How to make the best pizza

Simple as it may sound, you have to use the best ingredients. That is why Poppa John' s was so successful and they only used "better" ingredients not the best. The Original Goodfellas Brick Oven Pizza located on Hylan Blvd. in Staten Island NY  only uses the  best ingredients so it no surprise they won the Worlds Best Pizza title three different times. You get what you pay for. Pride in preparation of the fresh mozzarella, roasting the sweet red peppers daily in the revolving deck wood burning brick oven and making the sauce  with grandma's(nanny's) recipe. It takes a lot to be the best but if you actually start off with the freshest ingredients, prepare them daily with care, without taking shortcuts, you are halfway there. Pizza has become as American as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet but the true Italians will always have an edge because they are familiar with the Italian basics of cheese, sauce and yes even the dough. I wish you all happy pizza making and be sure to visit www.goodfelas.com and www.brickovensforsale.com for more information.
brick oven

Back yard brick oven

The ultimate back yard accessory. Grills. BBQs and smokers are gear but nothing tops having your own brick oven. From pizza to steak, baking bread and smoking your favorite cut of meat, the versatility and results  of using a brick oven are unrivaled. There just seems to be an innate satisfaction of controlling fire and working an oven. Not only that but everyone wants get in on the action  from the kids to grandpa. Getting started is easy but for those of you who want to take your pizza making skills to a whole new level:  Goodfella's Pizza School of New York is the ticket. It's taught by 3x World Pizza Champions and covers all aspects of pizza from making the dough to cooking in an authentic wood fired brick oven. The week long class is on the perfect gradient and the guys make sure you understand every aspect from the terminology  to the baking. Students come from around the world to study with the masters and have an incredibly fun and rewarding experience. Graduates are only given a certificate after they are expert in making pizza and can make pizza with  confidence for actual customers. If only grade school was like this. You can visit the Goodfellas Pizza School at www.pizzaschoolnewyork.com and start your new career or hobby right away. Also if you are interested in purchasing the Cadillac of brick ovens visit www.brickovensforsale.com

brick oven

PIZZA FOR DESSERT, NY STYLE

Cooking in a wood fired brick oven is fun, especially when it's in your own yard. Just about anything 

you can cook in a regular oven can be made in a brick oven and anything is up for interpretation. This pizza came from the kids liking Nutella and marshmallow sandwiches for a snack with bananas. All you do is spread your dough, spoon on some Nutella, add some marshmallows, then add some fresh banana and place in oven. Be sure you don't have a flame or the marshmallow will burn before your crust cooks. Rotate often and cook away from the fire till you have a crisp crust and lightly toasted marshmallow topping. Let it cool a few minutes because that hot marshmallow is dangerous, cut serve and enjoy! Stay tuned for more ideas and visit www.brickovensforsale.com and www.goodfellas.com for more pizza info. Happy pizza making to you, Marc

Revolving Deck Pizza Oven Trentino Italy

While visiting wine country in In Trento Italy we were invited to v a local pizza man named Alberto at his place called Albert's. We pull into this small city and are amazed at the architecture with its wonderful old buildings painted in  delightful colors such as Tuscany Yellow, reds and greens. More amazing is the mountain waterfall directly behind his elegant yet comfortable restaurant. We are greeted with smiles,  warm hugs and the familiar "2 cheek kisses" by an impeccably dressed young man in his Italian flag colored chef hat. The efficient style and high tech order of his place is enhanced by his own sharp appearance and as soon as he knows we are Pizza men from NYC the hospitality begins! We are sat at a well set table and notice something immediately-no condiments. That's right, no salt, pepper, oregano, grated cheese or the like because each pizza is complete with its own special flavor and seasoning. We are informed that all the ingredients are freshly prepared and are made locally from the Parmesan cheese, buffalo mozzarella, olive oil and smoked prosciutto to wine and beer he will be serving. It doesn't get much better for 2 Italian boys from Brooklyn. Alberto gets busy as we watch the well choreographed pizza making begin. The dough is opened  by hand then his homemade sauce is spread  with a ladle covering the pizza lightly. Next comes the fresh mozzarella grated for even cooking and into the revolving deck brick oven ( available from New York Brick Oven Company). The pizza rotates for a minute or 2 and then is brought to the slicing machine where smoked prosciutto  is sliced and placed fresh on the cooked pizza along with thinly sliced squash and other tasty treats. Alberto serves us himself and stands by proudly as we taste his creation. Unbelievable! Magnificent! We are all smiles and off again he goes to prepare more and more pizzas for us to try. This goes on until we can't eat anymore which is saying allot. But we have to have coffee and desert which is espresso and homemade raspberry and vanilla puddings-wow!! As we told Albert " your pizza and hospitality were overwhelming, you and your family always have a place to eat in America at Goodfella's on Hylan blvd. Staten Island NY. We can't wait to see him again😎🇮🇹🍕🇺🇸 

www.brickovensforsale.com

www.goodfelas.com

Brick Ovens For Sale

Having owned and operated many brick oven restaurants over the years and experienced what is like to build and work brick ovens I can say with certainty " don't take advice about cooking pizza from a company that never cooked pizza". That may sound obvious but you would be surprised at the horror stories. Recently done guys from a big chain purchased an $80,000 oven from an oven company that ended up in the trash  because it didn't fit the needs of the chain.  This could have easily been avoided by consulting someone who really knows and cares about pizza.

  My brother Scot and I have about 50 years in this business including; building the biggest brick pizza oven in NY back in 1992,winning the Worlds Best Pizza title (3x), opening restaurants ranging in size from  1000 to 75000square feet across the country, training pizza makers from all over the world, having our pizza bet on the NY Giants when they won the Superbowl by then NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani to having the honor of Judging international pizza contests. We know pizza making! So when the question comes up about the best oven to use I can tell you from my own opinion and experience that brick oven pizza is the best and if you want the most efficient, cost effective, fastest and simplest to operate then you better contact us at 1-800-oven 053 and visit our website www.brickovensforsale.com 

Happy Pizza Making, Marc Cosentino

Working a wood fired brick oven.

The day begins by making sure you have enough wood on hand to get through your day or at least enough to get the oven up to temperature and through the lunch rush. I find it easiest to place your logs of seasoned wood in a tic- tac- to  pattern. Basically 2 logs running front to back with about 10 inches between them, then place 2 more logs across them running side to side and repeat again. if you looked from above it would resemble a tic- tac -board. Sorry if this too basic but I remember the trouble I had with my first fire trying to season the new oven and get a good draw up the chimney. Any way you then place some paper or cardboard under the logs and light em up. This gives your fire plenty of air while allowing the flame to travel upward and ignite the logs on the upper layers. Once you have a good fire going you can add a few logs and push the fire to the rear or side if you prefer. Depending on the size and mass of your oven it will take anywhere from an 2-3 hours to heat the oven for the first cooking and get the surface up to temperature for many pies. The trick is to determine the best temp. for the type of baking your going to do. Bread requires a much lower temp with a consequent longer cooking time than pizza. A good "Oven man/spinner knows just how hot to get the oven, how much flame he wants for cooking the top of the pizza and how long he needs to leave it on one spot while it cooks before turning it for an even bake. A good spinner makes it look easy and as with any acquired skill it always looks easy to the casual observer. Once multiple pies go in the oven you can tell the men from the boys so to speak as the  pizzas are  turned and moved from hot to cold spots and baked uniformly. This is no easy task when you start getting up to 5 or 6 pies at a time. Not only does it require constant alertness and work but the heat is tremendous. Thank goodness for the New York Brick Oven Co. and the revolving deck oven design. It eliminates having to spin the pizza, working the pies once in the oven, hot and cold spots on the cooking surface, having to stand in front of the oven and constantly reach in and most importantly having to find a skilled pizza man to work the oven. No mistakes and a consistent pizza for all.
  www.brickovensforsale.com

Brick Oven Pizza

Brick oven pizza has become a national trend in the last couple of years. When I started in this business 20 years ago with  Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza,  it was very rare indeed with only a couple of old joints even in a big place like New York City. Tortonn'os Pizza in Coney Island on Neptune avenue not far from Nathan's  was just such a place.  Jerry had a hand built oven and used fresh mozzarella which was an alien cheese unless you were Italian and bought it made by hand in your local Italian specialty store. His pizza was made his way and only a certain amount of pies each day then "get out I'm done". When he died the NY post proclaimed " The King of Pizza is Dead". A sad day indeed but he inspired me and my family to build the first brick oven in Staten Island NY. So www.goodfellas.com was born. At first many people wondered what the white stuff (fresh mozzarella) was on the pizza. This required many a conversation and reassurances that if they try it they will like it. With stiff competition all around us we had to make a good pie or fade away like the others that came and went. Staten Island was a small place and word spreads quick so fortunately the word was we had a good pizza so it was off to the races. We still use the fresh mozzarella cooked in a wood burning oven but even that has evolved over the years. Adding gas burners to augment the wood fire to maintain steady temperature was the first innovation. This made the pizza man's job a lot easier controlling the heat on the pies. The next big  change which ended up being the best decision ever was to put in a revolving deck or cooking surface. Now this was something. We no longer had to "spin" the pizza as it cooked which made the pizza consistent every time. Not only that,you didn't need a long training period for the pizza man and the product was always perfect. An added bonus was saving a lot of money by not needing to have a full time pizza spinner who worked the oven while another person made the pies. The $$$ savings were incredible. Now - New York Brick Oven Pizza Co. at www.brickovensforsale.com  provides these amazing cost effective ovens at a reasonable price for anyone. This oven design would have saved so much $$$ and aggregation over the years but as they say " live and learn". Happy pizza to you! 

The joy of pizza!

Where do I begin? Taste, flavor ingredients, dough, prepping, or baking methods? Having been in the pizza business for over 20 years I have a lot to draw on here but it always comes down to my favorite part of the business, the people. I have been extremely fortunate in the pizza world but I realize it is like Thomas Edison said that genius is disguised as hard work, and working hard 7 days a week for years does pay off, if you survive. We started Goodfellas Brick Oven Pizza   www.goodfellas.com back in 1993 after my brother and I quit our jobs and went "all in". Serving our customers, hearing their stories and becoming part of their lives over the years is what made it worthwhile for me. From engagements to weddings and births to the first days of school, baseball, communions, graduations, and birthdays, wow! It's like having a gigantic family and the pleasure of sharing all the fun. Yes, there were times of heartbreak too such as 911 and Hurricane Sandy but I remember a customer saying this in the days after the attacks on our country " I'm disgusted and in a daze but I always stop here on my way home because you guys always make me smile and feel better".  What is that worth? Priceless. Next blog will be about cooking in the NY Brick Oven Co. Wood fired brick oven and how it adds to the fun.  www.brickovensforsale.com
brick oven

1000 year old brick ovens stand the test of time.

 Marc and Scot Cosentino of www.goodfellas.com were researching brick oven design when they came across these magnificent examples of medieval ovens at the Beseno Castle in Trentino Italy. The larger one had a gigantic cooking surface of about 12 feet. Interestingly the brick surface was at a  fairly steep incline sloping down from the rear towards the front(this probably made it easier to see and control the cooking). Cooking on such a grand scale required an artisan of both skill and strength to work the extra long tools required while ensuring the food was "fit for a king".  Fortunately ovens today such as the NY Brick Oven Co. wood or gas fired ovens www.ovensforsale.com
 are a lot more user friendly requiring only the ability to see if the pizza is cooked and then removing it without having to spin the pizza and estimate temperature and really work the oven. Having cooked about a million pies between them the Cosentino brothers agree modern technology has its advantages.
brick ovens

12 foot deep oven.

                                                  Marc Cosentino in front of the ovens.

                                                               Smaller wood fired oven.

Castle Beseno,  Trentino Italy