to become a pizza maker. A pizza maker that can discern ingredients, techniques and toppings. And, more importantly, now how to innovate.

The Master Class consists of charts, graphs and detailed descriptions of the types of flour you’ll encounter on your pizza journey. You’ll find an easy-to-read chart listing the protein %, and what flour is good for what pizza.

This is all before the official first day of the class. The first day has you creating two pizzas from the same dough. Both use a two-step rising process but both will come out of the oven looking like opposites. 

At the end of day one, after tediously measuring out every gram of salt and ounce of yeast, you have one large mass of dough. This dough will eventually become two pizzas, but for now it’s a large blob. By letting the dough rise in one piece you’ll find that the individual pizzas bake lighter, crispier and are more flavorful than if they rose separately. Why? Because of the degassing process.

Reading through day one has already taught me techniques to refine home-baked pizza:

• Hydration - This is one of the key factors in differentiating dough. The higher the hydration of dough, the lighter, puffier, more tender and more crisp the dough is likely to be. This is because all that hydration turns to steam in the cooking process, which helps the dough expand. Which gives a crispy crust that protects the soft inside. The tradeoff? The dough becomes quite difficult to wield.

• High-Protein Flour - Gluten, a protein that forms a "gluten network" helps make the dough more elastic. This is measured in flour as a "percent protein" in flour. It's not listed on the bag, but Tony has a recommended list of flours. This percent protein can change through the year depending on the weather, environment, temperature, etc. 

• Malt - Malt is perfect for at-home baking as it helps the dough brown perfectly without being exposed to the high-temperatures of pizza oven. It's a neat trick to turn your home into its own pizza shop.

There's plenty of other insights I'm excited to share. I'm sure at the end of this I'll have a better understanding of what makes great pizza great as well as a few new pizza prayers.

If you're interested in learning more, you can visit The Pizza Bible website, which doubles as a pizza community. It's a cool place to post pizza questions and get feedback from your peers.

2015 TOP PIZZA MOMENTS IN THE STEEL CITY BABY - Moments 6-4

We’re back for another wonderful look at the finest pizza moments to grease up the city of Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh can be unassuming. It’s a city drowning in the soil of history. Slowly but surely we’re seeing germination of innovation. From the soil wonderful inventive plants are popping up to make the landscape varied and wonderful. What a great ecosystem.

Anyways, it turns out that this is an awesome environment for pizza. Did you know I type that sentence 60 times a week? Wild. Well, let’s get to it. Moments 6, 5 and 4 are just ahead!

6 - The Steel City Pizza Fest Happened

DJ Zombo put together Pittsburgh’s first Pizza Festival because...well why not. It was a wonderful event held in Lawrenceville’s Arsenal Park where Bloomfield, Garfield and Lawrenceville’s finest pizzerias came together to sell pizzas.

But, it wasn’t just a couple of booths with pizzas. Oh no. There was the Pizza Pinup contest where anyone could enter and be voted Ms. PizzaBurgh. Spak Brothers held a pizza eating contest every hour. Anyone could enter and race against the clock to eat a large pizza the fastest.

It was as disgusting as it was beautiful.

Graziano’s ended up taking home the people’s choice award, edging out Angelo’s by a single vote! How exciting. I hope to see Pizza Festival make a return next year.

5: Pizza Dojo 3: Driftwood Oven vs Pizza Boat

Driftwood Oven's Pizza Dojo lineup

There’s nothing better than a good pizza rivalry. Pizza Boat knows how to ham it up for the crowd and play the pizza heel. I’ve had many folks ask me if Pizza Boat actually hates other pizza makers and the answer is obviously yes.

Just look at Jeff’s vicious attacks on Driftwood Oven in this video from the competition:

I’m just glad everyone made it out alive.

I hope Pizza Dojo never goes away. It’s an amazing way to introduce pizza innovations and bring a community together around great pizza.  As I wrote in my summary of the event:

Pizza Dojo isn't about a single night in Pittsburgh, it's about trying something new in the Pittsburgh pizza scene. Pushing one another to innovate and make better pizza.

Instead of existing side-by-side for years on a street in Squirrel Hill and pretending that the world on the other side of the counter hasn't changed, the pizza makers that enter the Pizza Dojo emerge with a new perspective. A new definition of pizza. Confidence to try something new and push the pizza envelope to the edge of the table.

4: Tony Gemignani visits Pittsburgh

You may not know Tony Gemignani, but he’s responsible for spreading the pizza gospel across the country. He’s written The Pizza Bible, an amazing book that covers every nook and cranny of pizza fundamentals. He’s put on clinics and has been crowned the World Pizza Champion.

And, this year he paid a visit to Pittsburgh to sign copies of his book and show off his pizza theory.

He’s a guy that loves making pizza. His motto is “Respect the Craft.” And that’s a mentality that I see more and more pizza makers in Pittsburgh adopting. They put ingredients on pizza with a purpose. Nothing is haphazard and everything has a reason.

Meeting Tony was awesome, but the turnout for the event was even more impressive. Caliente was filled to the brim with pizza enthusiasts waiting to talk with Tony and exchange pizza tips.

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So that's Pizza Moments 6-4! You can read moments 9-7 here. 

Me and Tony Gemignani, author of The Pizza Bible

Me and Tony Gemignani, author of The Pizza Bible!

Pizza Lovers of the World Unite - Visit the Author of the Pizza Bible

Dear follower of pizza. Today is your day to take your pizza passion to the next level. Do you own pizza shoes? Eat pizza for every other meal? Make your own pizza? Then you’ll need to meet the author of the Pizza Bible, Tony Gemignani, today.

Not only can he cleanse you of any pizza sins, but you can ask him very poignant pizza questions. Like, what is the deal with pepperoni? What does he really think of Type 00 flour? How high should you be tossing your dough?

I don’t know the answers to all these questions, but Tony probably does. 

You have two chances to meet him today. So act fast.

Visit Penn Mac in the Strip District at 1pm.

Head to Caliente in Bloomfield at 6pm.

I’ll see you at Caliente, for sure. 

Penn Mac 2:13 - Let There Be True Italian Ingredients

After posting about Tony Gemignani, the author of the Pizza Bible, visiting Caliente tomorrow night, February 13, I received a request from the tour organizer, Scott Anthony. He wanted me to mention that Tony will be spreading the Pizza Bible gospel at Penn Mac at 1pm!

Scott also told me that Penn Mac holds a special place in Tony’s heart. In the Pizza Bible, Tony mentions Penn Mac 13 times, citing the specialty store as a “source for true Italian ingredients.” And he not wrong. I buy all my type 00 flour and cheese for pizza there!

You can visit Tony at Penn Mac at 1pm on February 13th (that’s tomorrow!). 

Author of the Pizza Bible Visits Pittsburgh

Tony Gemignani is a guy who knows pizza. In fact, he wrote The Pizza Bible. This is a well-known book in the world of pizza that helps pizzaiolos decode all of the wonderful pizza secrets. 

Does that mean this is the Rosetta Stone of pizza and now you’ll be able to communicate with your pie? I’m not saying it’s not. 

This Friday, February 13th, Valentine’s Day Eve (a day I use to declare my love for pizza) the author of the pizza bible, Tony Gemignani, will be visiting Pittsburgh. He’ll spend the morning at Penn Mac where he’ll be doing a book signing. In the evening he’ll pop over to Caliente Pizza & Draft House from 6pm to 8pm to sign books and talk pizza.

I’m really excited and I’m hoping to get a chance to interview Tony. He probably has some amazing insights in the world of pizza. Hope to see you at Caliente this Friday!