How New York's best pizzeria makes 140,000 pizzas in its coal-fired oven every year
We visited Grimaldi's to see how they make their pizzas from start to finish.
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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)