Arthur,
I can sympathize with your plight.
Each New Year's Eve for the past several years I have been asked to make individual-size pizzas for from 10 to 15 people, at a home of one of my best friends. Unfortunately, my friend does not have the best of equipment, and I am usually forced to improvise with the less than stellar stand mixer and food processor she has. That usually means making multiple batches of dough and sometimes having to switch from one machine to the other depending on their reliability and temperament on that given day. Also, one of the two ovens I use to bake the pizzas is prone--without warning--to stop baking altogether, forcing me to move partially baked pizzas from one oven to the other. And, when I want to start making the pizzas, the guests are more preoccupied with drinking and gabbing. So I have to take steps to keep the dough balls from deflating, which I do by periodically putting and removing the dough balls from a spare refrigerator in the basement. I also make use of a proofing box as has been decribed elsewhere at this site and which I put together for my friend and resides at her house just for this occasion (the rest of the time it goes into a closet).
Needless to say, by the time I actually get to make the pizzas, I am as nervous as an actor ready to go onto the stage. And I am in the spotlight the whole time as everyone watches me make their customized pizzas (I even wear a chef's style jacket with my name imprinted on it), and I don't want to disappoint anyone by not giving the effort my very best. I perhaps don't make matters any easier for myself by insisting on trying out different kinds of doughs and styles from year to year. And each year, I try something quite different from what I have done in the past. Fortunately, an evening-ending disaster has eluded me thus far, and my friends keep coming back each year, but I always worry that the pizzaiolo devil will catch up with me the next time.
Peter
