Pizza Today - January 2024 - 35

maintaining that loyal following.
Your new pizza maker will need you
to give them the tools to succeed.
The first tool you can give them is
your patience. Rome was not built in
a day, and your protégé will not be a
master overnight. Have realistic expectations
for the time involved with
their growth. Remember how many
of your first pies were served straight
to the garbage can. You are not
cloning yourself. If you're ready for
another Rome reference, remember
that all roads lead to Rome. What
we mean here is that we are looking
for a great finished product from the
new pizza maker. As long as they are
following your guidelines then be
patient and allow them to create in
a way that best suits them. They may
not put eight pounds of pressure on
their index finger on the left hand
the way you do when stretching out
a piece of dough. That's fine. Resist
the urge to micromanage and allow
them to grow and develop their own
comfort zone so long as the finished
product is consistent with what you
have long created.
Pizza making is a craft and you
cannot train a master craftsman
overnight. For some it will take
weeks to master a station and others
months, but each station in the
process must be mastered first before
moving to the next.
Start with making dough. The
trainee should first become an expert
at making dough. This does not
mean just four steps in the mixing
bowl, rather they need to be
taught a full understanding of the
composition of dough from flour,
yeast, hydration, etc. Only then will
they learn how and why dough can
behave and react in different ways.
This will allow them the knowhow
to troubleshoot any issues that may
ever arise with dough if you are not
there standing over their shoulder.
When it comes to opening and
stretching dough, regardless of
your style of pizza, it is once again
important that they do this in a
manner consistent with what you
have always done. So many factors
need to be spot on, the consistent
thickness of the dough when it is
stretched out, the makeup of the
crust along the edge of the pizza,
and the correct size and shape of the
pie. It just takes time and experience
to get to that desired sweet spot
of craftsmanship. Be prepared to
work with them and throw out an
inordinate amount of dough. It is
a long learning process for an art
which you can do in your sleep but
is a completely foreign concept to
the trainee. Think of the muscle
memory and feel that you have
when it comes to handling dough.
You did not develop that overnight.
You were once a hot mess when
you were learning. Now be patient
when creating the next great pizza
superstar.
Next comes the actual
construction of the pizza. Though
this part may seem less complex it
is still important for that new pizza
maker to spend an adequate amount
of time training on this station as
well. Consistency in the amount of
and distribution of the sauce needs
to become second nature. For those
of you who do not use measured
portions of cheese, the maker will
need to learn the correct ratio of
cheese to be using. When it comes
to topping a pizza, many rookies
think that more is better. Taking
the time to learn the station and
not overtop pizzas will be key to
developing that comfortable and
consistent repetitious motion when
pizza making.
The baking of this beautiful
creation is where all the training
now comes through to fruition.
For those who use conveyor ovens
you are in luck because a lot of
this portion of the process is now
automated for you. For the rest this
part takes careful consideration and
focus. We rarely cook one pizza at
a time so the ability to cook dozens
of pies at one time often across
multiple ovens is a true art. There is
a uniqueness in the cooking styles
of many different types and brands
of ovens. Many factors come into
play from cooking on hot spots,
to rotating a pizza and putting it
back in the same spot, developing a
rotation across decks and ovens to
always keep an order for stone heat
recovery, and keeping those cooking
surfaces swept clean. Taking the
time to work side by side with your
trainee on this part will help them
overcome the nerves of not cooking
a pizza properly or losing control
of the rotation of where every next
pizza should be cooked. You will
serve as a safety net for them in this
ever-stressful part of the process.
And lest we forget the fun of
launching pizzas off peels for the
first time. Remember how many
times you ended up sending piles of
cheese and toppings off the pizza
and into the oven only to burn into
a smoky mess that needed to be
cleaned up. How long did it take
you to learn how to launch a pie
into the oven that came off the
peel in a round shape? Certainly,
those who worked with you in the
beginning saw their fair share of
your pizzas that came out shaped
like a football. It takes time. Patience
is key to creating a consistent pizza
maker. The amount of time it takes
will not be the same for everyone.
A commitment to patience and
consistency when training will pay
off as these new pizza makers are the
ones that will carry your now great
brand into the future.
MICHAEL ANDROW owns E & D Pizza
Company in Avon, Connecticut.
JANUARY 2024 / PIZZATODAY.COM / 35
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - January 2024

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