Tweet
I'm just wondering; I used to work at a couple of Italian restaurants, 35 - 40 years ago. They made just about everything in their kitchens. They may have opened cans of tomatoes for their spaghetti/pasta sauces, but the only thing in those cans was pretty much the tomatoes. They didn't open a can or jar of a completed sauce - maybe doctor it a little, maybe not - that they only had to heat up and serve. For all I knew - and it is highly likely - it was a fairly old family recipe coming together in those kitchens.
They also made their own pizza dough. I don't think it was anything unique or special. But they're the ones who made it. Maybe less out of any philosophical approach to hands-on food preparation than because that's how it was done back then. There wasn't anyone mass producing pizza dough and wholesaling it. Pizza itself had not yet become the ubiquitous staple on every other block in the city, or with three "Angelo's", "Tony's", "Capri", or "Napoli" pizzerias to the average small town. And pizza sure as hell wasn't yet destined for the revolution in pizza we're all seeing - and participating in, if not actually causing and pushing along. Back then if someone mentioned pizza in a wood-fired oven it was because they were telling you about their trip to Naples. They weren't talking about anywhere you could drive to let alone their own back yard.
It's been a very, very long time since I stepped into a restaurant kitchen much less an Italian one. So I wonder now about how much is still done on site and not trucked in. Who still has a kitchen with a 20 or 40 qt. mixer and a stack of 50# bags of flour and a huge water pitcher and a team of kitchen staff weighing, cutting, shaping pizza dough during the lull between lunch and dinner? Or do they just make sure someone is there to sign for the delivery unloaded from the 18-wheeler outside?
They also made their own pizza dough. I don't think it was anything unique or special. But they're the ones who made it. Maybe less out of any philosophical approach to hands-on food preparation than because that's how it was done back then. There wasn't anyone mass producing pizza dough and wholesaling it. Pizza itself had not yet become the ubiquitous staple on every other block in the city, or with three "Angelo's", "Tony's", "Capri", or "Napoli" pizzerias to the average small town. And pizza sure as hell wasn't yet destined for the revolution in pizza we're all seeing - and participating in, if not actually causing and pushing along. Back then if someone mentioned pizza in a wood-fired oven it was because they were telling you about their trip to Naples. They weren't talking about anywhere you could drive to let alone their own back yard.
It's been a very, very long time since I stepped into a restaurant kitchen much less an Italian one. So I wonder now about how much is still done on site and not trucked in. Who still has a kitchen with a 20 or 40 qt. mixer and a stack of 50# bags of flour and a huge water pitcher and a team of kitchen staff weighing, cutting, shaping pizza dough during the lull between lunch and dinner? Or do they just make sure someone is there to sign for the delivery unloaded from the 18-wheeler outside?
Comment