Pizza Today - January 2025 - 23

O
f all my years in cooking
I have never met a more
passionate person than a
pizzaiolo/a. At times that
passion may look like an argument with
loud and fast talking and hand gestures
galore all over what seems like a miniscule
detail. Most pizzaioli open restaurants or
businesses with the grand and ambitious
idea that they are going to be there all the
time and they are going to have a part in
every pizza that goes out. Let's be honest,
that idea goes out the window within the
fi rst week. Any smart operator knows that
passion for the product and the business
is what gets the doors open and butts in
the seats, but good systems are what keep
things consistent and people coming back.
Having a tight system in place for
dough management is crucial for
any pizzeria. Systems not only create
consistency in your product but also
make your life easier when it comes
to training new employees. Keeping a
happy staff is paramount to a well-run
restaurant no matter the size and well
thought out systems make it easier
for your staff to make decisions when
things happen. There's no guessing,
just immediate action that results in a
solution. Dough is the basis of what we
do and since it is a living thing it can be
hard to regulate.
First things first, where is your
mixer and where is your flour?
Flour needs to be kept dry and cool and
off the floor. It should be close to the
mixer since each bag is 50 pounds and
is going to be hard to move around
repeatedly. The mixer itself should be
in a temperate area close to where you
plan on keeping your dough. Where
is your recipe? I know we can be quite
possessive over our recipes but I'm not
saying you should teach every single
person in your restaurant how to make
dough, but a recipe book of some sort is
going to be needed for ease of prep.
Nowadays mixers are advanced
enough that you can plug your recipe
into it, inclusive of multiple speeds,
and the mixer will automatically adjust
time and speed, leaving all the person
making the dough to do is add
the ingredients. If you are looking to
streamline consistency in your dough
and you aren't already using a thermometer
and scale to weigh ingredients, start
immediately. It may feel like a pain in
the beginning, but you will notice the
payoff in the long run.
What are you putting your dough in?
Boxes or trays wrapped in something
or in tins and where are these being
cleaned and stored? If dough is being
refrigerated, utilizing space and using
the right equipment can either save the
day or make your life really stressful.
All dough should be labeled in some
fashion whether it's with a sharpie
on plastic wrap or masking tape or a
color-coded system. Any person should
be able to tell what day the dough was
made and time - if you're getting
down to the nitty gritty details - and
the size of the dough ball. FIFO, or first
in first out, should apply to dough as
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Pizza Today - January 2025

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