Re: Evolution of the NY Style Pizza (Split Topic)

[Chicago Bob]

Walter,

Thanks for doing all of those dropbox interviews with Madeline!  I listened to some of them over the weekend again.

Norma

is there a link for those interviews Norma... I'd like to check then out.
Thank you....
Bob

[norma427]

is there a link for those interviews Norma... I'd like to check then out.
Thank you....
Bob

Bob,

Walter's interviews with Madeline and Vinnie Mastro are at Reply 177

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=14920.msg412975;topicseen#msg412975

Hope you enjoy them.  They tell a lot about what happened years ago.

Norma

[norma427]

Think if anyone chooses to watch the video, they will learn a lot about how to make a pizza and other things, and also was fun to see the old scales, old ways to make pizza's and other things at an old school pizzeria, Rudy's.  Those old pizza ovens sure are cool!  Charlie, Fred and all of the other people in the video sure are fun to watch and hear about.  Old school NY style pizza's and Sicilian's, plus other interesting pizza related foods.

Additional links on how to find the documentary.

Thanks so much Walter!!  Enjoyed everything so much!!   

Norma

[norma427]

Walter sent me an email saying, I got home tonight and saw this on the Jewish channel, and that I would dig it.  Walter's email had a link to Pizza Shop, an Italian-American dream.  I could not get that link to work to watch the the documentary about how two Italian brothers came to America to make a better life for themselves and families years ago.  I found a link that worked but can't find out how to post it here. 

Thanks so much Walter!! 

And on Facebook.


https://www.facebook.com/pg/PizzaShopMovie/videos/?ref=page_internal

On Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/rudys_pizza_closter/?fbclid=IwAR0BEbcL-sqAWJbTmAtdDEcOM61kypPvRunCI0QdOrrcWu8Qc_kO4srQFWU

Norma

[norma427]

The podcast.

https://italianamericanpodcast.com/iap-115-pizza-shop-an-italian-american-dream-an-interview-with-filmmaker-antony-osso/

Norma

[norma427]

Where to watch the documentary.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07KNBFKCH/?tag=pmak-20

Norma

[norma427]

https://www.pizzashopmovie.com/?fbclid=IwAR3sVuxYQ-uEEq_U7iPe8WBKUqNFTfL1MZlpP3wPKjHaksbrS7k9ObNCfeI

Norma

[foreplease]

Thanks, Norma. I just bookmarked it after seeing Walter’s post in Shop Talk. I’m sure I will enjoy watching this.

[waltertore]

Walter sent me an email saying, I got home tonight and saw this on the Jewish channel, and that I would dig it.  Walter's email had a link to Pizza Shop, an Italian-American dream.  I could not get that link to work to watch the the documentary about how two Italian brothers came to America to make a better life for themselves and families years ago.  I found a link that worked but can't find out how to post it here. 

Thanks so much Walter!! 

And on Facebook.


https://www.facebook.com/pg/PizzaShopMovie/videos/?ref=page_internal

On Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/rudys_pizza_closter/?fbclid=IwAR0BEbcL-sqAWJbTmAtdDEcOM61kypPvRunCI0QdOrrcWu8Qc_kO4srQFWU

Norma

I knew you would like it Norma   I get the Jewish TV channel on our dish service.  They have the Jack Benny Show, You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx, and The Goldbergs, and other interesting shows.   I was shocked to see this documentary on when I got home.  I was exhausted from a busy night and all the political stuff going on (we had riots in Reno last night) and was hoping to laugh with one of these old tv shows.  I was raised with people like on the documentary and made me proud to keep the roots of NY/NJ pizza alive. I hope I can  see it again. 

[norma427]

I knew you would like it Norma   I get the Jewish TV channel on our dish service.  They have the Jack Benny Show, You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx, and The Goldbergs, and other interesting shows.   I was shocked to see this documentary on when I got home.  I was exhausted from a busy night and all the political stuff going on (we had riots in Reno last night) and was hoping to laugh with one of these old tv shows.  I was raised with people like on the documentary and made me proud to keep the roots of NY/NJ pizza alive. I hope I can  see it again.

Walter,

Yep, sure did like it!     I sure can't get the Jewish TV channel, but it seemed to work for me on Amazon.  I don't have Amazon prime, but it let me watch it when the first option was picked.

Sorry to hear you were exhausted from a busy night and those riots in Reno last night.  Can understand how that documentary made you feel proud to keep the roots of NY/NY pizza alive. 

Norma

[TheLittleItalianKitchen]

This reply may not be politically correct in here but growing up on nyc all we really knew was gas deck oven apizza and to me deck oven is far better the coal or wood fired ovens. I would say that nyc pizza is deck oven pizza  by definition since it's been used as the primary oven in the 60s 70s and 80 and even the 90s.  Coal is a more of a new trendy attempt to be unique.  I will take deck oven over coal or wood anyday of the week.  Best pizza I ever had was in penn station a place called figaros the little italian kitchen a whole in the wall but the best I ever had.  Deck oven of course.  Just my thoughts. 

[Chicago Bob]

Good thoughts. 

[norma427]

If anyone is interested in the video “Rewriting New York City Pizza History” with Scott Wiener and Peter Regas, think it is very good in explaining many things that we didn't know before.  Watched it on Zoom and we could ask questions.  Find it interesting to when they talk about Trenton Tomato Pies.  Lots of documents and photos.



Norma

[RHawthorne]

If anyone is interested in the video “Rewriting New York City Pizza History” with Scott Wiener and Peter Regas, think it is very good in explaining many things that we didn't know before.  Watched it on Zoom and we could ask questions.  Find it interesting to when they talk about Trenton Tomato Pies.  Lots of documents and photos.



Norma

I've got that one on my watch later list, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Looks good.

[norma427]

Vinnie Mastro posted this on Facebook.

As many of you know, my grandfather, Frank Mastro invented the gas fired pizza oven. His design is the same one you will find in your neighborhood pizzeria. A new 1708 page book, has just been published which mentions my family’s contribution to the industry. I am grateful to the authors for this acknowledgment.

Modernist Pizza Hardcover – October 19, 2021
by Nathan Myhrvold (Author), Francisco Migoya (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1734386126/?tag=pmak-20...

The storefront picture is from the 30’s (I think).

My grandfather, Frank Mastro. He is at Blodgett Oven factory in Vermont making pizza so they can test the ovens they were prototyping.

The Mastro Pizza Pavilion post card is from the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. For most Americans and International visitors, this was the first time they ate pizza. The industry sky rocketed from that point forward.

1949 Advertisement in an Italian language newspaper.

Unsung hero and inventor of the pizza box.

Norma

photos from my cell in the next post.

[norma427]

Norma

[RHawthorne]

Vinnie Mastro posted this on Facebook.

As many of you know, my grandfather, Frank Mastro invented the gas fired pizza oven. His design is the same one you will find in your neighborhood pizzeria. A new 1708 page book, has just been published which mentions my family’s contribution to the industry. I am grateful to the authors for this acknowledgment.

Modernist Pizza Hardcover – October 19, 2021
by Nathan Myhrvold (Author), Francisco Migoya (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1734386126/?tag=pmak-20...

The storefront picture is from the 30’s (I think).

My grandfather, Frank Mastro. He is at Blodgett Oven factory in Vermont making pizza so they can test the ovens they were prototyping.

The Mastro Pizza Pavilion post card is from the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. For most Americans and International visitors, this was the first time they ate pizza. The industry sky rocketed from that point forward.

1949 Advertisement in an Italian language newspaper.

Unsung hero and inventor of the pizza box.

Norma

photos from my cell in the next post.

That is amazing information, and news to me. No wonder you gravitated to pizza! How could you not, with that in your family history?

[norma427]

That is amazing information, and news to me. No wonder you gravitated to pizza! How could you not, with that in your family history?

RHawthorne,



Lol,  I didn't have any relatives that made pizza's.  In fact never knew nothing about making pizza's till I joined this forum. 


I am not related to any of the Mastro family.  I just talked with Madeline Mastro Ferrentino, Frank Mastro Ferrentino, and Vinnie Mastro, though phone calls, emails, letters and to Madeline in person one time. 


Madeline Ferrentino. FER Publisher Robin Ashton had written a lovely obituary for Vinnie Guarriello, former executive v.p.-sales at Blodgett-Pitco. It prompted Madeline, his sister-in-law, to write to us; her thoughts provide a neat glimpse into the past.
“My brother-in-law Vincent worked for my father, Frank Mastro, President of Frank Mastro Inc. located at 232-242 Bowery, New York. My father invented the portable gas pizza oven that was manufactured for him by the G.S. Blodgett Corp. in Burlington, Vermont. When the latest model of his pizza oven was manufactured, for which he received royalties, Blodgett asked him to travel for them to show dealers and pizzeria owners how to use his oven to its best advantage. My father was unable to leave his full-service restaurant, hotel and institutional supply business and recommended Vinnie to them instead. So before anyone else, Vinnie sold pizza ovens on the Bowery from about 1939 and into the 1940s for Frank Mastro Inc.” She says credit is due Mr. Brogan at Blodgett who convinced the manufacturer to build the Mastro-designed oven as well as the Brooklyn Union Gas Co. and Robertshaw Controls Co. And, of course, recognition goes to “my father, who spent an inordinate part of his business life promoting pizza as a reasonable adjunct to his customers’ menus during the Great Depression.”
Madeline says her father also worked hard to promote the use of stainless in restaurant kitchens, which wasn’t the norm before 1935. “When I see all of the stainless equipment in restaurants today, I know his message finally got across,” she says. He once offered to sell a stainless refrigerator at cost rather than a white enamel one at full price, just to get it in use. “He never stopped! All of the equipment made by the fabricators on the Bowery—dough retarders, sinks, worktables—he had made out of stainless steel.” He knew it was superior, and he was right.

Vinnie Mastro, is Vinnie (Vincent) Mastro's child.  He was very young when the World's Fair was, where they made pizza.  Vinnie's Mother and father broke up early in their marriage and his Mother raised Vinnie in Boston.  He didn't see his father a lot.

This is Vinnie Mastro.

https://data-lead.com/person/name/Vinnie+Mastro/id/60166308/v/89e6e

Madeline Mastro Ferrentino has since passed.

Norma

[RHawthorne]

RHawthorne,



Lol,  I didn't have any relatives that made pizza's.  In fact never knew nothing about making pizza's till I joined this forum. 


I am not related to any of the Mastro family.  I just talked with Madeline Mastro Ferrentino, Frank Mastro Ferrentino, and Vinnie Mastro, though phone calls, emails, letters and to Madeline in person one time. 


Madeline Ferrentino. FER Publisher Robin Ashton had written a lovely obituary for Vinnie Guarriello, former executive v.p.-sales at Blodgett-Pitco. It prompted Madeline, his sister-in-law, to write to us; her thoughts provide a neat glimpse into the past.
“My brother-in-law Vincent worked for my father, Frank Mastro, President of Frank Mastro Inc. located at 232-242 Bowery, New York. My father invented the portable gas pizza oven that was manufactured for him by the G.S. Blodgett Corp. in Burlington, Vermont. When the latest model of his pizza oven was manufactured, for which he received royalties, Blodgett asked him to travel for them to show dealers and pizzeria owners how to use his oven to its best advantage. My father was unable to leave his full-service restaurant, hotel and institutional supply business and recommended Vinnie to them instead. So before anyone else, Vinnie sold pizza ovens on the Bowery from about 1939 and into the 1940s for Frank Mastro Inc.” She says credit is due Mr. Brogan at Blodgett who convinced the manufacturer to build the Mastro-designed oven as well as the Brooklyn Union Gas Co. and Robertshaw Controls Co. And, of course, recognition goes to “my father, who spent an inordinate part of his business life promoting pizza as a reasonable adjunct to his customers’ menus during the Great Depression.”
Madeline says her father also worked hard to promote the use of stainless in restaurant kitchens, which wasn’t the norm before 1935. “When I see all of the stainless equipment in restaurants today, I know his message finally got across,” she says. He once offered to sell a stainless refrigerator at cost rather than a white enamel one at full price, just to get it in use. “He never stopped! All of the equipment made by the fabricators on the Bowery—dough retarders, sinks, worktables—he had made out of stainless steel.” He knew it was superior, and he was right.

Vinnie Mastro, is Vinnie (Vincent) Mastro's child.  He was very young when the World's Fair was, where they made pizza.  Vinnie's Mother and father broke up early in their marriage and his Mother raised Vinnie in Boston.  He didn't see his father a lot.

This is Vinnie Mastro.

https://data-lead.com/person/name/Vinnie+Mastro/id/60166308/v/89e6e

Madeline Mastro Ferrentino has since passed.

Norma

I see. I guess I misread your post.