re: I have a question regarding Pizza

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quote: The question I have for you is, Did the burned places taste burnt? Or did you just throw them away? Do you send back a steak with char? Or a dish with a charred citrus aspect? When you grill skin on chicken do you peel off all of the char? The char on the top of the crust is indeed technically "burnt" but it shouldn't be enough carbon to overtake the pizza itself. If it is then it is either a bad pizza place with shitty toppings or really terrible dough that is just flat out burnt. You don't like Nepalitan style pizza and that obvious. You simply cannot cook a wood fire pizza with a dough that is leavened without the charred bubbles. You like deck oven style pizza more like New York style or thin crispy crust like a flat bread almost. Like I said before because food is so subjective, it's okay. There is no wrong answer here.

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Amen

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I know we have already agreed to disagree, but that pizza is burned. Those charred places are burned. Watch restaurant shows on TV and you will see god chefs look at a plate that looks perfect and throw it in the trash can then tell the assistant to cook it again maybe I am that chef.

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My point exactly about the "foodie" and food network culture. I don't have to watch the restaurant shows because as of right now this is my 13th year working as a professional chef not counting the years growing up in my grandfathers Italian deli as a dishwasher and prep punk and I'm only 30.

No offense and I'm not trying to attack but you aren't a chef. You are most definitely the consumer and that is what is the MOST important aspects of your posts.

Any pizziola on planet earth would take one look at that pizza you call "burnt" and tell you it's damn near perfect. It's a nepalitan style pizza. It's supposed to look that way. Just like "bark" on a perfect Texas style brisket or even a perfect creme brulee.

So, should I post another thread in the series: "So I boiled me some broccoli"?

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Good for you. Wasn't meant to be a pissing contest. Still doesn't take anything away from the folks who do work on a "goddamn pizza oven" 8-10 hours a day serving 300+ guest in a 78 seat restaurant. For what it's worth, I don't care how hot and how hard jobs you've worked in the past were. My reply had nothing to do with you or your past jobs.

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I used to shovel coal on a steam locomotive.

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I wholeheartedly disagree with that one. A pizza steel, broiler, and Lahey's no knead crust: I can sling perfect pies all damn day long out of my oven. Sure, they're 3.5 minute pies rather than 90 second pies, but that's seriously hairsplitting.

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I've made pizza on BGE, deck ovens and regular ovens. There is no possible way to get the bubbles and rise on the crust of a napolitan style pizza in your home oven that is 400-500 degrees lower than a wood or coal burner. I'm not saying your pizza isn't delicious because I'm sure it's great but based on pure knowledge, experience and flat out science you cannot duplicate that style of pizza perfect in your broiler.

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Watch restaurant shows on TV and you will see god chefs look at a plate that looks perfect and throw it in the trash can then tell the assistant to cook it again maybe I am that chef.

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You seem to have a decent grasp on cooking in general, but you're wrong here. The "burnt pieces" you're talking about are part of that style of pizza. It is okay to not like that style, but nothing about brown bubbles on a wood-fired pizza makes it trash worthy.

A simple Google image search for wood fired pizza shows how common the dark bubbles are. It is part of the style.

You are wrong.

Pretty much any trendy pizza place, especially here in seattle, burns their pizza as you described

I think its gross

Me and my mom went to this place called Serious Pie in seattle. $18 for a pizza about the size of a frisbee, definitley could not feed 1 let alone 2, and it was burned. Oh but so trendy. Somehow this place is the highest rated pizza place in seattle. I learned a lesson that day not to trust reviews.

We went to Bainbridge Island and got a real pizza for a lower price

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Shovel coal in a locomotive

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I was director of quality for a company that made radiators for Large industrial equipment, trucks and such. We made the coils out of copper coils that were passed through a forming die and the tubes that carried the heat transfer fluid through a molten lead bath. After assembling rows of tubes and accordion rows of copper fin material, the assembly was locked into a frame and slowly passed into and out of an oven heated to around 900 degrees f to reliquify the lead coating on the tubes and then allow it to resolidify after capturing the fins.

I always said you could cook in our oven, if it weren't for the abundance of lead in there. I can say it was extremely hot.

Another job, another industry, I did vendor liaison work with corning glass, especially the plant in Chicago Heights, IL. They made Glass bottles for IV solution for us, and the small glass vials used to package injectable drugs. A glass kiln/oven is very hot - just like hell would be - close to 1600 degrees. Have spent many hours beside an oven, reluctant to touch anything because everything was hot-hot while I wished I was somewhere else.

Have never pushed a Pizza off of the pell into an oven.


edited to say:

and I don't intend to start shoving pizza into an oven now. Too much like work, and I have officially stopped working now. Feels great by the way.