After my first visit to Pizzeria Locale I said "I couldn't get over the flavor in the crust, the perfect amount of salt that pops the other flavors."
Recently I found out exactly why Pizzeria Locale's crust pops.
The short story is that the reason their crust is so good is because of what it isn't.
The long story goes something like this.
Globalization. Mass production.
Sure these things drive down prices. But at what cost? When you're looking to eat out should your primary focus be on quality or price?
Fast food pizza starts at huge industrial plants and up to 22 additives are added to the dough to solve all kinds of problems that mass production creates.
Additives so the dough can travel, additives to keep the dough pliable, to keep the flavor, to keep its texture.
Pizzeria Locale makes all their dough the night before and then lets it panify overnight.
What you get is dough made with four ingredients; water, flour, yeast and salt. One note on the salt, it isn't added at the beginning to dissolve in the water, they wait until the mixing of the other ingredients is finished and the salt is added almost as an afterthought. Except it isn't, it is calculated.
I have to add one more thing here that I really enjoyed about this visit.
There is one experience I will never tire of, and that is listening to anyone passionate about their art expound and geek out. As Jim Davidson and Manager Rob would be discussing pizza dough, I could see co-owner Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson getting antsy in the background. Suddenly he would burst, not because Jim or Rob were saying anything wrong. But Mr. Mackinnon-Patterson was just so excited about dough he couldn't contain himself any longer. I learned way more, and was entertained way more than I thought I would be.
If Pizzeria Locale doesn't take these shortcuts how they keep costs down is the last unanswered question. The wood fired oven is gas/electric with a rotating table heated from below and with flames above. This is where they save costs, there is no wood and the pizzas don't need to be continually shuffled around inside the over chasing hot spots.
There you have it, the "labor" is spent on the crust where you can taste it resulting in a higher quality, lower cost pizza anyone can afford.
Jim Davidson kicks everything off with a discussion of the oven.
And at this point I was glad I had a large coffee before showing up. Mr. Mackinnon-Patterson really started geeking out right here, going on about yeast digesting proteins and out-gassing CO2. I grabbed his coat tails and hung on tight, fermentation, proofing and folding. I'm glad I still remember the chemistry courses I had in college.
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