Times Leader Newspaper, November 24, 1991
Creative engineer shares his pizza-making secrets: A young man who grew up in a pizza-loving corner of Northeastern Pennsylvania has written a book about the art (and science) of creating his favorite food. The 27-year old Plains native is an engineer, which probably accounts for the scientific approach he has taken to make chewy, flavorful, mouth-watering pizza.


Book Description
This book is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of pizza making, for both the amateur pizza maker, and for those who would like to open their own pizzeria. It contains additional information not normally found in a cookbook such as trade secrets, where to buy ingredients wholesale (e.g., the high gluten flour), and comparisons and instructions for special preparation and baking equipment such as baking pans, baking stones, pizza screens, commercial pizza ovens, mixing machines and proof boxes. It also contains my unique collection of over 30 pizza recipes such as barbecue, Buffalo, calzone, cheeseburger, deep fried (a.k.a. "Old Forge style"), Hawaiian, mashed potato, pesto, red, roasted red pepper, seafood, Sicilian, Southwest, stromboli, taco, vegetable and white, with preparation instructions for stuffed, rolled or open-faced style. All the recipes in this book have been perfected, and all the details have been included so that even the most amateur pizza makers can get professional results. Not only does this book include proven recipes, it provides all the tools necessary to create your own masterpiece. I've tried too many recipes that show beautiful pictures of pizzas, but once created are displeasing to the palate. This book is for genuine pizza lovers who are willing to take the time to do-it-right. Creating pizzas can be as much fun as eating them!


From the Publisher
Now shipping is the updated 2004 edition of this best selling pizza cookbook. It contains added bonuses such as new pizza recipes including Buffalo chicken, Old Forge style, Pesto, Margherita and Southwest. Of course, it also contains all of Dominick's latest pizza expertise developed since the year 2000 printing, including improved dough and tomato sauce recipes. So even if you own any of the previous editions, this one is well worth the upgrade to your collection!


From the Author
Pizza is America's favorite food. I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't like it. This coalition of dough and toppings can be as diverse as any ethnic cuisine; it's not just a round pie with sauce and cheese. If ten people followed the same pizza recipe, each would get different results, reflecting his or her own individuality. So it must be concluded that pizza making is an art, and not just an assemblage of ingredients. This book is the culmination of over twenty-two years of research and development. During this period, numerous interviews were conducted with retired pizzeria owners, active owners would never divulge their trade secrets, and artisans in the commercial baking industry. As with any artist, some of my creations were influenced by other artists, from pizzerias in the U.S. and in Italy (my mother was born and raised in Italy). Although I am an engineer by trade, pizza making is my passion. Each year I go through hundreds of pounds of flour, sharing my pizzas with friends and family, while accumulating valuable feedback on each new recipe. My inspiration to write this book was the lack of availability of an adequate pizza cookbook; I've yet to see a cookbook on the market that contains even the basic fundamentals about making professional quality pizza. In 1686, Sir Isaac Newton presented his three fundamental laws of motion. 1. A body in motion tends to stay in motion. 2. The acceleration of a body is proportional to the force acting on it. 3. To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. As fundamental as are Newton's laws of motion, here are my three fundamental laws for making professional quality pizza. 1. Only high gluten flour can be used for making pizza dough. 2. Only shortening should be used to grease pizza pans. 3. Only dough kneaded by a mixing machine will yield a baked crust of proper texture, tenderness and consistency.


About the Author
Dominick DeAngelis was born and raised in a small working-class town of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area of northeastern Pennsylvania. His mother is an Italian immigrant who journeyed to the United States at the age of seventeen. His father is a second generation Italian-American. There is probably no place in the country, or maybe the world, where there is more pizza places per capita than the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. Just one street block over from where Dominick grew up, there were four pizzerias on the same road. They all had a successful business because each pizzeria made their own distinctively different type of pizza. Dominick's obsession with pizza is life long, and the area where he grew up exposed him to a vast array of different types of pizzas. For the past twenty-two years, he has taken that experience and used it to develop a collection of his own original recipes, with emphasis on the development of his master dough recipe. Dominick's formal training is not in the culinary field, but in engineering. However, anyone who knows him will tell you that he is a bonafide pizza maker. He holds a bachelor's degree from The Pennsylvania State University, a master's degree from Villanova University, and a Ph.D. from The University of Pennsylvania, all in mechanical engineering. He has over eighteen years of mechanical design experience from the aerospace, medical, semiconductor and metrology industries, and is also a licensed professional engineer. He resides in the suburban "Main Line" area of Philadelphia with his wife, two daughters and son. "To do a cookbook on pizza making the-right-way, requires a dedication to pizza as intense as a Ph.D. degree in engineering." Dominick DeAngelis 2004