Brief Intro:
I opened my pizzeria on Jan. 1. I have no direct experience running a pizza joint, but do have a degree from CIA, and VA Tech ( lab instructor too). I have 20 years of varied experience in restaurants - mostly fine dining. I even sold food for a major distributor. I have some solid baking skills, but never did it every day for years. My specialty is garde manger and chaucuterie.
The thing I learned first is that pizza dough is not like baking bread - I tried it… It worked but was inconsistent. Second, I am running a marketing company - NOT - a restaurant…
The place is called “The Kind Pie”. I am located in a high income area of Atlanta, GA. I sell Organic / All Natural Pizza, along with artisan sandwiches, pasta dishes, and salads. High end stuff at mid-level pricing. All paper and plastic can be composted. Like Pizza Fusion but the food taste good…
Started by buying bread from a local baker (James Beard winner)… Too costly - now I am baking it here. That’s what brings me to the starter. I use a poolish or levain to make my focaccia and ciabatta. It is a little more work than buying it, but cost a fraction of the price. My food cost on sandwiches is 20%, pizza: 15 to 20-%. I use only buffalo mozz. and San Marzano tomatoes. By using high quality ingredients I don’t have to use so much, and they do allot of work for me. By making bread I lower my cost to 15% on sandwiches. They have gotten rave reviews and lots of repeat business in the 3 weeks I have been opened, but getting the word out is the chore of the day - every day.
Today I will make pizza dough using the starter… tune in later…
To Dr. Dough… Dude - You are the Man. You have helped so much with this endeavor i can’t begin to thank you. I really enjoy food science and your bakers math reminds me of my day’s at CIA. I could read your entries here over and over and never get bored.
What is your opinion on using starters?
The reason I ask is that my current dough (Thanks to you and the others here) is OK but I would like to see a more robust edge or puffy, without being too gassy… Up the yeast?
Currently I do this:
16 # White Flour Organic and unbleached / unbromated
4# Wheat Flour Organic Adds a nice flavor to the crust and looks browned when it’s not
4oz Salt Sea Salt
1 T Agave Nectar
2 T Olive Oil Organic Extra Virgin - added when dough is just mixed
2.0 oz ADY Organic - will switch to instant soon, tried fresh but sales volume not there yet. Threw some away 
12.5# water Spring (bottled)
Have a 30qt hobart mixer, and a Blodgett 48" deck oven. Both small, again another reason to go high end on price
Poolish:
2# flour
2# plus 1 cup H2o
.5 oz ADY
Would I just back out the quantities used in the starter from my formula?
What would be the substitution factors for using a poolish? I would need to cut back on water, flour, and yeast… but how much? I will research on my own, but figure you have this in your head. I have found a few sites for Artisan Bread that have been very helpful.
Thanks again to all here - keep it up…
Johnnyboy
