In this episode \u2013 the next to last, for those who are getting bored \u2013 I\u2019ll reveal the innermost secrets of the pizza oven-tender.\u00a0 A delivery pizza would not be very much use to you if delivered raw (or burnt to a crisp), so it could be argued that this position is one of the most important.<\/p>\n
![\"pizza,](\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6206\/6084880159_a0919146f8_m_d.jpg\" "\\"Pizza")
Across the aisle from the itemizing area were a honking big set of Blodgett ovens; two ovens with doors 5 feet wide and decks about 3 feet deep stacked atop one another.\u00a0 They were gas fired and the gas burners heated the 3\/4\u201d thick slate slabs that formed the floor of the ovens.\u00a0 We ran them at 400 degrees.\u00a0 Want a pair of these beauties for your kitchen?\u00a0 They\u2019ll only set you back about 18 grand!<\/p>\n
Pies were arranged in two rows in the oven.\u00a0 Newbies went into the back, where it was hottest.\u00a0 As they cooked we brought them forward and\u00a0spun them around.\u00a0 We also had to be alert for bubbling; the pizza dough we used was made with yeast and it could and did bubble-up while cooking.\u00a0\u00a0A bubble would shove all the ingredients aside, ruining our artful job of itemizing, and burn black.\u00a0 To prevent this we used a long handled fork with two curved prongs.\u00a0 A couple of jabs with this fork would deflate bubbles as they formed and preserve the look and flavor of our product.<\/p>\n When the pie was done cooking it was again snatched away on the peel and put on the stainless steel cut table next to the ovens.\u00a0 The oven tender looked at the row of boxes above the cut table to find the correct box for that order, opened it and laid it on the cut table.\u00a0 The peel was then slid between the screen and the crust to lift the pizza off and move it onto the open box where it was sliced up.\u00a0 The box was closed up and placed on the heat rack to await a Road Warrior<\/a>.\u00a0 When the screens cooled they were returned to the Skin Flinger\u2019s<\/a> position to make the round again.<\/p>\n Busier nights meant grouping pizzas going in the same direction \u2013 or \u201crouting\u201d them \u2013 to make delivery more efficient.\u00a0 Therefore, the oven tender needed to have experience as a delivery driver so they knew the delivery area well.\u00a0 Map knowledge did not always suffice.<\/p>\n While I worked as an oven tender, I worked a lot with a fellow named Bill Wilkins.\u00a0 Bill was about 9 feet tall.\u00a0 Or so it seemed.\u00a0 I was, and still am, considerably shorter.\u00a0 We worked out a system where he tended the top oven: the deck of which was set at just about my eye level through extended legs under the ovens. This was done because the regular deck height of the lower oven was only about 18\u201d off the floor.\u00a0 Tending an oven that low was a pain in the back \u2013 literally \u2013 so The Powers That Be raised the whole stack a few more inches.\u00a0 Still, Bill had a hard time bending down to tend the lower oven. \u00a0And for me, tending the upper oven meant lifting the pies up over my eye level and reaching way back into the back.\u00a0 That\u2019s rough on the shoulder if done for 8 hours (or more) straight.\u00a0 Yeah, OK, I got the occasional break, but still\u2026<\/p>\n So we developed what Gary called The Mutt & Jeff Show.\u00a0 Bill; tall and with long arms, would work the top oven and stand back a bit.\u00a0 I, being a stumpy fellow, would work the lower oven with a short handled peel (I cut it off).\u00a0 By staying close and low I could do my thing at the same time that Bill was doing his.\u00a0 We created a choreographed set of movements that allowed us to do what was needed without getting in one another\u2019s way that was (or so I was told) fascinating to watch.\u00a0 Since on most nights Bill and I were also the Sauce & Cheeser and The Itemizer<\/a>, tending oven was not something we had a lot of time to play with.\u00a0 Getting in and out quickly and efficiently was absolutely necessary.\u00a0 Because of our nearly symbiotic work style, Bill and I were The Dynamic Duo of pizza making and we could turn out more great looking, great tasting pizzas per hour than any other pair in our region.<\/p>\n Eventually we were both promoted into management, but when I look back on my days as a pizza maker, it was those really busy nights where Bill and I performed our pizza-maker\u00a0ballet that I remember as being most fun.\u00a0 Have you ever had a co-worker with whom work just flowed smoothly and naturally because you were so in-sync?\u00a0 Please tell us about it!<\/p>\n http:\/\/dougbittinger.com\/thoughts\/pizza-dude-manager\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this episode – the next to last, for those who are getting bored – I’ll reveal the innermost secrets of the pizza oven-tender. A delivery pizza would not be very much use to you if delivered raw (or burnt to a crisp), so it could be argued that this position is one of the … Continue reading “The Adventures of Pizza Dude: Hot Stuff”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-4016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-adventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4016"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21156,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions\/21156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"pizza,](\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6183\/6085426806_5e2d8dd0d0_m_d.jpg\" "\\"Pizza")
To get the pizzas into and out of the oven, we used a pizza peel \u2013 which looked a little like a giant aluminum fly swatter, but we NEVER swatted flies with it; I swear.\u00a0 The technique was to grab the long wooden handle about half-way along its length so the end of the handle lay under your forearm and gave you leverage.\u00a0 Slide the peel under the completed pizza (on an expanded metal screen) and lift.\u00a0 The peel was quite slick, on a busy night you didn\u2019t have time to move gingerly.\u00a0 To keep the pizza on the peel meant learning to \u201cbank\u201d the peel as you swing around 180\u00b0 to put it in the oven the way a motorcyclist leans into turns to keep from being thrown off the bike, lift the nose as you reach into the oven to prevent the pie from sliding off the end of the peel and splatting all over the back of the oven, then gently deposit it on the deck with a quick backward jerk of the peel.\u00a0 As soon as it was itemized<\/a> the pie\u00a0needed to be in that oven, so we mastered the laws of pizza physics and practically flung those pies into the inferno \u2013 but in a very controlled manner.\u00a0 Well, most of the time\u2026<\/p>\nReady for the final episode?<\/h2>\n