How Do Pies Come to Be?

It starts with dough and testing. My process is simple. We begin with the baseline, cheese pizza. That involves decisions: dough, dough methodology, flour, oven, oven temperature, and the pan (if it’s a pan pie). Now ... sauce. You have to pick the tomato. How will the sauce be cooked (if it will be cooked). And cheese. Fresh or aged? Will you stretch mozzarella or buy it? Internationally, are we using local, Italian, or American ingredients? That’s a lot of decisions before we’ve even made pizza. You may have the best idea in the history of pizza for a signature pie, but it’s important not to complicate things at the beginning. Once you love the baseline, then you play.