Pizza Today - January 2022 - 14

MAN ON THE STREET SCO TT WIENER
Pizza has Gone to the Nerds
A
bout a year and a half ago I started
interviewing pizza makers and
posting the results on Instagram.
Every Wednesday, I'd profi le a diff erent pizza
maker by asking them to share some of
the nuts-and-bolts information about their
technique and process. Th e answers were all
over the place for every question but one.
Whenever I'd ask a pizza maker to identify
the one tool they couldn't live without, the
answer was consistent. A scale. Th at's right,
not the oven and certainly not the dough
mixer. Th e most important thing to nearly
every single pizza maker I interviewed was
the least sexy piece of equipment in the
kitchen.
Two months ago, I spent a day observing
the dough making process at a very old pizzeria
in New York City. Not at all surprising,
their dough process isn't very precise.
Th ey fi ll a pitcher to the line with water,
then add a soda cup of salt and a handful of
yeast. Some of you reading this are probably
thinking, " Th at sounds about right. What
the heck is this guy complaining about
now? " Others of you, the nerds, are in shock.
My mother once interrupted one of my
tirades about the perfection of using algebra
to solve for the perfect water temperature
by asking me how 19th century Neapolitan
pizzaioli were able to make such great
pizza without scales and thermometers.
Th e reality is that scales, thermometers and
even refrigeration are the new tools that
make it possible for pizza makers to achieve
a level of consistency previously impossible.
Once people head down the road to better
measuring, they don't go back.
Th e best evidence that pizza has gone
to the nerds comes in the form of two new
books. Dan Richer, owner of Razza in Jersey
City, preaches the virtues of precision in his
new book Th e Joy of Pizza (written with
Rome-based food expert Katie Parla). In
the book, Richer details the chemistry and
biology of fermentation and gluten formation.
Th at's not terribly unusual, but he takes
things a step further with his use of calipers
to determine the perfect topping thickness
for everything from pepperoni to zucchini.
Dan's whole thesis is the concept of controlling
every variable possible.
If Th e Joy of Pizza is a gentle nudge
into the world of precision pizza making,
Modernist Pizza, by Nathan Myhrvold
and Francisco Migoya, is a sledgehammer.
Th is 4-volume, 1,700-page tome is a factual
analysis of everything related to pizza. Let's
consider for a moment that Myhrvold is the
former Chief Technology Offi cer of Microsoft
who received a culinary diploma from
École de Cuisine La Varenne in France.
While pizza makers are just starting to look
at the science of their existing methods,
Modernist Pizza begins at the scientifi c
perspective and looks outward from it. Th e
book goes into excruciating detail, which is
exactly what pizza nerds crave!
What does this all mean for the pizzeria
operator? First of all, if you aren't already
weighing your ingredients and dialing in
your ingredient temperatures, now is the
time to start. Secondly, the arrival of books
like these suggests that we're about to
experience a rising standard of pizza quality.
Anyone who ignores the lessons celebrated
by the pizza nerds is bound to be left behind
in their wake. ■
SCOTT WIENER is the founder of Scott's Pizza Tours in New York City and SliceOutHunger.org Instagram: @scottspizzatours
14 / PIZZATODAY.COM / JANUARY 2022

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