Anti-"Pizza" elitism

[Fio]

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a farmer's market in Ithaca, NY, the homeplace of my wife's family and our alma mater. I was thrilled to see a portable wood-burning oven cooking pizza for one of the vending stalls. They were operating a portable Forno Bravo oven and it was blazing hot.

http://www.ithacamarket.com/vignette.php?vendorId=353

I asked for a pizza margherita and they said "you mean, FLATBREAD with basil and motz?" Puzzled, I asked why don't they call it "pizza."

It appears that the snobby operators of the farmer's market don't want to sell "pizza" as it is not in keeping with their homespun, artisan motif. So the vendor has to call it "flatbread."

Have you ever encountered such ridiculous snobbery? I have: Snooty French restaurants don't sell beer (or anything more than Bud, Bud lite an Heineken) because they feel it's too "pedestrian," yet they are blithely ignorant of the fact that just next door to France, Belgium has elevated brewing beer to an art form.

Hey snobs: It's not a corn dog or fried ice cream. It's pizza. Get over it. Pizza is not fast food- especially margherita baked in a wood-burning oven.

[redbricknick]

Flatzza.

I was totally about to agree with you, until I noticed that the person you were referring to is a cute blond chick. Now I agree with her. She can call it whatever she wants.

[Fio]

No, it's not her. SHE wants to call it pizza. . . .

I was totally about to agree with you, until I noticed that the person you were referring to is a cute blond chick. Now I agree with her. She can call it whatever she wants.

In fact, she's a friend of my wife's brother. It's the Farmer's Market, who wants to project a certain type of sophistication, that forbids her from calling it pizza.

[james]

The same but different

Fio,

Check out the photos for the Portable Forno Bravo in Boulder. They definitely called it pizza. :-)

http://fornobravo.com/forum/showthre...=3344#post3344

At one point Leslie (in Ithaca) also said they didn't want to ruffle the feathers of local pizza restaurants when they were getting their permit.

James

[christo]

Taking Dominos pizza into a NY Pizzaria

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/di...rzDQOz1pEaBLHQ

looks like Dominos is going up against Brooklyn.......

[DrakeRemoray]

Interesting article...

From the article:
"Totonno?s dough is made fresh the day it?s baked and is never refrigerated."

My recipe calls for making the dough 1-2 days ahead and refigerating...anyone else have a comment on that?
Drake

[PizzaArthur]

It's been years since I've been to Totonno's in Coney Island. I doubt they use a starter, but I would assume that they make it 12-24 hours ahead of time and may or may not use a fridge - you use a fridge to slow down the yeast.

[CanuckJim]

Refrigeration

Drake,

Whether you refrigerate or not depends on the recipe. Most that call for it use a lesser amount of yeast so the dough ferments more slowly. Refrigeration, of course, retards the process, allowing the natural sugars in the grain to develop and the enzyme activity to continue unabated. This produces a dough with better, more complex flavour, whether for pizza or bread. With my sourdough breads, I always retard the shaped loaves overnight. Still, there are many ways to do this. I suspect PizzaArthur is correct, and they leave the dough balls out at room temp for about 14 hours.

Jim