Chow Bio

So you’re the owner of a new pizza place called Delancey. You’re
also a classically trained composer. How is tinkering with a pizza oven
similar to tinkering with a piece of music?

They both require you to pay attention to many things at once. When
I was in France, I told a man about my education in music and he said,
“Of course! Music school is perfect training for the restaurant
industry!” When I tell people here, they don’t seem to understand the
connection. Picking out different instrumentals is just like picking
out different flavors of food.

How does the weather affect the tinkering of pizza dough?

I have a pad of paper filled with notes on how long to leave the
dough out to cool, but none of the notes factored in the hundred-degree
weather we experienced when we first opened. I had to rush the dough
into the refrigerator, then bring it home to my basement to cool for 12
to 20 hours before baking it in the oven.

I read on your wife’s blog, Orangette, that you’re going to
be offering your recipes online. Are there any recipes you refuse to
cough up?

I have no problem posting all of my recipes. We’d rather this
restaurant feel like an open, overgrown dinner party than one with
nameless chefs and secret recipes. If you’re going to re-create one of
my pizzas, you’re going to do it your own way, and it’s not going to
end up the same as in my restaurant. I’ve been told what type of flour
to use, how long to ferment the dough, and how to build the pizza oven
by many different chefs—and yet the pizza here still tastes
unique.

This article has been updated since its original publication.