Starting a pizza place, Part 3: CRUST SECRET, toppings, t-shirts 

I like this series. Other youtubers will make a ghost kitchen and not even talk about how the food is made and Adam makes a whole video series about the process

Adam: we're starting to work on a marketing plan Me, already concocting an excuse to visit Tennessee: oh, the marketing hasn't started yet?

Don't hate too much on your old pizza videos. The one where you cook the pizza directly on the oven rack under the broiler is a go to recipe for me. I make it all the time and everyone is always impressed with it.

Let's goooooo. Best series in my feed right now

1:10 Adam it's very unprofessional to not introduce your co-host

The discussion on toppings and the amount is on point. It's an important discussion to have with employees too. Not only is controlling food costs immensely important for the financial viability of a restaurant, but the inconsistent application of toppings has a huge impact on customer satisfaction. You don't have to drive home the financial aspects to every employee (most won't care), but explaining why it's important to be consistent is generally picked up on. If your oven isn't set up to pile on toppings, the dough doesn't cook. Both of the last two pizzas I had, ordered from different places, were overloaded and had raw dough. It's gross. I don't want to order from either place again. Employees may think they're being nice to a customer, but the recipe is designed the way it is, to work with the equipment you have, to the price point you've worked out, to produce the result you have found to be what you want. Change it too much and things don't turn out right. People want consistency when they go out. Overload or under load the pizza and they don't get what they expect, leading to dissatisfaction.

Huh, you managed to capture comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) at 1:21 Neat!

Thank you for including pupper in your vid Adam 👌🏻

I still think your pizza in a home oven videos are great, useful for people like me who just can't afford or make space for an actual pizza oven :)

this is so cool, i've watched countless food videos but this is such a unique and interesting topic, a resturant expanding its menu and the slow creation of that recipe, 10/10

I live in Germany, but I grew up in Farragut. My dad still lives there. I'll have to tell him to check the place out and let me know how it is.

I think a cool name for your dough could be “Damascus dough” like the steel where it has so many different layers. But that’s just a random thought of mine 😂

If there's a grand opening I wonder how many people there will be fans of the channel! Personally I'm 3+ hours away from Knoxville but I'd make the trip.

Everybody’s talking about the pizza but not enough people are talking about POPTART!!!

FINALLY the return of the best series 🙏

I feel like the pan you are using at Status Dough vs the screen you use at home probably makes a significant difference. Would be interesting to see that pan used at home for as close of a comparison as possible.

I love the process in experimenting and iterating on each recipe in order to arrive at a great, repeatable final product. It seems to me that a lot of new places open up without doing much of this, instead of maximizing their potential. Consumers are expecting better food more and more and this is the way to go about it. I'm on the other side of the country, but I really want to try this pizza!

You know, I thought the same thing about the ovens. But a few weeks ago I moved into a new place, and the oven I've got here is old and I wouldn't even describe it as good. But it lets me position my pizza steel less than 10cm from the broiler (Brits would call it a grill), and my pizza here tastes *pretty much* like every Neapolitan pizza style restaurant I've been to. I always thought the absence of wood fire would make a huge difference, buit it's really just the heat that carries that smoky flavor. I think the key is not to rely on convection heat to heat your steel and cook your pizza, but to use the broiler. Guys, don't get discouraged by Adam. If I can do it in my shitt oven, so can you. 80% hydration and a preheated pizza steel have done the trick for me in my very average oven. You can do it too!

I have absolutely loved this series. Every episode is must-watch, I sit down and watch as soon as I can.

Adam, I used to work in the pizza industry. Dont know the model Middleby Masrshall you have, but some of them allow you to move around the "fingers" that heat/flame enters the cook area. You can change to be heavier heat from the top or bottom at certain times in the belt. Not something one normally wants to play with, but I do recall I time we did because we went with a difference cheese blend for awhile.

Next, replicating the Hudson river water

Give me status dough updates straight into my veins

This is exactly why I love using a pizza stone or a cast iron pan when making pizza at home. It's the best way to get a nicely browned, crispy bottom

When topping with raw mushrooms and peppers, I slice them thin earlier in the day and lay them out so that they air dry somewhat during the day. Much less water release when I bake pizzas for dinner. For raw peppers in particular, they really come out even better if I season them with olive oil & salt right before topping. And I disagree about home oven pizza vs. commercial ovens. My home oven pizza on a steel is objectively better than >90% of pizzeria pizzas here in the Boston area. But I've also been baking pizzas & experimenting for over 40 years.

Why I season my pizza place not my pizza.

This video series is so clearly a ploy for Adam to engage in his passions for a meager outlook of financial gain.

4:10 No idea if this is well supported or completely stupid, but I think we're seeing more depression and similar mental issues the more free time we have available. When we're constantly in a "work/run or die/starve" mentality there isn't so much time for distressing or depressing thoughts. Most people work less than half the day now, and have negligable chances of starving, leaves plenty of time to contemplate a wide variety of thoughts -- thoughts the human mind didn't evolve to cope with naturally. Good on you for recognizing any struggles, getting help, and being honest about it. That's how we're all going to get past this, working together, same way we've solved almost all our large societal problems.

The grate you used is actually for keeping the pizza above the heat to stop browning from the stone, before the top can finish

Wish You the Best of luck on this! Your pizza videos are the Best 🍕🍕🍕🍕

Favourite series on RU-vid please keep making these

I am strangely invested in this series. Was super happy when this popped up in my feed

8:00 I once ordered a pizza with half mushrooms because the person I was splitting it with doesn’t like them. I’m pretty sure they took the normal amount of mushrooms (which was already a lot) and put them on half the pizza, because when it came to the table you couldn’t pick up a slice without the weight of mushrooms causing the cheese layer to just slide off. 1/10 do not recommend.

Regarding the mushroom pizza, you could also try drizzling the finished pie with a little garlic infused olive oil! Might look kinda nice as garnish too

My favorite saga continues!

Try adding a bit of powdered malt vinegar into your pizza dough. I use 3g for my 161g of '0 flour. It seems to add a touch of nuttiness - not sour. I sometimes go up to 6g. I live in 420 sqft house with 7' ceiling. Even a place to store a portable pizza oven isn't going to happen for me.

You should try Bay Bolete (I'm using translation it's podgrzybek in Polish) it's often pickled in vinegar like onion

sleeeeeepy doggy ❤️❤️

This is a great series, would like longer episodes including more details about other aspects of the business as well. Like the repairs you were mentioning.

Interesting, I love it

I'm going to be driving through eastern Tennessee in about a month for a work trip... Low-key considering a quick detour to Farragut to try status pizza

great video as always adam love this series and looking forward to the next ep

Try salting mushrooms (slightly) instead of frying them before adding into pizza, they'll give out some liquid and you can use that liquid into broth or other stuff.

I am gonna enjoy this, thanks for the upload Adam man

What's sad is that a lot of apartment guests don't correctly prep their ovens once they moved in or got a fresh oven from the landlord. In Europe electric goes to 250c and fan-electric goes to 275c. If you turn your oven to the max and it either starts a fire inside the oven or you get a smoldering smell in the apartment. It means the previous resident or yourself never "burned" the back in the day new stove in. So there's fat residue on the heaters causing flames or the fabric oils has been limited by a lower temperature. Fan-electric perfectly operating at 275c works amazing for pizza long as you have a a pizza stone or steel. The top element is hot as hell and you get at perfectly blistered upper layer in 4 minutes with a crispy bottom.

Your restaurant venture is a great reality show. Keep it up.

Currently live about 45min away and I definitely plan to stop by once the pizza drops.

Da dad king is back baby he neva miss we're eating good today y'all

Was just watching part 2 last night

Adam, there is an easy way to cook a pizza like a pro in a cheap home electric oven. I do it all the time. I have a cheap, 2005 GE Home-Depot $200 electric oven (purchased off the loading dock with a ding, so I got it for under $200) with the plug-in generic burners. I have rigged it to reach 700-F with good pizza stones, by simply not repairing it when the thermostat broke, leaving it with just an on/off switch. It broke when I first experimented with heating up the oven to 700F by using the broiler element, which isn't on the thermostat circuit. The thermostat can't handle 700F, FYI, so it turns into a mechanical toggle switch. I guess you could also cut the thermostat sensor thing at the switch so it doesn't enter the oven. It's easy to make perfect crust this way. I use the oven at 700F for the first 90-120 seconds, remove it to put a 9" pizza-pan homemade shield over the cheese of the 12" pie, and put it under the ~800F broiler blast to brown the crust while not ruining the cheese, for the last 30 seconds or so, spinning it a bit. It's the same thing the experts do in a real wood pizza oven, spinning the pie from the peel and getting each spot of crust browned next to the fire, but not dense and ruined, only they can go to 800-850F for the whole cooking. 700F initial cooking is enough for pizza crust that is better than the local pizza delivery places. Pizza crust fluffs up for the first two minutes if you prepare the dough correctly with a poofy rim, and it starts deflating and gets denser (worse) after two minutes. So you pull the pie out when max fluffy and moist but just starting to be browned, with the cheese melted and sweet, and then do the shield/broiler trick to carefully finish the crust browning. It's the best of both worlds. Any cheap home electric oven can be cheaply converted like this. It's no more dangerous than any other oven. It won't catch fire at 700F, just like your table-top Ooni won't catch fire if you don't abuse it. The metal and insulation in there is not at risk of sudden conflagration. And on bake it seems to top off at maybe 725F or so in normal ambient conditions. 650F is easy to sustain throughout cooking. This is less dangerous than doing a stir-fry using good wok techniques, where they really are playing with fire in the house. I don't think it's dangerous; I've been cooking at 700F for five years now, for over 300 pizza batches. I can make fluffy moist airy crust with a crispy crunchy browned thin surface layer with no problem. It took me five years to arrive at this level, but now it's very easy. The shield, made of a 9" $3 aluminum pizza pan with three small drilled holes and elevated by three 2" thin slot screws with hex and wing nuts, is the key. It allows you to stop browning the whole pizza and just brown the edges under the broiler, which probably reaches 800F on the top stone after getting it red-hot for 30 seconds after the oven was already 650F (the temp after cooking the pizza for 2 minutes).

I'm loving these videos, so cool to see this forming. On getting brown pizza crust in a home oven, I've been experimenting for a few years too, at first I was only using pizza stones and had pretty good results, similar to what you show in your videos. I use your pizza dough recipe. But one day I didn't have time to preheat the stone and just used a cheap metal pan and got the best crust I've ever gotten. Amazing colour and texture. I haven't used a pizza stone since haha. So much easier. I'm guessing the quick heat transfer makes this possible? I use these light grey matte pans.

I had just eaten lunch before watching this but after watching all the shots of baking pizza and eating pizza, oh man, I want to eat some pizza!!

Thanks for the update. Damn, that pizza looks good! I’ll be frying my mushrooms with garlic from now on. Thanks for the tip

Adam. I like where you are going with this professional pizza adventure. Also, the graphic design for the brand is amazing. 🎉

Try slightly dehydrating them on a fridge.

Check out America's Test Kitchen video "The Cheesiest, Crispiest Pizza is Also the Easiest" from the "What’s Eating Dan?" series. Dan discusses a technique of microwaving the veg for a minute or so to eliminate some of the water, those veg are not fully cooked, so it might be the technique your looking for. He discusses it toward the end of the video. Hope that helps. Cheers!

That pizza looks delicious. 🤤 🍕 Heck yeah - looks like things are going great so far!

12:23 I agree, the blue looks like mold.

Hey Adam, would it be realistic to incorporate local indigenous ingredients as substitutes for typical ones? Or maybe even recipes developed for your region/adapted cuisines of other regions such as BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza: BBQ sauce base, pulled pork, caramelized Vidalia onions, Tennessee cheddar, and a sprinkle of fresh thyme or Country Ham & Collard Green Pizza: White sauce, country ham, sautéed collard greens, fresh mozzarella, and a drizzle of olive oil. Maybe some kind of bison meats used in a specialty pizza? I really like the idea of a pulled pork pizza with your doughnut type dough but still not being crazy heavy with your cooking style.

7:05-7:29 Be careful, this is how the Titan submersible imploded.

If you're going to cook toppings like peppers and mushrooms you need to try dry roasting them.

It really is the oven that makes the difference. Its why typical "American" is always so "greasy" compared to "Italian" pizza. Most places in America cook pizza in Electric/Gas Ovens that get nowhere near as hot as a Coal/Wood Oven. The key is to get the dough cooked and crispy before the cheese splits and seeps out grease everywhere.

Congrats, one day if we're local we're sure to visit. Good luck on your venture!

1:49 the restaurant isn’t even opened yet and you’re sharing your secret recipe

I am pumped to come try this when it is available. I will gladly drive across the state just to try your pizza and finish it off with some Cruze Farms ice cream.

A great place I know uses a bit of truffle oil with mushroom pizza, it comes out so good!!!

I never get down that way but if I ever do I’d love to stop in and check it out! And now I’m craving pizza again 😂

The way the Factor containers will almost melt sometimes when microwaved has always weirded me out, so I simply transfer the meal to a glass container(shoutout Ello) designed for meal prep before I head to work. I've loved every meal that tried so far from Factor and they make it so easy to stick to your diet!

Adam ragusea starting pizza place before gta 6

I accidentally made the best pizza I've ever made last night. I was letting my 2 year old help me measure out ingredients, and I forgot to add salt until AFTER the first rise. Sprinkled a couple big pinches directly onto the dough, gave it a quick re-knead to incorporate the salt, and let rise again for another hour. I don't know if it was the double rise, adding the salt later, or a combination of the two, but the crumb and chew of the dough was FANTASTIC. Used my regular 68% hydration for pan pizza. If you don't have a pizza oven, I would highly recommend sticking to pan pizza for home cooks. It's the best way to get that intense heat transfer into the crust so the dough is fully baked and browned before the cheese breaks. Start it off on the stove until you hear a light sizzle, then into a 450°F oven for 10-15 minutes. I find carbon steel works a bit better than cast iron, since the thinner carbon steel heats up significantly faster.

With a steel at home without the pizza screen you can get really good amount of colour at even 250C/482F, even better and faster at 275C/527F. Easier with wooden peel than with a metal one. Convection if available!

So would keeping all but the mushrooms raw help with the moisture & flavor of the pizza given that everything else will be raw before baking?

Good luck Adam!

Maybe you can make a garlic oil and a chili oil for your costumers. so they can put it on the pizza like they want. Nothing fancy, just grated raw garlic in oliveoil and grated dry chili in olive oil, wich you let infuse for 24 hours. Love this and brings the pizza everytime to the next level.

9:24 you can cook the veggies for the toppings in the oven in a pan could work

Just got some status dough today with my fam on Bearden Hill. Can’t wait to try some pizza soon.

Adam I'm going to be in Knoxville in early November so if this could go ahead and open before then that'd be greeeeeeaaaattt...

Have you guys tried parsley dehydrating the peppers before you put them on? So they're not soggy and cooked but they'll less water

Would be sooo cool if I drop by and it's an Adam Ragusea baking day!

ive been wating for this video for ages this is like a dragon ball arc

The side by side pizza/donut is cute. Pair it with a side by side slogan: “Made fresh daily” and “Made fresh nightly” next to the donut and pizza respectively. Conveys a lot about your brand and it’s catchy.

Part 3 sponsored by: S Q U A R E S P A C E

One thing to consider is food allergens. My wife loves mushrooms but can't digest garlic, fresh garlic makes it worse. If you are going to marinate the mushrooms or cook them, please make sure that is labeled as such.

I live in lenoir city and can't wait to try the pizza

A few months ago I bought myself an electric (meaning, indoor) pizza oven (Ariete 909, was around 100 euros on Amazon). It's small, which I wanted because I live in a small apartment, and not super powerful (1300w), but it gets to 400C in 8-10 minutes, and gets a pizza made in 5 minutes once hot. It's not comparable to a proper pizza made by expert pizza chefs in big beefy pizza ovens, but it's 80% of the way to one and that's good enough for me. Because I seem to be losing my lactose tolerance, I use grated Gouda for my cheese, and sometimes I sprinkle a bit of Grana Padano on top if the toppings are not as flavourful. Someday I have to learn to make my own dough, but for now the raw pizza rolls I get at the supermarket are plenty good enough. Personally, I prefer semi-caramelized onion to raw onion, but I use "raw" (smoked, so not raw) bacon, raw ground beef, and such. Chicken I cook first when the bits are bigger, just for my own peace of mind because I don't want that undercooked, but if I used thin slices I would just add it raw.

Good job buddy ❤👍 Good content!

I agree that a commercial pizza oven is great, but i honestly prefer my home-oven optimized pizza recipe to a lot of pies i get from restaurants. They get good texture for longer, but they too often slack on dough, sauce, and topping flavor. My solution is just to eat my home pizzas as soon as i make them lol.

Looks like you're trying to make a Chicago Style Tavern pizza. Nothing is better than that except for Deep Dish.

Puuuuupppppppyyy! Adam great video about pizza and temp difference. But uh.... PUPPPPPPPYYYYYYY!

Basically telling me I can't make pizza at home anymore... I suppose it IS cheaper to just go to the local pizza joint rather than buy the tomato sauce, buy the right cheese, the flour, the pizza oven, deal with the electric bill etc.🙄

Is it good? Well, yeah. I guess. Personally, I like thick crusts with lots of stuff, but yours sounds good, too. But it also sounds really expensive with the extra labor you've built into your product. I know, I'm supposed to be encouraging, but I'm going with truthful. Anyway, I really do wish you luck and success.

Looking forward to trying out Status Dough, hopefully when we're in the area in February. I urge you folks *not* to require the tavern style cut (square pieces). A local chain farther northeast in Tennessee has great pies, but refuse to pie cut (triangular slices with crust on each), so we rarely go there any longer.

Any thoughts on the usefulness of an air fryer for pizza-making? Also, do mushrooms respond to brining the way meat does, by becoming less likely to release moisture when cooked? If so, maybe that's how/when to add garlic

I used Gigio the Pizza Guy on RU-vid's technique to get neapolitan pizza at home: Basically, it's to cook it on the stovetop for a little bit before throwing it under the broiler with pizza stone as high as it can go for 2 minutes, and I get that leopard crust

I'm interested in the kind of decisions you're having to make to get the pizza to be just right, because they are ones it may be hard to automate or move up to scale. This reflects that common experience of having a place start something and having it be special at one location, but less so as it expands, even before they start optimizing for reducing price. Any ideas about how to scale the decisions you're making?

thats brilliant

once the pizza sets in the home oven, TAKE IT OFF THE SCREEN

I wasn't this invested in a series since Colin's Furze's hole.

Just recently watched the video explaining why you stopped with the podcast. Sad to see it go, but happy if it helps keeping you going. I like your content regardless of what you talk about, but I'd love to see longer format videos with you just chatting away with you friends and especially with wife, the last one I watched made me lose it over sucking on a chilly dog and the indeed ad. Awesome content.

Poptart: I love your voice dad, but could you please just let me sleep?

Something I've always wondered: where is the humidity control in ovens? Surely how much moisture is in the air affects everything, but I've never seen that