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2. Officer Dave Garro: Pizzaiolo

3. "Bottle of Wine, Fruit of the Vine..."

1. What's New: Conversations With The Legends of Pizza®

(Please note: all links on this page will open in a new window.)

I love to talk. I don't think this is a secret. I will talk about anything. I have an opinion about everything, and I will tell you my opinion, if you ask.

Of course my favorite subject is pizza. Don't get me started. I can go on and on.

On a whim, I decided to call Chef Peter Reinhart (author of American Pie) a true Legend of Pizza. As I discuss in my blog, we had a wonderful conversation. I told you about this in the last issue of Pizza News.

Operating on the same whim, I called two other Legends of Pizza ®. Imagine my shock, and utter surprise, when they talked back.

I called Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana.. I asked for Gary Bimonte.

Gary Bimonte, is a good friend. He is the grandson of Frank Pepe. Gary is a co-owner of Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana. located in New Haven, Connecticut. Gary took time out of his busy schedule to talk about the success of Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana,  the new store and pizza in general. We had a wonderful conversation.

 I was batting 100%. I felt positive. There was another Pizza Legend, I had to talk with.

I decided to try to get in touch with Chris Bianco, owner of   Pizzeria Bianco located in Phoenix, Arizona. I had heard, and read about him. I received a number of emails about him. I had pizza questions for him.

 I called Pizzeria Bianco. A woman answered. Chris Bianco was busy, she explained. She asked for a telephone number. He would call me back, she said. Ten minutes later, the phone rang. Chris Bianco was ready to talk.

His pizza is rated as the Best Pizza in the World by Peter Reinhart, (American Pie), Ed Levine, (A Slice of Heaven) and Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby (Everybody Loves Pizza). Chris Bianco knows pizza.

(FYI, pizzatherapy.com is mentioned in all three books. Coincidence? I think not...)

Chris Bianco is not only a Legend of Pizza, but a really nice person as well. He is not
"the best at what he does, he is the only one who does what he does".

Chris Bianco and his brother, make all of their pizza dough by hand. No kidding. They do not use a mixer, kitchen aide or food processor. They mix their pizza dough the old fashioned way, by hand.

Chris and I had a fantastic conversation. Here, is this famous pizzaiolo, one of the true Legends of Pizza®, talking to me on the phone, while he is on the pizza line, creating pizzas. Incredible.

 I appreciate all of your support. I am thankful for your comments.

Also, could you please do me a favor? Can you please, tell your friends about pizzatherapy.com
 

2. Officer Dave Garro: Pizzaiolo

 Dave Garro loves pizza. He has been making great pizza for years. He wanted to take his pizza to the next level. He decided to build brick pizza oven in his backyard.

He had one small problem. Dave Garro had no idea how to lay brick. He had no idea how to design a brick pizza oven. He learned as his project progressed. He created his pizza oven. He was written up all over the country. Here is the story.  Several Pizza News Readers wrote to me about Dave Garro.

I decided to contact him. I explained: " Dear Dave,,,I would like to do an... interview with you.  The interview will appear in an upcoming issue of “Pizza News”. Dave graciously, accepted.

The interview follows:

Albert: Hi Dave. Thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Can you please tell me how you first got interested in making pizza? Who taught you? What sparked your interest?

Albert: Tell me about those first pizzas. How did they turn out? Have your pizzas evolved over time? Do they taste different?

 Albert:  How did you come up with the idea to build a pizza / bread oven in your back yard? Where did your inspiration come from? Why Dave, why?

Dave: As I said, I was making pretty good pizzas using a baking stone and a slow fermentation dough, but it still wasn’t as good as I though it could be.  I was always wondering why the crust on (some) restaurant pizzas was better than my crust.  Additionally, I had been baking bread for about twenty years, and the bread, too, failed to meet my expectation of what really good bread should be. 

So, I started researching, and I found that a truly good pizza crust—light, airy, browned, and chewy—could be had only by cooking the pizza at an extremely high temperature—about 750 degrees Fahrenheit.  While on the internet, I ran across several sites on brick ovens, and the more I learned about them and what they could do, the more I became convinced that I would build an oven of my own.     

Albert: Are you a mason or have experience working with cement and stone?

Dave: I undertook with project without having any experience in masonry or stonework, but I have always been fairly handy around the house.  A few books from the library on brick laying, some conversation with the sales people at the local building supply yard, and the willingness to give it a try were all that was needed to get it done. 

Stonework is an ancient building form.  I figured that if the Romans (my ancient ancestors) could do it, then so could I.

Albert: How did you come up with the design? Did you have any help? Did you contact any consultants? How did you do your research? Have you heard about fornobravo.com. They offer free oven plans.

Dave: While there is a bunch of information about building a brick oven on the Web, the best advice that I can give anyone interested in building an oven is to get a copy of The Bread Builders by Alan Scott and Daniel Wing.  This book is the cornerstone to successful oven construction.  It includes oven theory, construction techniques, firing techniques, and a material list. Additionally, it explains the history of brick oven baking as well as gives a comprehensive study on dough, fermentation, and wheat. What the book does not include is an actual plan or blue print for an oven, although one can be purchased from Scott’s web site.  As I said, I’m fairly handy, and I was able to draw up a plan from the basic information in the book.  Anyone considering building a brick oven should get a copy of this book and study it.

Albert: What did your wife say when you told her you were building a pizza oven? What does she say now?

Dave: When I told my wife that I was going to build a pizza oven, she was against the idea. Of course, she is usually against my ideas, especially when they concern climbing onto the roof or rewiring an outlet without turning off the power. 

As for the oven, her exact words were that she “didn’t want that monstrosity in the back yard.”  It didn’t help that she doesn’t really like pizza (I didn’t know that when I married her. 

Since I’ve built it, though, she has become a changed woman.  She likes and eats pizzas, but only from the oven.  She also thinks that the oven looks nice and blends in with the backyard.  Still makes me turn off the power when wiring, though. 

Dave: On average, my oven takes 2 to 3 hours to heat to make pizza.  In that length of time, I can drive the surface temperature of the interior masonry to 750 F.  I’ve made pizza when the outdoor temperature was below freezing, and then it took an hour or so longer to get up to temperature. 

If I’m planning on baking bread, it takes about 6 hours to get the oven up to temperature.  That’s because, I need to store more heat in the oven to bake bread than I need for pizza.  Pizza cooks quickly—about 2 to 3 minutes at 750 degrees and there is a fire going in the back of the oven while it cooks (this helps cook the top of the pizza while the oven hearth cooks the bottom). 

 Bread, needs 30 minutes to an hour at 450 degrees and there is no secondary fire going.  Although bread cooks at a lower temperature than the pizza, it takes much longer to cook—about 30 minutes to an hour depending on the bread.  The surface temperature of the interior masonry needs to be about 450 degrees, but there has to be sufficient heat stored deep inside the brick to continue cooking for an hour.  I have buried a thermocouple 4 ½ inches deep into the interior masonry of the oven.  When this thermocouple registers 400 degrees, I know that I have stored enough heat, deep enough in the masonry to bake bread.

When I was younger, I did not like spinach. Yes, I knew this was Popeye's favorite food, but I did not like it.

Now, I can't get enough of it.

I use fresh spinach on pizza and salads. The spinach just seems to be a good fit for pizza. I just put a pile on my dough and pile mozzarella and parmesan cheese on top of it. Then I drizzle a little bit of EVOO (that's Rachael Ray speak for Extra Virgin Olive Oil) on top. It's great.

I used to steam fresh spinach to cook it. But, there are countless other ways to prepare this great vegetable.

 When I was working with Chef Peter in my Cooking Class, a few years back, he showed me a new way (for me) to prepare fresh spinach. Chef Peter's Spinach Recipe follows:

To prepare the spinach, wash thoroughly. I just put the spinach in a large bowl filled with water. Allow any dirt to drop to the bottom of the bowl.. Drain the water. Repeat the process until your fresh spinach is clean. Drain the spinach in a colander or on a paper towel until dry. Make sure the spinach is completely dry before attempting the next step.

Get a large frying pan, heat to medium low heat. Put in a couple of tablespoons of EEOV (See above). Mince two cloves of garlic. Place in the pan. Just when the garlic starts to cook, put in one to two cups of fresh spinach. Cover. After a few minutes mix the spinach and olive oil. Keep covered and after a few minutes mix again. When the spinach is completely wilted, it is done.

Try this method of cooking spinach. You may have a new appreciation for spinach.

Pizza Notes from pizzatherapy.com Blog and Other Tales