Okay. I started this thread so I suppose I need to post a follow up.
I joined Bubba's site (
www.HomeSpunPizza.com) last month, paid my $35, not affiliated (except as a member), not getting paid by Bubba, yadda, yadda, ....
My pizza quality and consistency have improved dramatically since I signed up for a membership at HomeSpunPizza.com. The recipes on the site are outstanding, and the video "lessons" are full of useful and easy to follow pizza making techniques, but I don't think Hollywood is going to pay Bubba a call anytime soon. There is no flashy stuff, just solid information and methods that let me emulate what a professional pizzaiolo does all day every day when he goes to work.
Other sites (including this one) have all sorts of home-based, amateur, pizzaiolos who have unlocked the secrets. They are willing to share their exhaustive research in pursuit of pizza nirvana. But of the people posting on the forums, who can you trust to provide good information? And how can you tell the difference between good advice and bad advice? And what do I do when the advice or amount of detail is more than I am willing to absorb (sorry, I WILL NOT spend $10K+ on a coal fired brick oven or risk burning my house down for a pizza)? I do not have the same "fire in the belly" for perfect pizza that many other folks on this site do.
I just want to make a couple of good pizzas every couple of weeks for family and friends.
The local pizza shop has made profits a higher priority than their food and their customers. The food is awful and the prices are too high. Three pizzas from the local shop will cost me the same as a lifetime membership at HomeSpunPizza.com. You remember the line about, "give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime."
Or was it, "...he will be out in a boat drinking beer all day."
I guess the real selling point of a membership at HomeSpunPizza.com for me is that Bubba is the real deal. He has been making pizza for decades. Obviously, he is an expert. My pizza may not be up to the same quality standards as Bubba, or for that matter Pete-zza or varasano, etc. But my goal is to make good pizza that my family and friends really like. I have made Bubba's dough (and modified the recipe slightly to suit my tastes - just a little more hydration), his sauce, and his calzones with pretty good, and more importantly, consistent results. I love the results and my family and friends really like the "new" way I make my pizzas.
After using Bubba's recipes and methods, I now know that I can trust what he tells me on his site.
I am not in the market for making "perfect pizza." But with a little help from Bubba, I am able to turn out really, really good homemade pizza on a consistent basis.
I have gotten from Bubba's site exactly what I had hoped for. Good, and consistently good
!
I even had a question about a page on the site about putting together a calzone. Bubba took the time to write me back and explain to me personally what the story was.
I have gotten my money's worth and can heartily recommend Bubba's site.
Tom
