Modernist Pizza

[quietdesperation]

if anyone cares, yould should setup some price alerts using camelcamelcamel or keepa. i ended up getting the MP for $100 for a used version. it arrived with only some knicks and scratches but otherwise great condition.

how do you like it? pls post a review when you have time.

[hbtony]

I just finished reading and highlighting all three volumes.

I didn't want to like this book -- gas over wood, the best Detroit pizza is made in L.A, water doesn't matter, there's no such thing as Sicilian or Roman pizza, the "best" pizza city in the U.S. is Portland, Chicago thin crust isn't a style, you can't find a good slice in Manhattan, etc etc etc. But having read and absorbed every sentence of every page, all I can say is that this book is going to have a BIG positive impact on the quality of pizza being served out there. And isn't that all that really matters?

For those of you who read the section on Tokyo-style pizza, I asked Tamaki-san at PST why he didn't give them permission to publish anything about him even though they visited, interviewed him, and took pictures (see the footnote in MP's Tokyo section). He said it was because the release they asked him to sign was in English, and they expected him to sign it before they left. Since he didn't understand what he would be signing, he declined. Sad.

[Saabluster]

I just finished reading and highlighting all three volumes.

I didn't want to like this book -- gas over wood, the best Detroit pizza is made in L.A, water doesn't matter, there's no such thing as Sicilian or Roman pizza, the "best" pizza city in the U.S. is Portland, Chicago thin crust isn't a style, you can't find a good slice in Manhattan, etc etc etc. But having read and absorbed every sentence of every page, all I can say is that this book is going to have a BIG positive impact on the quality of pizza being served out there. And isn't that all that really matters?

For those of you who read the section on Tokyo-style pizza, I asked Tamaki-san at PST why he didn't give them permission to publish anything about him even though they visited, interviewed him, and took pictures (see the footnote in MP's Tokyo section). He said it was because the release they asked him to sign was in English, and they expected him to sign it before they left. Since he didn't understand what he would be signing, he declined. Sad.

Thank you for your balanced and honest review.

[kuhne]

Anyone with money, a scanner and a lot of time wishes to help a pizza bro out?

I’m joking I’m joking….  (Kinda)

[jenea]

Anyone with money, a scanner and a lot of time wishes to help a pizza bro out?

I’m joking I’m joking….  (Kinda)

check you library. mine has a copy

[DoouBall]

I borrowed several volumes of this set from my local library and have been reading them on and off for a week. My impressions.

1. The books are massive and incredibly heavy. The number of variations of recipes is absolutely mind-numbing and overwhelming. How does one even begin to figure out which of the thousands of options presented are worth trying?!?!?! This is just my own commentary, but if I'm paying $300+ for a set of books, I want the authors to distill their experiments into a mere handful of the best of the best recipes rather than simply listing out 5000+ random variations they thought of and leave it up to me to try them all and figure out which ones are best. I could have done that myself so there is little value to me in that approach.

2. There are a few interesting experiments and tidbits to learn. For example, I did not know that using a higher % of yeast (0.25% IDY) creates a more evenly colored crust with fewer burnt spots (measles pizza) compared to using a tiny % of yeast (0.04%). They presented a fairly well-executed experiment and pictures. There are a number of similar interesting mini-sections interspersed throughout these books.

3. I don't see much in the way of useful unique content. Their main contribution seems to be to add chemicals like dough relaxers to their dough to make a more forgiving product and thickeners like xantham gum to their tomato sauces. Personally, I'm totally not into adding artificial ingredients to a product that really doesn't need them, but to each their own.

4. Gum lines. I'm absolutely blown away by the number of cross-section pictures of their pizza that feature a massive gum line. It's kind of disgusting and funny at the same time, because they mention that gumline is a defect and yet a large number of their pizza pictures features a thick gum line. I was shocked looking at these - like 30% of the entire pizza is a gumline. How did this pass the editors? Maybe they too have no idea what a good pizza is? This also sort of kills my confidence in their abilities to produce and teach others how to make a great pizza.

That's pretty much it. Books going back to the library soon and I won't be trying any of their recipes. I hope I'm not missing out, but truly doesn't seem like it's worth the time to try to get value out of these.

[kuhne]

That's pretty cool that you guys have the book in your library. That's not happening where I live sadly.

[Pizza_Not_War]

It's a reference only item in Multnomah library system in Portland.

[DoouBall]

It's a reference only item in Multnomah library system in Portland.

That's pretty cool that you guys have the book in your library. That's not happening where I live sadly.

Trust me, you guys aren't missing much.

[jenea]

so finished the 3 book series over only 3 days. the first volume was the most interesting to me. the history of pizza was kinda cool, the most informative. the review of pizza places was kinda out of place. in the US, it seems like they only went to a select few places based on popularity, which is fine. too many places to visit them all i guess.

but the rest was not really that much better than any other pizza book. I agree with the post above about too many dough recipes. and all the "modernist" recipes had too many chemicals added to rig the dough. I would rather keep in easy and true to a more traditional recipe. they easily could have made this a 1 volume 250 page book. there was maybe 3 recipes I would try out. so copied the pages and will move on.

now, this is just my opinion, but why would anyone buy this book at its price? very lucky to have it at my library where I could borrow it for free. same goes for their bread book. way over priced. I have found better, more useful books at much lower prices. yeh it was informative but not worth the price. if it was $75 for the set I might think about it. but Im not their target market, the rich with tons of money to spare.

happy to have been able to read it, but it will not be part of my cookbook collection. much better pizza cookbooks out there for much less and they are much less pretentious!

john

[Bill/SFNM]

now, this is just my opinion, but why would anyone buy this book at its price?

Why would someone challenge another's spending decisions? It is fair for you to say you wouldn't buy it. I am glad I bought it (after trying out a bunch of recipes during the return window). Have you actually tried any of the recipes? I don't have tons of money to spare, but the pizza series is now an important part of my pizza library. 

[sirmellor]

Well the price is down to $295 on Amazon and I couldn't help myself!
Bill, I would be really interested in hearing about any other recipes from the book that you have tried that you would recommend.

Thanks, Richard

[Bill/SFNM]

Well the price is down to $295 on Amazon and I couldn't help myself!
Bill, I would be really interested in hearing about any other recipes from the book that you have tried that you would recommend.

Thanks, Richard

Richard,

In the Kitchen Manual on pages 141-150 are a slew of really simple, innovative sauces (if someone is looking for traditional sauces, this is not the book for you.) I like the clam chowder sauce, the pressure caramelized vegetable sauce, and the french onion sauce. And the simple fried pizza recipe (p. 187) is great for leftover pizza dough. Also the Genovese pizza (p. 299) with braised short ribs and french onion sauce is a favorite. Lots of others. Try these during the Amazon return window.