By Kimberly J. Decker, Contributing Editor
When the James Beard Foundation announced its nominees for best new restaurant 2010, the usual heavy hitters made the cut. But among the French bistros, expense-account emporia, and white-tablecloth wine shrines was Flour + Water, a laid-back spot on a windswept corner in San Francisco’s Mission District whose Neapolitan pizzas—fired in an oven “approximately the same temperature as hell,” according to the restaurant’s website—have earned it renown.
To seduce the palates of the Beard judges, those had to have been some pies. And they are. The restaurant menus all the standards, but here, the margherita boasts artisanal fior di latte mozzarella, while the sausage on the salsiccia is house-made and rests on a bed of braised mustard greens. Other decidedly artisan and gourmet combinations might feature prosciutto, fava leaves, and asparagus, or roasted bone marrow, fontina, and fresh horseradish. Pick a smart wine from the mostly Italian list, and you’ve got an experience worlds removed from the dingy takeout counters or soggy frozen planks of pizza past.
The artisan edge
The artisan sensibility isn’t about making pizza fancier or edgier, it’s about making pizza better, and its practitioners believe the best way to do so is by revisiting pizza’s roots. “When you come right down to it,” says Joseph O’Connor, corporate executive chef, Great Kitchens, Inc., Romeoville, IL, “artisan is just reinventing products made by hand. We used to do it the hard way, then it all became mechanized, and now it’s going back to the old recipes and the old ingredients.”
And it’s everywhere. “That’s all you’re seeing,” says Dianna Fricke, CRC, C.W.P.C., executive chef, research and development, J.R. Simplot Co., Boise, ID, noting that today’s consumer has a high level of food knowledge, and they’re going for elements that signal quality and authenticity.
How each chef or consumer defines “artisan,” though, remains open to debate. To many, it means a crisp, blistered crust hand-crafted from imported 00 flour ground fine for pizza application. To others, it’s fresh, seasonal, flavor-intense toppings applied with restraint.
Trendsetting tastes
“Upgraded toppings and a focus on quality and flavor are in,” says Charlie Baggs, president and executive chef, Charlie Baggs, Inc., Chicago. “For example, porcini, portabella, cremini and shiitake mushrooms—as standalones or blends—produce great flavors.”
Mushrooms’ profile has risen thanks to their frequent appearance on artisan pies. “There are dozens of cultivated varietals that were not available even 10 years ago,” says Alessandro Stratta, executive chef, Alex & Stratta, Las Vegas. Among his favorites are porcini, chanterelles, morels and cremini, which, he says, “have a little less water content than white mushrooms, and the flavor is better, as well as the yield.” He roasts them in a wood-burning oven at 400°F with olive oil, garlic and thyme, and purées them in a food processor when cool. The wood-roasting “gives them a sweet, smoky flavor,” he says, while roasting leaves the purée with “very little moisture. It will keep the crust crispy.”
Not all vegetables are moisture sinks. Take potatoes. “You don’t really need to drive out the moisture, because they don’t weep like an onion or a mushroom would,” says Fricke. “And potato has that starch in there to hold in that moisture, too.” She’s paired her company’s “burrito blend”—roasted potatoes, red and green peppers, and onions—with bacon and a whole egg for a breakfast pizza. “Then we have a new fingerling product, so I did one with arugula pesto, fingerlings, some fresh asparagus and a bit of cheese,” she says. “It was great.”
Fricke admits that “it’s still a bit of a stretch to put potatoes on a pizza.” But as consumers warm to the artisan model, that notion will change. It already has with her customers. “I hear repeatedly that they need a hard-working SKU. They want to bring in one product, whether it be the burrito blend or fingerling, and they want it to do different things.”
Peter Leonavicius, chef, Toasted Pheasant, Tampa, FL, menus a chicken, portobello mushroom and Brie pie: “The Brie is what brings everything together,” he says. “You’ve got mild flavors, there’s no rich tomato sauce or oregano or heavy herbs, and what works so well is having that creamy Brie bring it all together.” Buffalo mozzarella leaves a similarly fresh impression. “It’s very neutral, but it works so well,” he says. And, as Sommer might point out, it’ll melt nicely, too. “Mozzarella is just such a good carrier,” notes Sommer. “It can cover the whole spectrum of non-melting cheeses and still make it work.”
Artisan salume—traditional, Italian-style cured meat—is gaining fans in foodie circles across the country, and its point of entry is often atop an artisan pie. O’Connor singles out capicola (also known as coppa)—made from dry-cured, whole pork shoulder and neck—and prosciutto as two of his favorites. But don’t put prosciutto on the pizza before you cook it! That “tends to take away the delicate nature,” he says. “The idea of curing a meat for two years and then cooking it to 200°F kind of plays against what I stand for. I would take the prosciutto and put it on the pizza when you take it out of the oven. Just lay it in the thinnest strips across the top. Let it wilt. The perfume is released as that delicate fat just melts ever so slightly—it’s beautiful stuff.”
Kimberly J. Decker, a California-based technical writer, has a B.S. in consumer food science with a minor in English from the University of California, Davis. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she enjoys eating and writing about food. You can reach her at kim@decker.net.
