On 11/17/2021 at 9:12 AM, weinoo said:With such an expensive set of books, well-researched and documented, that is a bit disappointing, in my opinion.
Well researched? Really? 
All they had to do was to talk to any NY pizzeria owner to figure out that NY style pizza is never 70% water. Ever. Even Gemignani (Pizza Bible), with all his shortcomings, knows this. They could have just given Tony a call. And when you get into weaker flours that are commonly available to the home baker, 70% water becomes even more silly. Good luck hand stretching 70% dough made with AP flour. You'd have better luck herding cats.
From the very first pages of MC, by effectively ignoring centuries of Neapolitan knowledge, Nathan has made it clear that he values innovation more than tradition- and that's not entirely horrible. The innovation they've done has been unbelievably valuable- at least some of it (polydextrose and lecithin in Neapolitan pizza? ). They didn't invent steel and aluminum for pizza, but they put it on the map. I would even go as far as to say that, without conveying the role that intense heat plays in the pizza, there would be no Ooni either. No Nathan, no MC, no renaissance in home pizza making.
Kenji suffers from a similar malady. Absolutely brilliant guy, but heavily blindered. Pizza is science, but it is also artisanal. An artisan is NOTHING without the knowledge that precedes them. The master bricklayer learned bricklaying from someone else- he or she didn't just lock themselves up in a lab. Science can function well in a vacuum, but successful food is always collaborative.
I haven't read the book- nor have I read this entire thread, but, if they're getting something as simple as NY style hydration wrong, it's indicative of extremely poor research- that they weren't talking to the industry 10 years ago when MC came out, and they don't seem to be talking to them now either.
