When New York Best first opened in late 2011, the Diacono brothers’s goal was to bring the Big Apple’s favourite fast foods to the island in an authentic manner. The boys’s obsession with perfecting their product resulted in quite a unique take on American classics and people soon started raving about (most of all) their burgers. Dissatisfied with this focus on only a fraction of the menu, Tom and Nick decided to dig deeper and push the envelope with regards to their pizza section, while still keeping the fun fast food feel the brand has become known for.
Few people in Malta understand how big (both in size and popularity) the pizza “pie” is in New York City, especially Brooklyn. The borough’s massive Italian settlement meant that pizzerias started sprouting up as early as 1905, keeping in mind that the first ever pizzeria in the world (from Napoli, of course) was only founded some fifty years before.
Today the term “New York Style Pizza” can be found in every city across the globe. But what exactly is a New York Style Pizza? Firstly, it is bigger – between two to three times the size of the classic pizza to which we are accustomed. Secondly, its toppings are limited, both in quantity and variety – a truly “less is more” approach. Thirdly, the pizza sauce is a marinara (and no, there is no fish in this one) – just a basic tomato and garlic simmered salsa. The name “marinara” comes from its history as being the sailors food of choice (because it was cheap). And as for the cheese, the New York Style Pizza moves away from the salty yellowish type, to a more honest milky mozzarella. Mouth-watering.
As any pizza aficionado knows, however, the foundation of any respectable pizza is the dough. Or, as the Yanks call it, the crust. The crowning jewel of the pizza eating experience, the crust must be a perfect balance of chewy versus crunchy (too chewy and it is a pancake, too crunchy and it is a cracker with a soggy middle). The complexities of making great pizza dough are frankly, mind boggling. Factors such as climate variations, water hardness and dependable suppliers are basic obstacles to deal with, not to mention other challenges such as being able to provide a consistent product all day long, rather than at specific meal times, like most restaurants.
Somehow – which is another story altogether – the boys got their hands on a century old slow-rise sourdough recipe and with a little expert help from a family friend, the R&D phase began. As suggested by the name, slow-rise sourdough means that the dough, rather than “proofed” (a bakers term for levitation time) in a warm ambient is instead left in a cool dark (and controlled) environment for a much longer period, twenty-four hours to be precise. Yes, that’s right, a whole twenty-four hours.
This speciality baking technique secures an unmistakable wheat flavour and gives the pizza a unique depth and texture. This is the reason why we limit our toppings vis a vis quantity AND variety (per pizza) (<
