Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Oh Snap!! Sorry for my lack of commentary...but it is indeed busy. I just got home from Friday night dinner service right now! We're coming up on our one year anniversary so we have a lot going on...Food Network was in a couple of weeks ago filming Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives too!! A totally insane year....

Like George Costanza with his Snickers!

Our Ferrara oven is amazing. It really is like driving a Ferrari...we can go 5-6 wide all night long!

Those Wood-Stone ovens just suck.

I'm getting torched on the Dallas food boards for all of my inflammatory comments and potty mouth! I suffer for my art....

The video is very helpful as you guys did a good job breaking down the technique. There is a HUGE difference between stretching 5-10 dough balls for a home party once or twice a week vs. doing 250 per night, every night!

Seasoned and DRY wood seems to be the key. We use Oak in TX because it is plentiful - but I've sometimes opted for hickory or pecan if the oak didn't seem dry enough. Fruit woods are priced at a premium and I don't really see the point. The other thing I look for is the size and cut of the wood...smaller pieces that are split (vs. left whole "round") make a big difference as far as catching quickly.

Hi All - thanks for the comments (I think :) ). Lots of angst but I swear I'm not trying to get anything over on anyone.

I probably overuse the word "authentic" when it comes to Neapolitan pizza whereas Neapolitan-style is more accurate. I did VPN training in CA 5 years ago and I still make it all exactly as I was trained there (refrigerated dough and all) - and I know things have changed since my training (i.e. planetary (Hobart) mixers are no longer allowed). I am just doing my best to adhere/honor the traditions outlined given my equipment and my environment. In TX it is brutally hot and humid and large scale production of ambient risen dough is a real challenge from basically March through October. Refrigeration is really my only choice given the volume we are doing.

Also - I 100% agree on the oven issue and I tried to indicate that in the first question. Remember, though, we are mobile - and you simply could not tow an oven made of individual bricks over the roads without structural damage. Believe me, I have Francesca at Stefano Ferrara Ovens on speed dial as soon as we sign a lease - the oven is already designed. It takes A LOT of wood to produce/maintain the heat required for Neapolitan pizza. I use regular logs but also have sawdust and shavings on hand to get quick bursts of heat when needed. With all of that firepower I can get pizzas done between 60-90 seconds.

On tomatoes - we tested a ton of different tomatoes. The point I really should have made is that there is a significant taste difference (in my opinion) between California tomatoes and Italian tomatoes. The ones I happen to like right now just happen to be DOP. I had another brand I liked better before that was not DOP, but my supplier has been out of them for months. Also, I haven't used Caputo in probably over a year...tried it but it just didn't work well down here. We do use imported 00 flour though.

So I get the fact that the US VPN designation may be looked at a little funny - and some of the restaurants do get the certification and then disregard the standards (case in point - that is what Campania did in TX, so I turned myself in). For Cane Rosso, as a mobile unit we can never be certified - but we try to stay as faithful to the guidelines as possible - not for "marketing" reasons, but because I think it makes the best tasting pizza. As I said, my goal was to give newbies that same "holy crap" moment I had in 1995 and let those that know what Neapolitan pizza is have a reasonable approximation of it locally.

When my friend Maurizio, born and raised in Naples, tells me that my pizza reminds him of the pizzas he and his brother used to have growing up, I figure I'm on the right track.

From looking at the pics of the crust and cheese, I would say they don't have the oven hot enough...pizza cooks too long and dries out crust and burns mozzarella. Also weird that they have that little guard around the wood in the oven....I don't know that there are actually "follow up" inspections from the VPN, but I do know that people will contact the VPN if they don't think a restaurant is following the guidelines. Pepe Miele from the VPN stresses that certification is more of an obligation than an accolade.

Great news for Paulie...can't wait to hear the reviews and see the pics. One of these days soon I'll get up to NY!

This is awesome...although you can never win trying to rank pizzerias - but the final four look right on. Too bad no Dallas pizzerias made it out of the first round - but it is for sure accurate. Next time Paulie Gee and Cane Rosso will be in the mix. We had a good write up from an interesting source...note the love for Mr. Gee :)

http://www.gaylistdaily.com/dallas/entries/pie_in_the_sky/

We've recently taken our mobile pizza oven and opened up a "guerilla" restaurant on Thu - Sat in a little spot in Dallas. Because we now have a much larger space with more prep equipment we were able to do a much broader menu. I finally and fully ditched pepperoni for hot sopressata. I am getting mine from a local distributor who gets it from Salumeria Biellese. It is ridiculously expensive, but the taste is amazing. I haven't had 1 complaint from anyone looking for pepperoni. Also - for their inspiration, I named a pizza after Paulie Gee (hot sopressata, carmelized onions, calabrian chiles) and Motorino (burrata, sausage, broccolini, garlic, calabrian chiles - basically stole their Pugliese...but I did tell them!).

Indy is actually a very cool town - I love their downtown area and have stayed right near the monument circle area a bunch of times. That bazbeaux pizza is just awful though. They do have some great steak places between Mo's, St. Elmo's...and there was one more. Someone needs to open a cool pizzeria there stat!