{"id":847,"date":"2012-02-28T16:51:10","date_gmt":"2012-02-28T21:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/2012\/02\/28\/learning-from-the-ancients\/"},"modified":"2012-02-28T16:51:10","modified_gmt":"2012-02-28T21:51:10","slug":"learning-from-the-ancients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/learning-from-the-ancients\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning From the Ancients"},"content":{"rendered":"

As students of pizza we spend a lot of time trying to uncover the \u201csecrets\u201d of past masters. We are constantly trying to reach back into antiquity with the assumption that there was a \u201cgolden age of pizza\u201d and that it is our duty to resurrect these honored traditions. To a certain extent there may be some truth in that belief. But let\u2019s not ignore the possibility that some of our longing for a so called \u201ctrue\u201d or Vera<\/em> Pizza may not be as justified as we hope.\u00a0 I am referring specifically to the ingredients that we select.<\/p>\n

Modern modes of transportation have made the world a smaller place It is now much easier to access the ingredients that we assume<\/span> are being used in Italy. Coupled with that assumption is the belief that ingredients from Italy are of the highest quality and will produce the best pizza. Certainly in many cases the food products of Italy are outstanding, but let\u2019s take a closer look:<\/p>\n

We have all used or heard about the celebrated \u201c00\u201d Flour of Campania.\u00a0 It is usually very good and, for certain applications, it is the right choice for pizza; but don\u2019t make the mistake of thinking that every great pizza maker in Italy swears by it.\u00a0 There is a famous expatriate pizza maker in New York who was asked in a recent interview about \u201c00\u201d and replied curtly \u201cI no like\u201d.\u00a0 On a recent trip to Rome I met with several renowned pizza makers and bakers who spoke lovingly of \u201cManitoba\u201d, the high gluten flour of North America. In regard to tradition, the fact is \u201c00\u201d is a modern creation. The technology didn\u2019t exist in the past to mill flour of that kind.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re a fan of San Marzano tomatoes? Some of them are quite good, but if you conduct a truly unbiased blind tasting you may find that some of the domestic vine ripened tomatoes compare quite well to the best imports. In professional food service the tomatoes from the Stanislaus Tomato Company dominate taste tests and if you can get your hands on a rare can of Bianco-DiNapoli Tomatoes,\u00a0 which are the product of collaborative efforts between Chris Bianco and Rob DiNapoli, you will be amazed at the quality of these organic superstars. If you consider the fact that counterfeiting of tomato products is rampant in Italy with the seizure of nearly 1500 tons of fake San Marzanos and thousands of cases of spoiled Chinese tomatoes discovered in recent raids the risks become evident.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that food fraud in Italy is a 60 Billion Euro per year business, that\u2019s over 90 billion dollars annually, and guess what, a lot of that food is headed here. Right now unscrupulous olive oil merchants are going to jail for selling Moroccan hazelnut oil as Extra Virgin Olive Oil. That Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil on your grocery shelf most likely came from Spain. The majority of high priced \u201cTuscan Olive Oil\u201d was probably produced in Puglia and shipped to Tuscany in tankers in the middle of the night. Don\u2019t think that this is a new phenomenon. In fact, the one long- standing tradition we can be sure of is that deceit in the global food market has been going on for thousands of years. In Rome there is a neighborhood called Testaccio<\/em>. It is built on the shards of millions of amphorae, the 70 liter jars that held wine and olive oil that was treasured by the Romans. What archaeologists have found is that the ancient Romans had a complex labeling system in place to assure that the food products they were buying were of the highest quality and true to their stated origins. That\u2019s right, caveat emptor<\/em> is not just a quaint Latin saying, it is a warning against systematic deception that has gone on since the very beginning of international commerce.<\/p>\n

So how do we wade through the confusing and outright dishonest marketplace in our quest to make the best possible pie? It\u2019s really quite simple and is the golden rule of purchasing in my pizzeria: \u201cYour guests don\u2019t eat what\u2019s on the package. They eat the finished product\u201d\u00a0 Forget about dubious claims of origin or authenticity, serial numbers or approval from any self serving trade organization. Let taste, fragrance and texture be your only guide. This idea is not as heretical as it may seem. In the past several decades the Italian wine industry has taken to modernizing their vineyards and wineries. They have adopted French and American methods and shamelessly blend non-indigenous grapes with their native varietals. Creative geniuses, such as Piero Antinori, had the courage to trust their own instincts and the result was \u201cSuper Tuscan\u2019 wines that elevated and revitalized the entire Italian wine industry. Now that artisan pizza making has been firmly re-established the next step is to free ourselves from myth and bias. If we truly want to honor the past pizza masters we should seek what they sought:\u00a0 excellence, informed only by taste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As students of pizza we spend a lot of time trying to uncover the \u201csecrets\u201d of past masters. We are constantly trying to reach back into antiquity with the assumption that there was a \u201cgolden age of pizza\u201d and that it is our duty to resurrect these honored traditions. To a certain extent there may be some truth in that belief. But let\u2019s not ignore the possibility that some of…Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c45-guest-bloggers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLearning From the Ancients - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/learning-from-the-ancients\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning From the Ancients - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As students of pizza we spend a lot of time trying to uncover the \u201csecrets\u201d of past masters. 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He began making pizza professionally in his family\u2019s New York pizzeria on his 13th birthday in 1967. John graduated from Adelphi University with a degree in communications, but skipped graduation ceremonies to open his first pizzeria in Las Vegas in 1980. Along with his cousin, Sam Facchini, he is the co-owner\/founder of Metro Pizza with 6 locations. John is also the instructor of the nations first University level pizza class, History and Culture of Pizza. The course, offered to upper level hospitality students, is an in depth exploration of the social, cultural and historical influences that have shaped the many regional variations of pizza. A frequent seminar leader, and contributor to trade publications, he is a staunch advocate of sharing the joy of creating, eating and celebrating pizza, as the world\u2019s greatest communal food. 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