More on Molino Caputo

[james]

We had a very good visit with the Caputo family last week. In the past, I have compared them with the perfume companies and wine negociant companies of Burgundy. After this meeting, I have a new analogy. They are the most like Illy. They use only be best raw materials, they use state-of-the-art technology, they are totally focused on quality (they run the mill slowly to never heat up the flour) and they are building a global brand. Yep, sounds like Illy to me. I've been learning a lot about coffee from Michael, who was a professional barista trainer (trained at Illy University) before getting into Italian artisan pizza.

Caputo sales are rocketing up in Japan, and also growing very rapidly in the states, and the company is continuing to invest more resources in their pizza flour -- as opposed to their more commodity bread flours.

This is all good for American pizzerias and home owners, as Caputo is making greater commitment to the states. More to come on that, but it's all good. We also got a couple of tips from Antimo on dough:

1. Hydrate your dough -- he likes 62%-63% (excellent)
2. Make your dough 24 hours ahead, and bring out the balls 2 hours before you need them.
3. Don't touch the cornicione when you make your pizza base if you want it to be soft and puff up.
4. Be gentle and go slow, handle the dough as little as possible.
5. If you like a big cornicione, hold the sauce back a little further from the edge of the pizza and it will really puff up.

Here are a couple of photos from the mill. Michael is on the left and Antimo on the right.
James

[CanuckJim]

James,

This is all good news. I wonder if, when Caputo is making plans to market more aggressively in the States, if Canada is on their map? I'm pretty sure that Caputo is not available anywhere in Ontario, or Toronto, and there are a LOT of Italians here and a LOT of pizzerias (high-end and mom and pop).

Good photos. I'll take the skid in the centre pic; just wrap it up.

Jim

[mgraban]

I'm going to use my Caputo for the first time in the oven this afternoon! I made the dough yesterday, it really had an amazing texture. I'll post photos later.