Nancy Silverton of La Brea Bakery, Osteria Mozza, and Pizzeria Mozza is interviewed.
In the first part, Nancy discusses pizza crust and her influences. She mentions two influences for her pizza: Chris Bianco's Phoenix, Arizona eatery Pizzeria Bianco and a bakery in Rome, where Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery learned the trade. The
pizzas from each restaurant were quite similar: puffy, tender, and crispy unlike the thin cracker or wetter Naples style of pizzas. Nancy loved the open structure that was similar to bread but stretched thinner. Mozza's crust recipe, in fact, was based on a bread recipe from La Brea Bakery. The recipe is nothing more than flour, water, and leavening.
In the 2nd video, Nancy talks about Jim Lahey'sNo Knead bread making method. Nancy has never used a No Knead method but she has several terrific breads produced using No Knead dough. The most important thing is the product after all. Lahey's method involves just stirring flour, water, and leavening together and letting it sit to develop gluten instead of kneading it. Nancy sees no difference in Jim Lahey's No Knead loves vs. the those done with the traditional kneading method of gluten development.
In the 3rd section, Nancy talks about how the pizza dough recipe in The Mozza Cookbook was altered for home ovens from what she does in the restaurant. The recipes are very similar. The dough at the restaurant is fermented much longer but she altered it for the cookbook so the home baker could be more spontaneous and not have to plan 2 days ahead of time. If you want to make it more like it is in the restaurant, 1) keep the sponge longer 2) keep the dough longer 3) let it rest longer after it is shaped. The book has you add a little wheat germ to add complexity and sweetness that may be missing from the shorter fermentation. Other than that, the recipes are the same. Nancy doesn't use a starter. Instead, she uses a sponge that uses compressed baker's yeast. She adds a touch of rye flour and barley malt to white flour, water, and salt.
In the final section, Nancy talks about the transition from baker to multi-restaurant entrepreneur. Nancy admits that she can't be everywhere at one time and can't be in the kitchen as much as she once was. She loves the process of creating and now gets that creative satisfaction from living vicariously through the people she inspires.
I created this video with the TH-cam Video Editor (th-cam.com/users/editor)
Original posts here: www.seriouseats.com/2012/02/vi...
Video: Jessica Leibowitz
Music: Kevin MacLeod
Photos: Jessica Leibowitz, Robyn Lee, Ed Levine, Adam Kuban, Souris Hp, Mike Neal