Anthony Falco Pizza Czar

[FredW]

I was looking forward to this book, but it was really disappointing. He touts his use of starters, but he barely touches on them and the preferment recipe he calls sponge/biga/poolish as if they were the same thing with one poolish recipe. I don't like his dough process either.  I'm not going to try any of these recipes. The book is very lacking in technical knowledge of dough. It was a waste of money.

[HansB]

There’s more information on a Chef Boyardee Cheese pizza box than his Zoom classes. No reason to believe the Czar will deliver this time with a book.

[3pedals]

I remember people saying the same thing about The Pizza Bible before it came out, and once people read it, they loved it. With that being said I just ordered the pizza czar book but tempted to cancel my order after reading the 2 reviews on here.

[artaxares]

It's not really a bad book but it is useless to anyone on this forum. There is basically 0 technical information or any interesting techniques, it's just a pizza recipe book. There's 1% simple dough management and 99% recipes and his stories.
I learned nothing from it and haven't found any new interesting recipes. I think most people on this forum will share that sentiment, but "casual public" might actually like it a lot.

[scott r]

Dan from Razzas book is finally ready.  His pizza is as good as it gets and he's all about the details.  Looking forward to that one!

[Jersey Pie Boy]

Me too! Please let us know when!

[Cogs]

The Joy of Pizza, release October 26th 2021

[Jersey Pie Boy]

Thanks!

[SonVolt]

I really like this book. I'm relating to it more than The Elements of Pizza (too philosophical) or the Pizza Bible (uninspiring).  There also seems like there's this weird online hit out on the guy, even in this thread.

[Cogs]

I really like this book. I'm relating to it more than The Elements of Pizza (too philosophical) or the Pizza Bible (uninspiring).  There also seems like there's this weird online hit out on the guy, even in this thread.

No hit. Have paid for several of his online courses, he did not deliver on what was promoted. I hope he makes it soon so he can stop faking it. Enjoy the book.

[SonVolt]

No hit. Have paid for several of his online courses, he did not deliver on what was promoted. I hope he makes it soon so he can stop faking it. Enjoy the book.

You paid for multiple courses in advance, or you continued to pay for courses though you were not happy?

[Cogs]

You paid for multiple courses in advance, or you continued to pay for courses though you were not happy?

I paid for one class/discussion and was left scratching my head. He talked in circles and explained nothing worth a damn. Then a class was offered by Breville, I enjoyed and learned something from the previous Breville offerings so I thought maybe this time would be different. That Scott from Pizza Tours was the guy to coax out something of substance out, I was wrong, fool me twice. Just my experience, no dog in the fight.

[thezaman]

 I tried 2 recipes from his book. Neither were usable with out some adjustments to the recipes. Not sure it is the fault of the book or me. Both pizza were very good and different in taste and texture.
 The first pizza was the Sicilian and I used the polish instead of natural starter.the dough was 72 percent hydration with a high fat content. I think 8 percent. I misread the flour type it called for high gluten flour and I used bread. So my mistake. The dough was super wet and I did stretch and folds to try and tighten the dough up. That didn’t help much. So if refrigerated the dough and worked from the cold state.i was able to pan it proof it then pre baked the crust. Because the gluten didn’t develop enough the pizza did not have that big open crumb postured in the book. It was soft and very light. A taster ( my daughter) who is very familiar with L&B pizza thought it tasted very similar. A lot lighter with out that pudding effect bitting into their dough gives.
 So first pizza was good and need to retry with HG flour.
 The second pizza the butter crust was made with bread flour using polish and yeast as the recipe called for. It was very wet and i added a small amount of flour to get the dough to come together.
 I used K/A bread flour and noticed the flour has a lot of clumped up balls in it. I think the flour took in humidity as my work area is susceptible to the elements. I ended up throwing away the rest of the flour as it seemed to have picked up humidity.
 One thing for sure about the butter crust recipe is the quantity of 650 grams for a 12 inch round pan seems like too much dough.the finished pizza was very thick.
 The book states it has the taste and texture of the old Pizza Hut pan pizza. Because of the thickness I did not get that. I do have two balls of dough left and am going to reduce the weight to see if that got closer to the pizza hut taste.
 I have pictures of the two pizzas that I will include.
 I wish the book would have included using the mixer for making the doughs as an option. Please note I did use my kitchen aid and not hand mixed either doughs.
 
 
 
 

[RHawthorne]

 One thing for sure about the butter crust recipe is the quantity of 650 grams for a 12 inch round pan seems like too much dough.

Most definitely. That sounds like at least twice the amount needed, unless you're going for a very thick pie, or if you were doing a stuffed crust pie and divided it in half for the top and bottom crusts.