The Ultimate Pizza Manual: Make Pizza Like the Pros... Used To! [Paperback]

Francesco Brunaldo (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 44 pages
• Publisher: Ultimate Culinary Publications (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980034655
• ISBN-13: 978-0980034653
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Pizza
  • #45 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Professional Cooking > Professional
  • #88 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Italian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent crust recipes!, July 28, 2009

By 

Ivan Rivera (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ultimate Pizza Manual: Make Pizza Like the Pros... Used To! (Paperback)

This book is great in every aspect it contains. I dont give it 5 star because its not The Ultimate Pizza Manual cause it only contains plain cheese and sauce pizza recipes. But dont get confused, the information that contains is GOLD!!! especially the crust recipes and preparation techniques! They mean a world of difference for your pizzas!!

Excellent Book!

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY, A book on how to REALLY make GOOD NY pizza at home!, July 29, 2008

By 

P. Fiorino (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ultimate Pizza Manual: Make Pizza Like the Pros... Used To! (Paperback)

Have you ever wondered why you can't make pizza at home as good as you get in a pizza joint? It's because all the pizza cookbooks gloss over critical details and give you easy instructions rather than correct instructions. There's more to making pizza than merely using a stand mixer and an oven stone. This book fills in the rest of the details.

Yes, it is only 44 pages long, but it goes into exhaustive detail all of the minutiae of making a GOOD 18" NY style pizza. Where most "cookbooks" will put a pizza recipe on 1-2 pages, this expands it into 44 pages. Every little tiny subtle detail of every aspect of pizza prep is covered, and there are pictures for everything. Think of it as a comic book with photographs.

The author tells about weighing the dough ingredients, rising the dough, pressing it out, docking it, and prepping it on a screen. In fact, he bakes on a screen, not on a stone. I think this is because the pizza is so darn big that you can't find a stone big enough to fit in your oven, and the 19" screen he recommends takes up every inch of depth in the standard oven.

I have not tried the technique yet (It's July and I am making pizzas in my wood burning oven), but in my opinion, this book has been needed for years. It is short on theory, but it gives enough details, subtle nuances, tips and tricks to avoid all the pitfalls of all the hundreds of useless "make pizza at home" DIY recipes. It is not just another book on how to make "any" pizza. It targets how to specifically make a certain kind of NY-style that closely approximates, if not duplicates, the "pizza by the slice" you get in NYC.

I highly recommend this informative and fascinating picture book. It's short enough to read in a few minutes.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PURE GOLD! 10 STARS! **********, November 24, 2009

By 

THE ULTIMATE PIZZA MANUAL Fan (New York) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ultimate Pizza Manual: Make Pizza Like the Pros... Used To! (Paperback)

First, let me say that I almost NEVER do product reviews. But this book led me to finding the best pizza ever right here in my own kitchen, so I really had to take the time to speak my mind here.

How many pages do you need to learn to make the best pizza? The pages in this book make it clear as crystal. If you don't know the abbreviations for TBS and tsp, don't even go there --- into the kitchen, that is. And we all know ounces of flour is measured by weight and liquid is measured by volume.....right??

It's NOT a "recipe book." It's a pizza manual, professionally produced, for home chefs to make real pizza -- NOT cinnamon buns, NOT french baguettes, NOT pasta. Just real pizza.

That said, there are several incredibly wonderful things about this pizza manual that are so different from any other out there.

Until I learned the tricks in this book, it was previously impossible for me to make a pro thin-crust pizza at home. Deep-dish, too. This book made it easy. But you have to know where to get the stuff you need to make the dough and the wonderful sauce. This is the first book I've read that goes into exhaustive detail (even with web addresses) to tell you exactly what you need and where to find it and even how much it costs. (It even tells you where NOT to go for something and for good reasons.)

It has step by step instructions with all color pictures showing you exactly what to do and what all the steps should LOOK LIKE, not just the final result. I wish all "cookbooks" were made this way, but of course, they are not! I work for a magazine and know this: What cook-chef-author has the financial resources to produce such gorgeous artwork on *every page?!* Plain words on white paper are easy, cheap, and fast (like my "no kneading" bread book that has obviously untested and error-filled recipes).
Pro photography and layout like in this book are time-consuming and expensive. And how about the cost of color printing on every page!! How did Francesco Brunaldo do this??

Like I said, this book should have cost $1200 per ounce for the secrets it contains and the perfect pizza that you get from the simple tricks laid-out clearly in all full color photos.

Wish I could give it 10 stars.

================================

Update 1/22/2011 in response to Seawolf's "review":

Seawolf... First of all, I don't get it... You've changed all the methods and recipes to suit yourself, so why are you reviewing this book at all? None of what you are doing applies to this book.

Secondly, you are "building the pizza on the peel"; this is totally CONTRARY to the instructions in THE ULTIMATE PIZZA MANUAL. This is why you are having the problems you are having...

Water temperature and "fragile" dough: There is no problem with 120-degree water. By the time you use the water after stirring and all (especially in cold weather), the water temperature will drop to 100-110, which is perfect, and the dough WILL blow up like a balloon and will not be "fragile" or difficult to handle if you follow the instructions given in The Ultimate Pizza Manual (kneading, dusting, handing, etc.). I have never had this problem with the Ultimate Pizza Manual dough (other books HAVE given me this problem). The dough is SUPPOSED to be delicate to a certain degree (but NOT fragile) so that you get the wonderful results this book and historical Italian New York pizzas are famous for.

Seawolf...You are dressing and topping dough that can be slid off a pizza peel. This means you are wanting a tougher dough that holds its shape. The reason you are feeling Francesco's dough is "fragile" for YOU because you are trying to slide it off the peel all dressed and topped and that is CONTRARY to the instructions in the book. (The dough WILL mess up YOUR way.) It has nothing to do with the yeast or temperature of the water. One of the major points of the book is to make a large, thin-crust pizza with NO handing problems.

I also spoke to Joan @ King Arthur: The SAF Instant Yeast is regular instant-acting yeast and is the most popular yeast used. It is used for pizza just like any other bread recipe: IN THE WATER. (Most dough recipes also tell you to "proof" the yeast, which here you do not have to do.)

If "Joan" is giving you other methods, then SHE IS MAKING A DIFFERENT pizza, NOT THIS ONE, just like OTHER books' recipes and techniques that DON'T work well.

"Mixing the dough"? You DON'T "MIX" the dough, you KNEAD the dough. FOLLOW The Ultimate Pizza Manual. Why follow "Joan" from King Arthur flour using the flat mixing blade? Why use HER method to review The Ultimate Pizza Manual?? You SHOULDN'T use the flat mixing blade, you MUST use the DOUGH kneading hook. She says 20 minutes is too long. IT'S NOT. 20 minutes is the MINIMUM time to knead. It takes that long for the dough to smooth out and get less sticky and combine thoroughly all the ingredients.

Seawolf...You say you tried her recommendations and they worked great, yet you also say "Still working hard to make the 'perfect' pizza." Doesn't make sense! I guess her methods DO NOT work so "great".

Seawolf...I don't understand why you would want HER recipe and method while using THE ULTIMATE PIZZA MANUAL. I especially don't understand why you would want to MIX THE ULTIMATE PIZZA MANUAL recipes and techniques with someone else's. It just doesn't make ANY sense.

Oven temperature: Seawolf...Don't use 600 degrees!! Follow The Ultimate Pizza Manual. Why why why are you changing everything??? Doesn't make sense!

Nothing you are doing matches what the ULTIMATE PIZZA MANUAL tells you to do. Why are you reviewing it??

Still working hard to make the 'perfect' pizza?? WHY? FOLLOW THE ULTIMATE PIZZA MANUAL. That's what it's for: so you don't have to work hard to get a perfect pizza. (I'm making one right now, while I type this. It almost makes itself. :)