artisan pizza success

[bakerboy]

Mr. Reinhart, thanks so much for Crust & Crumb. Its always the book i grab off the bookshelf when i need an idea or to tweak an existing idea.

About 3 years ago i was summoned from an artisan bakery in phila. back to my hometown of kennett square to assist a friend who was opening a pizza shop. I was unfamiliar with pizza but very familiar with bread. I am currently raising my pizza dough using risen dough not yeast (20% of the weight of the flour), shaping immediately, retarding ovenight and using the next day....and it is overwhelmingly popular. Its far superior to the flat white tasteless stuff thats all around. My question is: Is there really an artisan pizza craze taking place? If there is, do you think its because people are taking the time to make and ferment really good crust or are people simply putting on lots of wacky toppings and calling it "artisan". In MY case, its definately the crust because we do some nice and different toppings but plain and pepperoni are still tops with eveyone. It is however much more time consiming and labor intensive. thanks again.

barry

[Peter Reinhart]

Hi,

What's the name of your pizzeria? I'll send my brother there to check it out and come by when I get back to Philly. Yes, it's all about the crust, not the toppings. This is how I frame it: all the great toppings in the world on a mediocre crust will not make a pizza memorable, but a great crust with quality (not necessarily fancy) toppings will always be embedded in your taste memory hall of fame. It's all in the crust.

I love your idea of old dough fermenting new. Thiis also proves that you don't need a lot yeast to raise good pizza dough--time does a lot of the work for you.

[bakerboy]

Hi,

  What's the name of your pizzeria? I'll send my brother there to check it out and come by when I get back to Philly. Yes, it's all about the crust, not the toppings. This is how I frame it: all the great toppings in the world on a mediocre crust will not make a pizza memorable, but a great crust with quality (not necessarily fancy) toppings will always be embedded in your taste memory hall of fame. It's all in the crust.

  I love your idea of old dough fermenting new. Thiis also proves that you don't need a lot yeast to raise good pizza dough--time does a lot of the work for you.

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Its Marengos pizza in avondale Pa. in the Boomers complex. would love to have you. of course we bake alot of bread out of those pizza ovens also. feel free to email or pm me about your timetable. I'm sure you'll love it.

Barry