Pizza Today - April 2019 - 16

Man on the Street
SCOTT WIENER

What Your
Customers
Doughn't
Know
Time to educate your guests

I

definitely live inside a bubble. My
social media world is composed mainly
of pizza makers who don't stop talking
about their dough. Cheese, tomatoes, and
toppings are all important, but nobody I
know stresses about those elements in the
way they do about their dough. On the
contrary, pizzeria customers have no idea
what's going on beneath the cheese and
sauce. This disconnect between your effort
and their attention makes for a great
opportunity to educate your customers
about something to which they have given
very little thought.
Do you use unbleached, non-bromated
flour? If you do, tell your customers! They
probably have no idea what those processes are, but knowing you avoid them is
a potential point of differentiation between
you and your competitors. Bleached flour is
brightened with chemicals like chlorine and
benzoyl peroxide. The process gives flour a
longer shelf life, but only at the expense of
nutrients. Potassium bromate is a dough
conditioner that oxidizes flour so it can
ferment faster and trap more fermentation gas. Most countries (Canada, China,
the European Union) have banned it, but
it's under no major restriction by the U.S.
government. On the bright side, more and
more companies now offer products that are
not bleached or bromated. If you use those,
it's an easy way to pitch why your pizza is a
better bet than that of your competitor.
DO YOU USE A PRE-FERMENT IN YOUR
DOUGH? Most pizzerias employ a Direct
Method dough process that incorporates
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all ingredients at the same time. The
Indirect Method kicks off fermentation
before the dough making process even
begins by incorporating a preferment
like biga, polish or mother. There are
lots of textural and flavor advantages to
using a pre-ferment - and you should
be shouting about it from the mountaintops if you do. Employing a natural
fermentation method by way of a starter
culture is another huge selling point and
I'm amazed when I see pizzerias NOT
sharing the process with their customers.
As the second most populous ingredient in your dough, water is the Robin to
flour's Batman. It's responsible for all the
biological reactions behind fermentation. Your customers probably think all
water is the same, but if you've ever tried
to reproduce your dough using a foreign
water supply you know that changes
have to be made. If you filter, de-chlorinate, replicate or source your water from
an off-site location, let your customers

know! And don't play into the myth that
importing New York City tap water is
going to make your crust superior. I've
eaten a pretty serious amount of pizza
across the five boroughs - and I can
tell you that even though we have loads
of great pizza, it's still painfully easy to
get a bad slice even with our "magical
water."
The pizza industry is clearly experiencing a crust moment. It seems like
everyone is honing their dough skills
and it's not something your customers
are thinking about. Use the opportunity
to educate them and you'll find yourself
ahead of your competitors. And if you're
NOT concerned with your dough, you
probably want to get on that right away
or risk being left in the dust by the pizzeria across town. ■
SCOTT WIENER is the founder of Scott's
Pizza Tours in New York City and
SliceOutHunger.org.
http://www.SliceOutHunger.org http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - April 2019

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