Funny you mention Portnoy as I was waiting for him to possibly come up in this thread! LOL! Dave does a great job, but factors in the history and story of the restaurant in his reviews. He has completely boned some VERY good pizzerias because they are either too new or don't have a feel good story.
Believe it or not, I review pizza in my free time as well, similarly to Dave. I've been doing it now non stop for nearly 3 years now and am approaching 450 reviews myself, having hit most of the big names in the Northeast as well all the top spots in Portland and San Francisco. I've always found it funny how serious people in certain states take their pizza, and think that everyone other then them is trash, when in fact all states (at least in the NE) have lots of fantastic spots! This is extremely common in the Facebook Pizza groups, which tend to be regional.
I don't make pizza at home as I eat it so often in restaurants, but check out "The Pizza Gavones" on Youtube. They have instructional videos that cover every step of the process of making a fresh New Haven style pie at home, and their results look as good as anything in New Haven!
That's cool, haha. Wish I could travel around and sample all those places. Yeah, people take their pizza fucking seriously! I don't know anything about this Barstool stuff but started watching Portnoy from him popping up after I watched a lot of Caleb Pressley's interviews. Both funny guys. Did you see the latest review from today? Some pizza owner going nuts and getting into a shouting match, lol.
Just subbed to The Pizza Gavones. I was bingeing a few videos last night from a young guy, Charlie Anderson, who has a little quest going to make quality pizza. Not a typical annoying YouTuber, so he's easy to watch too.
There's good money to be made in exporting regional US cuisines imo. Texas and Carolina style bbq, and even the entirety of Southern cuisine. Tex Mex. NY/NJ Italian.
I thought about a tex mex food truck years ago, before taco bell and several copycats moved in around Aus. Regulations are onerous tho. You basically need to be a brick and mortar restauranteur to comply with inspection standards, and then you're not allowed to park up to sell anywhere but on private property so that guys is going to take his cut as well. Too hard for me.
I never nailed the pizza cheese mix. I'd guess 60+% mozzarella, 15-20% parmesan, but the rest on east coast pies idk. Maybe colby or monterey jack. And lots of oregano. Never fresh. Always flakes, lol. To get the amount of olive oil right the customer just holds up a slice until what's running off slows from a stream to a drip.
Too many toppings offends pizza purists. If you holiday in The Apple idk youse make it outta there if you mention pineapple, but the place has been going downhill so maybe it's thing now.
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Really good money, I reckon. I can't stand loads of toppings, so for a small operation I'd focus on perfecting maybe three different choices. Throw in a fourth, stupidly expensive one to target all the drunk, rich guys who want to show off (call it 'The Bateman' or something, and add some truffle shavings), then go heavy with the right marketing online. Hire a little African to zip around on a moped doing deliveries. It's the regulations that I'd need to really look into, but as a fantasy for the future, it's quite fun and I think she'd enjoy it.
Haha please do. I bake pizzas 1-2x a month and do ok with my oven, I crank the heat up and keep a couple cast iron pots and pans in there to retain the heat. I’d love to build my own outdoor brick oven but don’t have the space at my current house.
Cold fermenting the dough (make it a couple days ahead of time and keep it in the fridge) and high quality ingredients (San Marzano tomatoes and freshly grated Parmesan or pecorino) are the secret to great tasting pizzas, in my experience
Looks quality, mate. Good effort! My first attempt will probably be as black and ashy as Goodrum's elbows. I baked bread in an ammo tin once, and it somehow ended up edible, but the inside was undercooked. Fucked the temperature up.
