I can’t say enough about the downright sweetness of these Extreme Pizza Cutters designed by Frankie Flood from the University of Illinois. I can only imagine tearing through one of my pies with an all-aluminum, powder-coated carbon fiber custom cutter! Hats off to this extraordinarily talented artist.

Say, this could go along well with the tricked out dough mixer we saw a few months ago…

Monday, March 14th is the start of the World Pizza Championship in Salsomaggiore, Italy! The US Pizza team web site is full of information about our countries top pizza chefs and the competition in 5 categories: Fastest Pizza Maker, Largest Dough Stretch, Freestyle Pizza Tossing, Best Gourmet Pizza and Best Traditional Pizza.

Show your support for the US Pizza Team by visiting their web site where you can purchase a t-shirt or even practice dough to help you learn to toss!

Hopefully, those of us who can’t go with the team to Italy will be able to catch the action on the FOOD Network this summer.

Visit the US Pizza Team web site …
Visit the World Pizza Championship web site …

Get a US Pizza Team T-Shirt …

I go through a lot of flour as I go along on my journey to find the perfect pizza recipe! In fact, as I stood in line to buy my third 50-lb bag of Hi-Gluten flour from the baker’s supply shop, it became almost amusing to consider.

The number that is at the top of the site will go up each time I make a post about a pizza that I make myself. I am not counting the actual pounds of flour as I go, but rather I have developed a formula for estimating my usage. The formula is as follows:

Flour Used (lbs) = # of “Pizza Making” posts * Average # of Pizzas per post * Average lbs Flour per pizza

I’ve calculated that my average number of pizzas per post is about 1.1. Each pizza recipe uses an average of 3 cups of high gluten flour which weighs approximately 5 ounces per cup. There are 16 ounces in a pound.

Therefore I use apporoximately 1.03125 pounds of flour each time I post a “Pizza Making” article!

As of today (February 2005) I have used 2 full 50-lb bags of flour and put a dent in my third. I have wasted a few dough balls and given about 10 cups of flour away to friends. That means that my calculations are probably conservative!

Here’s to many, many more pounds of flour!!

Lately I’ve been feeling like the site was getting a bit sloppy, so I took a break to clean it up and give it a tighter feel. Now I can get back to posting about the pizza! Sorry for the break in the action…

The New York Post ran a story yesterday on tipping the pizza guy which may be of interest to some of you. I don’t order pizza for delivery much any more, but I was a delivery driver for many years and I completely agree with the comments made in the article.

In addition, you might get a kick out of reading in detail the suggested tipping structure mentioned in the article. A whole web site is dedicated to the plight of pizza delivery personnel and you can read about it here: www.tipthepizzaguy.com …

Read the New York Post Article “Here’s a Tip: Don’t Stiff Him ….

[Thanks Adam]