When I put in the euro sign, it looks fine in preview, but shows up as an a with a carat followed by a dash the drops down at then end. I'm going to enter those characters to see how they show up.

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AK: you mean VINCENT, not Maximillian, I assume. I'd love an oven that could communicate via ESP like VINCENT.

I've seen your oven on pizzamaking - I envy your oven, and, more-so, your design and fab skills. But I think you're selling yourself short - if you can design and build a high performance oven like that, I'm sure you could figure out a way of burning just the bottom of a pizza in it.

"they all agree they are great at 700-750" - so, maybe it's not such a poor choice if they aren't going for 60s pies? Better Neapolitan capabilities might be nice, anyway, but perhaps not worth some trade-offs I could hypothesize (direct cost, planning and approval time and costs, ability to cook things other than pizzas in it, etc.).

@shuboyje, my comment about fine tuning was more about distribution than overall heat level. I wouldn't call panic-firing fine tuning, but a more extreme example of problems & corrections that can happen at the beginning of service.

I'm not trying to defend or even compare different ovens. I'm just saying that it's hard to blame any one thing based on one pizza made under uncertain circumstances, and that there really isn't much blame to go around here. It's very possible to get unbalanced pizzas out of balanced ovens. If you asked Anthony Mangieri to burn just the bottom of your pizza, he probably wouldn't, but he could. I'm sure Paulie G, TXCraig1, etc., could as well.

I'm curious about the origins of the Valoriani reputation you referred to. Other than MP, are there others who have significant real-world experience cooking in both Valoriani and other WFOs who have publicly given their opinion? By significant, real-world experience, I'm thinking firing 100+ times and cooking 10,000+ pizzas in each.

"the Ciolli family, to whom he sold his original Grimaldi's location and naming rights"

In light of the Grimaldi-Ciolli feud, I think it's worth mentioning that not all "Grimaldi's" pizzerias are owned by the Ciolli family. When Patsy retired, there were 2 - in Brooklyn and in Hoboken. Frank Ciolli bought the Brooklyn location. The Hoboken location is still owned by Patsy's partner.

Adam - the seasoning on the outside of the pans was thin and spotty. It looked terrible, but, the pans didn't rust, so that wasn't a big deal. The insides, however, were thickly spotted. Soft and globby, it was. You can get an idea of how thick the spots were from the highlights on the side of the pan in the picture below, which I took of the pan before doing anything with it.

Following the directions that came with, I set out to waste a few pizzas in one pan until it started releasing well. After one pie, I decided that was a waste of time, and resolved to burn of all the seasoning and start fresh. The seasoning was already pealing off, anyway. The pie had stuck to the pan, and the seasoning had stuck to the pie. I don't know how dangerous it is to eat polymerized and carbonized oil, but it's not appetizing.

I would recommend burning off the stuff, not using lye / oven cleaner. Detroit pans have folds that might trap the caustic chemicals and then leak them into your pie. They shouldn't crack like cast iron might when burning off seasoning, but I would bring it up to temperature and cool it off somewhat slowly anyway, to prevent possibly possible warping.

Alright, so I found the scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bObjXY24Ei4

I'm guessing it comes early in the movie. Doesn't seem like that momentous a scene - but, then, I haven't seen or been interested in seeing the movie.

2 points of interest (to me): the pizzas are sliced in the movie. Several movie-making reasons for doing this come to mind, but, still.

My search also turned up this AK post: http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/08/where-does-julia-roberts-eat-pizza-in-eat-pray-love-pizza-part-movie-pizzeria-da-michele-naples-italy.html

In that post is this quote from the book: "By 1 p.m., the streets outside the pizzeria have become jammed with Neapolitans trying to get into the place, shoving for access like they're trying to get space on a lifeboat."

So, I'm going with the "I was just lucky" explanation.

@AK - yes, I also see how it could be misinterpreted. That's the whole "minor changes in syntax, tone, or diction" thing. And, it reminds me to pause before reacting when I might be the one doing the misinterpreting, as a customer or just in general. As a proprietor, of course, I'm especially careful about overreacting. I was even polite to the punk kids I caught stealing from the tip jar.

#chilies: If there's a harder way of doing something, I'll find it. But, grinding my own chilies is definitely worth the effort. Three reasons:

- the obvious: freshly ground, they have more flavor and heat (which made it especially shocking to me the second time that guy dumped a shakerful onto his pizza. I thought he was really going to regret it the first time.)

- I grind them more finely than standard, which lets the flavors meld into the pizza more. And, they come out of the shaker better.

- I get to use my own blend of chilies, which, IIMSSM, are more flavorful and interesting than straight cayenne.

@Lance: I dunno. I was similarly surprised when this article came out and I discovered that Will, who was the person I alluded to in my first comment, was egadman.

A partial list of things I completely agree with:

"in my anxiety-ridden noggin, [five minutes] seems to be an eternity and feels unforgivable"

"It seems that even minor changes in syntax, tone, or diction can make a major difference in my ability to make a sale, or make a customer feel welcome or comfortable." - I remember too well the time that a would-be-repeat-customer called me a f****** a******, hung up on me, and wrote a couple of scathing yelp & google reviews after he mistook a genuine attempt at being helpful as sarcasm.

"I've noticed people don't read signs or menus very carefully" - you could tattoo "Please Wait to be Seated" on some people, and they would go seat themselves in a hidden corner before the blood dried.

"always clean-up after themselves" - Not sure if you meant that in a good way. I often need to ask departing customers, "in an amiable and clear fashion", not to move their dirty napkins and dishes to the clean table next to them. I'm pretty sure they are trying to be helpful.

"My work-life balance isn't quite there yet, but the longer I do this, hopefully the better that will be." - Charlie Hallowell, the chef/owner of Pizzaiolo, had a sous-chef run the kitchen 1 dinner a week (out of 5) from the get-go, so he could spend the night with his kids. That decision seems smarter and smarter as each of my weeks goes by.

Top 10 Questions and Comments of the New York City Health Inspectors -

10. Does your chef even own a shirt?

Late Night with David Letterman, October 20, 1989

Which, in turn, reminds me of maybe the only part of a Twilight movie I've seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf_KB9HCILQ

"I also factored in walking—lots of it."

I had to buy new socks before the end of day 1 on my 2 day, 13 pizzeria trip.

Doing all the pizzamaking himself, and closing when his starter tanks - these things don't make Compani a pizza fascist, or even especially obsessive. Not allowing substitutions gets him closer to fascism, but maybe he's got a good reason for that (like, hey, people are waiting an hour, he's gotta crank out some pies). I draw the line at pizzerias that refuse to cut pizzas for people who are sharing. I'm not accusing Compani of that, however, because I haven't been there. I would have gone if this review came out a month earlier. Instead I ended up at 800 degrees, twice.

Next time, I'll take the one-man-band place over the "you want fries with that?" place. Actually, that's not fair - I've never been to McDonald's and received on order of fries that was burnt, another that was almost raw, and a 3rd that was half burnt, half almost raw.

@imwalkin: just to clarify, I meant that I'd be more inclined to buy a "food safe" piece of steel, not that I'd be inclined to buy one with mill scale and leave it on there.

What I really want to know is how evenly a 3/4" slab will heat over 2 burners. I've got 3 griddles, and none can cook pancakes well. What are you using, @luosha? I think a flat bottom griddle is the way to go - the griddle/grill reversible ones don't like to sit flat (mostly because of the lip and grease trap).