To the staff at PMQ for caring enough to do a story on us this month. Rick did a wonderful job and Tom has been a great source of support in this endeavor. We were on the Columbus Channel 10 news last night as well. I am continually moved by all the support we receive. It makes me want to move this operation to Columbus where there are a lot more foodies. We live in the boonies and conveyor/chain pizza is the king. Thanks! Walter
Hi Walter, Thank you for your kind message to the PMQ staff.
On a side note, a friend of mine visited Croatia and loved the pizza at a pizza store where the chef had special needs. The chef’s family had encouraged him to pursue a career in pizza making and it suited him very well. My friend asked me why there wasn’t something in America that did the same thing! I’m glad to see there is.
Thanks for sharing that Missy. It gives me hope to hear such stories. I will put our pizzas up against any “non disabled” shop that does NY deck pies. The funny thing is out here in central Ohio my main pizza maker is overqualified for just about any pizzeria. She hand tosses, cooks direct on the stones, can manage 2 blodgett 1000 ovens, does every aspect of our hand made authentic to NY proceedure, and is as intuitive with dough as anyone I have have worked with. Things out here are converyor ovens, pans, screens and she has worked in that situation and hated it. She works after school and weekends and prefers to do food prep and serving with Bon Appetit who is Dension University’s food provider than do pizza other than the authentic NY way. Walter http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/waltertore/rsz_paigetossingpies_zps9315ada9.jpg
There is something very special going on at the Smiling with Hope Bakery in Newark, OH! The day I was able to spend there was one of the most memorable in my 60 year life. We will be hearing more about Walter’s program in the years ahead, I am sure… Thanks PMQ for covering it.
Walter;
In reading the above, I got to thinking that what you really need for the next step is a free standing restaurant for the students to serve in after their initial tutorage and training, think of it as a “post grad” training opportunity. Remembering our earlier discussions about Lamb’s Farm, they have a full service restaurant as part of their operation (now called Magnolia Cafe & Bakery) that generates income to further promote their great cause. You might give some thought to contacting them (Google "Lamb’s Farm) since you are just a smaller version of them, more like when they got started many years ago, and I’m sure they would be willing to share ideas with you, especially those about their restaurant operation. Like I said, when I worked with them the restaurant was primarily staffed by their students and served as an excellent intermediate phase between closely supervised instruction to something closer to working in the real world, as you know, a smooth transition is critical to success.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Tom: Thanks for that encouragement! School ends the 30th and I will be contacting Lamb’s Farm. I am in the process of getting a full time adult assistant. This has taken 2 years. I have been a 1 man show to this point. I figure the off campus site will take at least that long. Schools move in reverse motion- very frustrating but I will do what I can to move it along. We were recently on the evening news and they closed the segment with us in the studio. We fed the entire newsroom pizza, french bread, and baked goods. The sports anchor went nuts on our pizza and bread. He was hounding me to move the operation to Columbus and with his connections (been there forever) we could make a fortune. That translated to me as more work for disabled people. We charge $9 for an 18" cheese pie in a box and $10 for a pep in a box. If you eat in our shop it is a dollar cheaper. This guy is a food fanatic and said we could easily get 20-22 bucks for our pies in Columbus. I will let that stir around as well. Living in a food wasteland (compared to my upbringing in the NYC metro area) and having lived in Austin, Sonoma County, CA, and Brussels, Belgium, this experience has been eye opening to put it mildly. You can serve garbage all day long around here and get rich. From where i am from and lived 99% of the places here that serve food wouldn’t last a week. Thanks! Walter
