How New York's best pizzeria makes 140,000 pizzas in its coal-fired oven every year

Insider

We visited Grimaldi's to see how they make their pizzas from start to finish.

Transcript

00:00 This is just a fraction of the 140,000 pizzas

00:04 Grimaldi's makes every year.

00:06 For the past 30 years, the Brooklyn-based pizzeria

00:11 has stuck to classic recipes

00:13 and kept a veteran team of pizzaiolos.

00:16 Today, you'll find kitchen manager Tony Flugel

00:20 and his team of pizzaiolos hand-stretching 500 pies a day,

00:25 slicing 200 pounds of fresh mozzarella,

00:28 and working a 1,000-degree oven.

00:31 It's a series of marathons for us

00:33 because we have to make sure that we're prepared

00:35 for the next shift, the next day, the next week,

00:38 to keep up with the demand at the door.

00:41 We visited Grimaldi's flagship pizzeria

00:44 in Brooklyn, New York,

00:45 to see how he makes these pies in such big batches.

00:49 At 9 in the morning, Tony and his team get started

00:56 making a 33-roll dough recipe.

00:59 The mixer is loaded with olive oil,

01:01 New York City tap water, activated yeast,

01:04 and 50 pounds of high-gluten flour.

01:07 So, we have it preset for five minutes.

01:12 It's on a low-spin cycle, OK?

01:14 And what we do is we sprinkle salt on top of our flour.

01:23 Five minutes later, we have our famous dough recipe.

01:27 Once mixed, the dough needs to be cut,

01:31 weighed, and shaped into balls within 30 minutes

01:34 so it doesn't rise.

01:36 For this, Tony relies on the most experienced

01:39 pizzaiolos at Grimaldi's.

01:42 Tony: They're cutting each and everything

01:44 to the same size every day.

01:45 It's almost like muscle memory at this point,

01:47 where the scale's not even needed.

01:49 You know, they know what they're doing,

01:51 and it's almost like a healthy competition

01:53 down here to a race.

01:54 Like, "Let's go, come on, keep up with me.

01:56 I'm rolling.

01:57 You gotta cut faster. Let's go."

02:00 Another skill that's hard to master

02:02 is rolling the perfect dough ball.

02:03 So, we're rolling the dough,

02:07 and we're making sure that it's a smooth outer layer

02:10 as well as making sure that there's no air inside.

02:13 So, for example, you know, if you're rolling it

02:15 and you're just gonna meatball it

02:17 and you're just gonna put it like this down,

02:19 it's gonna rise and it's gonna thin out the middle,

02:21 and then the pizza, when you pick it up,

02:23 that's when it flops down.

02:24 So, Grimaldi is known for a nice, hard-layered crust

02:27 that is the texture.

02:29 It's the base.

02:30 It's the most important thing to the pizza.

02:32 It's, you know, the foundation to the house.

02:35 No foundation, no pizza.

02:37 This batch of dough is enough to make 65 to 75 pizzas,

02:43 which is just a fraction

02:44 of what will be needed for the day.

02:46 Once all of the trays are filled,

02:50 they're taken across the hall to these fridges.

02:53 So, this is only the dough that was made last night, OK?

02:57 So, this is getting ready for our first few hours

02:59 in Grimaldi's, and then we'll start fresh,

03:01 probably go through the first batch that we made today,

03:04 and then as well as another eight or nine

03:07 for the night shift.

03:08 In 2011, Grimaldi's moved into its current location.

03:12 The double-story palazzo building

03:14 on Number 1 Front Street was originally built

03:17 to be Brooklyn's first safety deposit company.

03:20 Now, Grimaldi's fridges sit in the same place

03:23 as the old vaults.

03:25 So, I think that's really cool

03:26 that we made them into our own vaults.

03:29 So, basically, it protects our gold,

03:31 and this is our gold right here.

03:33 Next, it's time to make the sauce.

03:39 Large cans of San Marzano tomatoes

03:41 are poured into buckets, topped with sugar, and blended.

03:46 For us, we use a one-day shelf life,

03:49 so we're just trying to keep it marinating

03:51 for a few hours, if not a full day,

03:53 and it's going right onto our pizza.

03:55 So, we like to keep it as fresh as possible.

03:57 It's nice, thick, and imported tomatoes.

04:01 Grimaldi's goes through about 700 quarts

04:04 of tomatoes every week, or roughly 662.4 liters.

04:09 Upstairs, 200 mozzarella balls are cut into thin strips,

04:15 a process that's gone unchanged since opening.

04:18 The Grimaldi's cheese is very special.

04:20 It's made only for Grimaldi's,

04:22 so nowhere else in the world can get our flavor profile

04:25 that we're doing on our mozzarella.

04:27 It is a low-moisture, low-sodium, UV-dried fresh mozzarella,

04:32 so it can withstand the high, intense heat of our oven

04:35 and be cooked and melted to perfection

04:37 in a short amount of time.

04:39 By the end of the week, Grimaldi's will hand-slice

04:42 around 2,000 pounds of mozzarella.

04:46 An hour before opening, Grimaldi's restocks its coal

04:49 so they can relight the oven.

04:52 OK, so right now, he's throwing 40-pound bags

04:54 of anthracite coal into the bottom

04:57 of our oven chute right over here,

04:58 so we keep about anywhere from 10 to 12 bags

05:01 down there at a time.

05:02 And what we're doing is, for at least a day or more,

05:04 we try and dry out our coal to make sure

05:06 that it's burning a little cleaner, easier,

05:09 it's not popping from the inside,

05:11 you know, on top of pizzas, et cetera,

05:13 as it starts to heat up.

05:15 It makes our stoking process and our oven

05:17 heat up a little bit quicker, too.

05:18 The pizzeria keeps embers in the brick oven overnight,

05:22 so it stays warm.

05:25 So, right now, we have a grate inside of our oven.

05:27 It's holding our coal up, but he's right now flipping it

05:30 and getting rid of all the old coal.

05:32 The reason why we don't clean it out at nighttime

05:34 is because we want to make sure

05:35 that it stays warm overnight,

05:37 because it's gonna take too many hours

05:39 to heat up our floor.

05:41 When the charcoal ignites,

05:42 the team begins shoveling 200 pounds of coal

05:45 into the side of the oven.

05:47 Compared to wood, anthracite coal burns longer,

05:51 hotter, and with less smoke.

05:53 You can't get a gas oven or a wood oven

05:55 up to 1,000 degrees the way we can.

05:58 So, we're able to get a different,

06:00 not only flavor profile from the coal,

06:02 but we're also getting a different profile

06:04 from the heat and intensity that that pizza is going under.

06:08 When the doors open at 11.30 a.m.,

06:10 it's all hands on deck to fill orders.

06:14 To be an official Grimaldi's pie,

06:16 it needs to be made a certain way.

06:19 Unlike most pizzerias,

06:20 Grimaldi's built its pizza cheese-first.

06:24 Slices of mozzarella are evenly placed around the dough,

06:27 and the gaps are then filled with sauce.

06:30 The pizza is then baked in a preheated oven

06:32 at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

06:35 And the gaps are then filled with sauce.

06:38 So, when it melts together,

06:39 you're seeing a little bit of both,

06:41 but you're also getting a bite of not too much sauce,

06:45 not too much cheese.

06:46 So, that's what we're looking for with Grimaldi's.

06:48 Specialty toppings range from hand-pinched Italian sausage

06:52 to thinly sliced prosciutto and artichokes.

06:56 And most pies are finished off

06:57 with a sprinkling of the Grimaldi's Romano blend,

07:01 extra virgin olive oil,

07:02 and a few pieces of fresh basil.

07:05 To help streamline the cooking process,

07:07 Grimaldi's uses a two-shelf system.

07:10 So, we have a pre-stretch

07:12 and then a stretching and cheese section on this side,

07:14 where pre-stretching cheese in,

07:16 throwing them on the first shelf right here.

07:18 Everyone standing on this side is a topper,

07:20 so that means they're putting on the toppings

07:21 and the sauce on,

07:22 they're finishing it off with the olive oil, the basil,

07:25 and then finishing it off by putting it on the top shelf.

07:28 The top shelf is so the oven guy knows

07:30 that they're ready to go in the oven.

07:33 Working a coal oven takes years of experience to master.

07:37 From memorizing cook times to keeping a consistent heat,

07:41 it's not easy to make a perfect pie.

07:44 So, what we're doing is we're loading them in,

07:46 we're closing the door right away,

07:47 we're giving it a pop of heat to the bottom of the pizza

07:50 so we can actually move it around

07:51 without ripping it or anything like that.

07:53 What's rare about Brooklyn

07:54 is that we use this copper stick right here.

07:56 You know, it's very important with this high heat,

07:58 if you're using a wooden stick,

07:59 they're just breaking and wearing and tearing

08:01 and drying out nonstop.

08:03 Especially when you're picking up a heavy pizza.

08:05 So, you can see, it's only been about 60 seconds

08:08 and they're already rising up.

08:10 So, basically, I'm making sure that I can pick them up,

08:13 give them a small spin,

08:15 and then I'm actually just moving them

08:16 into position right here.

08:17 The high heat means that the pizzas

08:22 only need a few minutes to cook.

08:24 Water in the dough evaporates quickly,

08:26 creating air bubbles and leaving behind

08:29 a light, airy texture in the crust,

08:32 while charcoal gives the pizza a charred,

08:34 slightly smoky flavor and a crunchy texture.

08:37 Outside, people begin queuing and waiting

08:43 up to an hour to get a table.

08:46 And 16 minutes after opening,

08:48 the first and third stories of the restaurant

08:51 are practically full.

08:52 On the dining floor, you'll find servers

08:56 with over 20 years of experience

08:58 and a good sense of humor.

09:00 Oh, mommy, I'm hungry!

09:02 Boom.

09:05 You got it, papa.

09:06 While Grimaldi's has an established clientele,

09:10 a vast majority of its business

09:12 comes from tour groups.

09:14 Since 2005, Tony Muglia, who runs Pizza Tours,

09:18 has been coming to showcase Grimaldi's pizza.

09:21 So, if I can describe Grimaldi's in three words,

09:25 it would probably be legendary,

09:28 authentic, and beloved,

09:30 just 'cause people love Grimaldi's.

09:31 The key to making a great pizza is passion.

09:36 It's love.

09:38 You take dough, cheese, or sauce by itself,

09:41 it's just simple objects.

09:43 But when you're building a pizza,

09:44 it's a piece of art.

09:45 So, for us and for myself,

09:48 it's a passion and love I put into every pizza

09:51 that makes it special.

09:52 (chattering)

09:55 (chattering)

09:57 (dramatic music)

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