Trying to start out - how to bake pizza en masse?

[chickenparm]

Best of Luck and wishes.No real info to add,but if you are about making more profits,try selling hot dogs as well,say the Sabrett brands.

http://www.sabrett.com/

[breadstoneovens]

Once I figure out my workflow, the truck will be built out to my specification.  The oven will probably be a Baker's Pride deck oven of some variety.

So, my options are
-form everything from dough balls in the truck (can't do this because of time)
-prepare everything ahead of time and refrigerate (can't do because of sogginess)
-prepare the skins, top and cook as needed (this sounds doable and a good compromise on practicality and freshness)
-parbake and then bake as needed. This is something I hadn't considered and didn know about. Will this result in a fresher or less fresh tasting pie than the prepare skin/top and cook method?

Also I apologize for the confusion re: cooking sauces. I have done a lot of searching and reading and now have a good idea of how to 'do' sauces, although I would still appreciate any input on how to store and what equipment people use to mill the tomatoes (processor, mixer, drill and bucket?)

For having done it professionally it is not that easy. I think most likely you will need help running your business, especially when it comes time to collect payment, you won't be able to stretch a dough, swipe a CC and make sure nothing is burning in your oven.
The best I have seen is 50 to 60 pizza per hours with just one person.
Here is how it goes:
1) your mise en place:
- The dough is made and portioned the night before
- The sauce is made up to 3 days in advance in 5gl batch and kept refrigerated.
- All condiments are prepped the day before or the morning of
2) day of:
- Fire your oven to desired temperature
- Stretch and par-bake your dough before the lunch rush. Keep dough in a warmer or refrigerator.
- during the lunch you dress the pizza to order and bake them

I strongly recommend a wood fired oven, as a gas deck oven looses a lot of temp each time you open it and it takes a while to recover. A WOF will give you a lot more consistent heat and will allow you to cook 3 pizza at once in a minute or so.
Here is a video of a pizza being cooked in 60 seconds and the dough was par-baked.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QNDAXmhCn0" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QNDAXmhCn0</a>

It shouldn't take you more than 90 seconds to dress and cook a pizza, and should be able to do 3 pizza in 2 to 3 minutes. Once cooked you cut them and collect money from your customers. You move to the next 3 customers orders and so on.
It is exhausting and not everyone can take it.

Let me know if you more details.

Antoine

[PizzaTruck]

If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend you check out this thread started buy Bubba http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,19201.0.html

I would imagine that once you've got your dough figured out and become proficient at opening it up you will have gained a great deal of confidence and will be able to look at your "total picture" in a much more learned way.

Bob

Thanks for the link! Those videos are great.

I have decided to spend a while perfecting the craft before the big investment. I'll probably work on my recipes over the summer, and then build the truck out this winter... with our short summers, by the time the truck was finished I'd only have a few months of sales left. Today I bought a pizza oven. I can't find a model # but it is made by MKE and appears to be almost identical to the "MKEPE100" except for logo placement. It has 2 decks with a maximum pizza size of 15".

I'm sure it won't be proper for actually putting in the truck eventually (maybe as a warmer?) but it should be great for perfecting the craft! Once I get it wired in (I may have some questions about that) I'm going to borrow an infrared thermometer and see how it measures up.

[buceriasdon]

PizzaTruck, Please do keep us updated.
Don

[scarboni]

Best of Luck and wishes.No real info to add,but if you are about making more profits,try selling hot dogs as well,say the Sabrett brands.

http://www.sabrett.com/

The 605's specifically are the ones you'll want (Sabrett aka Marathon =p). Those are the ones you find in the "Papaya" places in NY; they have a hint of Garlic in them.

[Chicago Bob]

The 605's specifically are the ones you'll want (Sabrett aka Marathon =p). Those are the ones you find in the "Papaya" places in NY; they have a hint of Garlic in them.

I guess you've never had a Pearl brand then, eh?     He could sell a LOT of those bad boys!

[scarboni]

I guess you've never had a Pearl brand then, eh?     He could sell a LOT of those bad boys!

Not too familiar...I've only worked with Sabrett's in my brief but utterly diastrous venture into Hot Dogs....thus why I stick to Pizza. =P