Recapping How To Make Award-Winning Pizza

Welcome to my second email! I am super excited to share the secrets of a 5-time Pizza World Champion, OOGiulio. He is a world renowned pizzaiolo (chef professionally trained in the art of Italian Pizzas) who left his motherland Italy to share his love and passion for pizza here in America.

Let’s see what kind of insight he can drop for us!

<How to Make Award-Winning Pizza>

How to make award-winning pizza: Giulio shares his ancient fermentation technique, BIGA, he adopted and mastered from pizza legends back in Italy. Here is the step-by-step guide so you can replicate the process at home.

Video link: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1cW-eMgxTB/?hl=en

1. Add water, flour, and dry yeast to the mixer until it turns into shredded clay-like consistency.

2. Let it rest for 14 hours in room temp, then into the fridge for another 10.

3. The dough should be a more firm texture, now break it apart into the mixer again with flour, cold water, and salt. The reason why it has to be cold is because the mixer creates heat and with colder water, the dough seizes and hydrates a lot more, leading to a better pizza.

4. Form the dough into balls and rest in the fridge for another 24 hours. The dough should be now nice and puffy.

5. Spread the dough and push down the edge of the dough with the tip of your fingers to form a crust. The key to Italian pizza how thinly and evenly the dough is stretched.

6. Add a scoop of tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and whatever topping of your choosing.

7. Now to the FINALE: Cook your pizza in the hottest oven you have at home, turning the pizza after half way through the cook time. (For 400F and below, it might take 15-20 minutes. For 800-900F, it should be ready in 2-3 minutes). Once you see bubbling in the crust turn dark brown, take it out the oven.

8. Enjoy!

<More Tips>

Giulio says that the secret to his pizza is how well fermented the dough is. When cooked in the fire oven which can reach 800-900 degrees Fahrenheit, the gases caused by fermentation in the dough expand, creating beautiful air pockets in the crust. This chemical reaction makes the pizza fluffy and light.

If you want to recreate Giulio’s pizza, the biggest challenge will be cooking temperature. Home ovens only go up to 500 degrees which is not hot enough to get that sudden expansion of gases.

If you want to use your home oven, he recommends getting a stone plate and heating that up for as long as possible on max. Once hot, put your pizza on it and put it in the oven at max heat. Gotta work with what you got!

That is it for today’s email! I hope you enjoyed the secrets and tips I got from a professional chef. If you have any questions or suggestion, please email me.

-Sincerely, Danny Kim.