Take 5 with Tony Gemignani
Title: Owner Pyzano's Pizzeria, author of Pizza, five time world champion pizza acrobat
Hometown: Fremont
1. Why is tossing a pizza necessary?
Three reasons, one is to get the dough to the size that you want. Second it naturally builds the crust, when you spin the dough it gets thinner in the middle and thicker on the ends. Third, the more you throw it the more the top portion of the crust dries out so you end up with a pizza that is crunchy on the outside and light on the inside. The best dough has some air in it and are more sponge-like, the harder you are on dough you knock out the air, hand-tossing is very gentle.
2. What tips do you have for home cooks?
Dough isn't as hard as people think. But you have to use high protein high gluten flour, Giusto's is good. Also you can find Caputo or King Arthur has some that are good 13-14 /1/2 protein percentage. All-purpose flour does not work for pizza dough!
3. What trends to do you see locally and elsewhere?
The Neapolitan style is very popular in the Bay Area, A16, Pizzaiolo Niebaum-Coppola, Delfina (although they don't have wood-fired ovens) but it's a trend that hasn't hit anywhere else yet. Not New York, not the midwest. But it's kind of like back to the basics, which is great.
Even though they may all be Neapolitan style, the pizzas taste different everywhere. You can really taste the little things. For example the San Marzano tomatoes in the U.S. are not the same as the ones from Italy. The Italian ones are a hundred times better.
Organic is pretty big in California and whole wheat crusts. In the industry there is a lot of hype about the high percentage of lycopene in pizza sauce, it's got even more than fresh tomatoes. I think people will experiment with crusts and different cheeses too like vegan cheeses. Compared to fast food pizza is already pretty healthy.
4. If pizza tossing was going to be in the Olympics would it be a Summer sport or a Winter sport?
Winter because the dough is better when it's cold. If it's too humid the dough gets weak.
5. What else do you like to eat other than pizza in the Bay Area?
My wife and I like the Stinking Rose we love Slanted Door and hole in the wall places like Turtle Tower.
To read a review of Tony's book and for a chance to win a copy, head over to Cooking with Amy.