Pizza News March 2007

Legends of Pizza is unavailable. Meet the Legends of Pizza featured in Legends of Pizza® : Brian Spangler Tony Gemignani Ed LaDou Peter Reinhart Gary Bimonte Chris Bianco

In case you missed it, here is an entry from Pizza Notes from pizzatherapy.com Blog... I got an email from my friend Franco, telling me there was a new pizza video. "Watch it", he said. The video was an episode of : "A Big Life" with Sissy Biggers. In the episode Sissy learns to make pizza for the first time from scratch. I saw the finished pizza and it looked pretty good. Imagine my pleasant surprise when in the opening moments of the episode, up drives The Big Green Pizza Truck. "It's a small world after all..." I thought! (Albert' side bar: You can read The Big Green Pizza Truck interview here: Pizza News, April 2006.) The pizzaiolo of The Truck were going to teach Sissy how to make pizza. Owners Douglas Coffin and Kevin Spooner, gave Sissy some pizza making lessons as well as truck driving lessons... This Video is no longer available As a side note: I recently received an email from Doug Coffin with the following request: "Dear Albert, we are looking for additional pizza makers full or part time. We now have two trucks and a full summer schedule so if you know anyone who is interested in a neat job in the pizza world, tell them to contact me." My response, thanks Doug, I will check with the readers of Pizza News. Imagine the possibilities, though, of making pizza out of the back of a truck that has a wood fired oven on it...wouldn't that be a time? Hey you know Doug, I will be in Connecticut for a few weeks this summer. Maybe I could be a Part-Part-Time Pizzaiolo for The Big Green Pizza Truck... (Side note to self: Find one of those pizza trucks for your own pizza passion... ship back to Hawaii ASAP...)

4. Pizza On Earth: The Jay Vogler Interview, Part 2

In the last issue of Pizza News (Feb. 07 Part 2), I mentioned how I had discovered. pizza on earth in Vermont. Jay Vogler, pizzaiolo, of  pizzaonearth.com, located in Charlotte, Vermont, gave Pizza News an exclusive interview. We conclude the interview in this issue.

Albert:  Why did you chose Vermont to open a pizzeria? From
experience, I can tell you the Winters there are brutal. Why Vermont? Why the tiny town of Charlotte? (Albert's Sidebar: Albert Grande, The Pizza Promoter currently resides in Hawaii)

 We chose Vermont for not only our family connections. My mothers family came here in the 1700's , but it's a great place to be if you don't mind the weather in the winter. Charlotte was by chance considering all the places we looked to buy, but turned out to be the best as it's one of the riches communities in the state, so people are very worldly in their tastes and are willing to spend money on a good product.

Albert:  I notice you have other things on the menu other than pizza. What
 portion of pizza on earth is pizza and what is other items?

Jay: Pizza makes the money for us.. I had to have good bread so we added that...then one woman that helped me had bakery experience, so we started to add dessert...i't's snowballed a bit so that grew and we added the gelato a year or so ago...and now more desserts. etc. we figure we'd try to sell them as much as we can when the get here. and as long as I have someone working with me,. they might as well be productive and bake something...but when you get down to it, the pizza is king.

Albert: Please tell me a bit about your wood fired oven? Was it
a kit? Did  you have it built for you? Did you design it or was it bought from a  company?

Jay:  I guess the oven part was explained earlier...It's an old earthstone...over 20 years. Has some gliches, but works great. We fit about 5 12 inch pizzas in it at a time...On a busy night, we can average a pizza a minute when things get rolling.

Albert: How hard is it to fire up the oven? How long does it take to heat up?
 How long does it take to cook a pizza?

 Jay: We fire it up at around 8 in the morning, but we bake bread in it first at noon and then at 3 start the fire up again to be ready by 4 to open...From cold, I think we could have a temp for pizza in about 3 hours..

Albert: How about some tips for the home baker? What do you think is the most
 important thing for making good dough?

Jay: Tips...Hot oven or stone comes to mind...without a stone, I always used a screen for the best results. As a bread baker I highly recommend a wet dough and we use all purpose flour not high gluten. We're big about the quality of the crust, but toppings are real important too...just not too much on top...keep it light. We also ferment slowly and over night. Seems to make the best quality dough for us. We use an 8 oz dough for a 12 inch pizza so it is really thin..

Albert:  Do you find the pizza business very rewarding? How many hours do you
 need to put in every day?

Jay: We love doing it, but with our schedule, it's sometimes hard to believe we're in the pizza biz since we aren't open all the time and have no seating. we spend about two 6 hour days during the week for prep, and two 12 hour days when we are open...not bad, Our home is pretty much a commercial kitchen with all the equipment so it makes things easier..

 Albert: What is the future for pizza on earth?

Jay: As for the future, that's any ones guess. We've thought about getting seating, but our soil does not perk for septic, and I don't know if I want to work that hard...we like closing at 7:30 and don't really want to work weekends. We are always looking for new ideas to help the business. We are looking into specialty cakes and some catering, or maybe cooking lessons. It's hard in Vermont with so few people...we even talk about moving somewhere, but can't figure out the right solution...Hope this all helps let me know if you have more questions or need more info.... Love the Legends CDs...Jay

Albert: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with me. You have the passion of pizza inside of you. It is always heartening to speak with someone who loves pizza as much as I do.

Thanks for the kind words about Legends of Pizza CDs.

I am proud and honored to be part of the entire Legends of Pizza process. The stories and interviews of Legends of Pizza need to be told.

Jay's Pizza on Earth Oven, Charlotte Vermont