A Nerdy Quest
So Zach and I have been having a great nerdy conversation via email and phone over the last few days, and after realizing that our friends are nerdy too, we have decided to bring you all up to speed and ask for your input and help.
The subject of our conversation has been focaccia, or more specifically, Punch Pizza focaccia. For those of you who are not familiar with Punch, it is small chain of neopolitan pizza joints in the Twin Cities area. They make great pizza and better focaccia. So great is their focaccia, in fact, that I have become a little obsessed with replicating it in my own kitchen.
Before I tried making Punch-style focaccia, however, I thought I’d ask one of the Punch employees if I was chasing rainbows. You see, Punch uses a 900 degree wood-fired brick oven to cook its pizzas and focaccias in about ninety seconds, something I would not be able to do. I approached the manager, and the following conversation ensued:
Me: “Hi. I like your focaccia and I want to try making it.”
Friendly-Looking Manager: “We don’t talk about our recipe.”
Me (not surprised): “I figured that. I don’t want your recipe. I just want to know if it tastes so good because of how you cook it.”
Friendly-Looking But Not Really So Friendly Manager: “We don’t talk about our recipe.”
Me (a little annoyed): “I understand that. I’m not asking for your recipe. I just want to know if I need to buy or build a large wood-fired brick oven in my apartment.
Rat-Looking and Not So Friendly Manager: “We don’t talk about our recipe.”
Me (with an anger-twitch disfiguring my otherwise classic features): “Ok. Listen. Just answer this question: does your focaccia taste so good because of your UNAVAILABLE recipe or because of your giant oven?”
Rat Manager: “We don’t talk about our recipe.”
Me (looking at him like I look at the radio whenever I hear Matchbox 20 being barfed out onto the airwaves): “You’re an idiot.”
Ok, so I didn’t say that last line, but I sure thought it, and as I walked out I vowed to return someday knowing that I had defeated the Rat Manager and his stupid pre-recorded response by making my own delicious chewy Punch-style focaccia.
Well, the quest started with much fan-fare, as so many do, but quickly ran into trouble. The first attempts resulted in a thick, crispy focaccia that, while tasty, was nowhere near the tactile taste explosion ignited by the flat, chewy Punch version. After many failed loafs, I despaired of ever vanquishing the Rat Manager.
That is, until a chance encounter reignited the fire in my heart. I was explaining my love of the movie Army of Darkness in general and the character Ash in particular to my students. An Irish kid, who happens to resemble the Rat Manager, was not impressed and exclaimed, in his wonderful highland lilt, “Fock Ash! Ah!”
As I paddled the boy, I was struck by how eerily similar his epithet was to the word ‘focaccia’. Inspired, I contacted Zach and asked him some questions, hoping his vast knowledge of all things bread related would help me overcome the obstacles I had encountered in my previous attempts.
Zach responded quickly, and after spending a few days reading through his emails, I was ready to try again. This snowy Saturday has provided perfect conditions for some quest-inspired baking, and my first new attempts are in the oven right now. I know Zach gave set off on his own branch of the quest a few days ago, so perhaps the Rat Manager has already been defeated. Anyway, depending on the success of these loaves, one or both of us will post recipes. In the meantime, does anyone have any advice?
The subject of our conversation has been focaccia, or more specifically, Punch Pizza focaccia. For those of you who are not familiar with Punch, it is small chain of neopolitan pizza joints in the Twin Cities area. They make great pizza and better focaccia. So great is their focaccia, in fact, that I have become a little obsessed with replicating it in my own kitchen.
Before I tried making Punch-style focaccia, however, I thought I’d ask one of the Punch employees if I was chasing rainbows. You see, Punch uses a 900 degree wood-fired brick oven to cook its pizzas and focaccias in about ninety seconds, something I would not be able to do. I approached the manager, and the following conversation ensued:
Me: “Hi. I like your focaccia and I want to try making it.”
Friendly-Looking Manager: “We don’t talk about our recipe.”
Me (not surprised): “I figured that. I don’t want your recipe. I just want to know if it tastes so good because of how you cook it.”
Friendly-Looking But Not Really So Friendly Manager: “We don’t talk about our recipe.”
Me (a little annoyed): “I understand that. I’m not asking for your recipe. I just want to know if I need to buy or build a large wood-fired brick oven in my apartment.
Rat-Looking and Not So Friendly Manager: “We don’t talk about our recipe.”
Me (with an anger-twitch disfiguring my otherwise classic features): “Ok. Listen. Just answer this question: does your focaccia taste so good because of your UNAVAILABLE recipe or because of your giant oven?”
Rat Manager: “We don’t talk about our recipe.”
Me (looking at him like I look at the radio whenever I hear Matchbox 20 being barfed out onto the airwaves): “You’re an idiot.”
Ok, so I didn’t say that last line, but I sure thought it, and as I walked out I vowed to return someday knowing that I had defeated the Rat Manager and his stupid pre-recorded response by making my own delicious chewy Punch-style focaccia.
Well, the quest started with much fan-fare, as so many do, but quickly ran into trouble. The first attempts resulted in a thick, crispy focaccia that, while tasty, was nowhere near the tactile taste explosion ignited by the flat, chewy Punch version. After many failed loafs, I despaired of ever vanquishing the Rat Manager.
That is, until a chance encounter reignited the fire in my heart. I was explaining my love of the movie Army of Darkness in general and the character Ash in particular to my students. An Irish kid, who happens to resemble the Rat Manager, was not impressed and exclaimed, in his wonderful highland lilt, “Fock Ash! Ah!”
As I paddled the boy, I was struck by how eerily similar his epithet was to the word ‘focaccia’. Inspired, I contacted Zach and asked him some questions, hoping his vast knowledge of all things bread related would help me overcome the obstacles I had encountered in my previous attempts.
Zach responded quickly, and after spending a few days reading through his emails, I was ready to try again. This snowy Saturday has provided perfect conditions for some quest-inspired baking, and my first new attempts are in the oven right now. I know Zach gave set off on his own branch of the quest a few days ago, so perhaps the Rat Manager has already been defeated. Anyway, depending on the success of these loaves, one or both of us will post recipes. In the meantime, does anyone have any advice?
posted by A Good Meal | 11:57 AM
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