Updates! 03/19/2012
 
To all my loyal pizza folk out there wondering what's going on with a very quiet GoreMade Pizza this last month and a half, let me bring you up to speed.

My oven has been at the Idea Foundry under the capable hands of Metaldelphia Metal Fabricators since the beginning of February. It is getting a full make-over, including 3 compartment sinks and a hand washing sink (complete with hot running water), a new oven door, a rebalanced and solidified trailer with the oven entrance now rear facing, a new smoke-stack, a collapsable 2'x4' stainless steel prep table in front of the oven entrance, a stainless steel shell around the oven, and all sorts of other little odds and ends that Mark Lamson saw fit to do. I must say, if you're in need of metal fabrication, Mark is your guy. He's a little nutty and kinda slow (unless you pressure him and pay for his speed), but he's the answer to metal fabrication needs on a tight budget! Word on the street is that I should have my oven back this weekend or so! If all goes well, we'll all be eating delicious pizzas on april fool's day! 

I'd also like to announce that I dropped my LLC application in the mail this morning, marking the biggest step for the business thus far! It was all a little confusing to me at first, but after talking with Ariana from the Small Business Development Center of Columbus, that all changed. I met with her last Monday, and it was a thing of beauty! She just took out her magic wand, waved it around saying a few words, and then I had everything I needed to submit the proper paperwork and get it all going. It was truly an amazing thing to behold, and I couldn't be more appreciative of her help!!! 

It is a weird feeling, making it official in the eyes of the government. Before, it was all just me playing with heat, dough and toppings amongst friends. But soon I'll have tax responsibilities, record keeping, customers, and all other sorts of responsible things to contend with. One step at  time, I suppose. The only things left are to get inspected by the health department and start a business banking account and I should be set! 

... More as the story unfolds! Thanks for your patience as I get where I need to be!
Add Comment
 
Competition 01/11/2012
 
When starting a business, there's always Competition. People competing for the dollar you are also trying to get. This is something that I know very little about, seeing as I have yet to  really compete in any market. That's all about to change as of January 29th, 2012. This date marks the annual Pizza Pizzazz competition, part of a larger pizza trade show called NAPICS (North American Pizza and Ice Cream Show) taking place at the Columbus Convention Center, and it has me all aflutter these past few days. Pizza makers from all over the country gather together for their piece of $15,000 in prize money and a lifetime of bragging rights. You make one 14"-16"pizza in either the "traditional" or "gourmet" category for a panel of judges, and the top six make two of that same pizza again later that day. The top three in each category get $6,000, $1,000 and $500 for first, second and third, respectively.
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
Thursday, October 13th, GoreMade Pizza made their first mobile wood fired public appearance. It was a complete success! 

The company I work for does a catered event for our department twice a year or so, with random pizza orderings in between. There's some partnership they have with Donato's Pizza and that's usually what's on the menu. The discussions were coming up for what to serve this time around instead of the same old pizza. This was about the time I found my love for wood fired pizza, and buying a wood fired oven was on my short list of things to do. After the purchase of the oven and going through the chain of approval, which is a dizzying process for anything in a corporate environment, I finally got the go-ahead. 

Since I have not yet been inspected by the health department, It is illegal for me to charge money for food. So my department paid for the ingredients and I put it all together free of charge (although I was on the clock for 5 hours on pizza day!)
Add Comment
 
 
Have you ever gotten so excited about something that it couldn't possibly live up to your anticipation of it? That was the first pizza sunday with my new oven.

For some reason, I imagined my first wood fired experience to be nothing less than perfection from the very beginning. Let me ruin the suspense by telling you that it was indeed less than perfection. We got some delicious food, don't get me wrong. But there were definitely quite a few set-backs and burnt edges.

Firing a wood oven is something I probably should have put more time and research into before trying it on my own. Lets just say that the assumed 45 minute warm-up time was a little ambitious for a first timer!  It took nearly 2 hours to get the oven to what I understood to be "temperature" (sort of a blind-leading-the-blind destination in and of itself). The position of the fire is key to properly distributing heat evenly. And burning thick bark is not good. After that all got ironed out, it was still a little rocky, but at least we made it out with the oven "working"!
Picture
2 Comments
 
 
They say that starting a business is like having a baby. First, it's an idea. It's exciting and scary, but the scary part is way off in the distance. It grows inside of you and you begin to love it even before you meet it, reading all about what to expect and what you'll be going through, collecting things you'll need for your new adventure. 

Tension builds with anticipation. You try to be as ready as possible, but there are so many thing you'll need to learn as you go. The weeks become months, and your idea grows until it's almost too big to fit inside of you, fighting for space (and winning) with your other internal workings. The final few weeks are so tough that you begin to submit to the terrifying reality that you will soon have to take this internal thing and make it external!!! Finally, you feel something. Something you haven't felt before. Pain isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind. Pressure, discomfort, nervousness, doubt. All these emotions come to the surface when you finally realize one thing... This is it! The baby has dropped!
Picture
My new oven, first flame!
The Bono pizza stickers have since been removed!
3 Comments
 
 
The plan for GoreMade Pizza has always been to have a wood fired pizza oven as the cooking device. It's highly regarded in the business and the heat source is super abundant in our area. Not to mention that it's a completely renewable resource! I'd never had the privilege of using a wood fired pizza oven before and was having trouble finding a way to get in front of one just to know what I'm getting myself into. I was beginning to think I'd have to get a job somewhere that has one just to get to know the art form. 

A couple sundays ago, I was invited... actually I invited myself, over to a friend's house who had mentioned having a small wood fired oven in his back yard. I brought 5 dough balls and a bunch of topping over to play. Holy Pizza Pie, you guys... it changed my pizza life!
Picture
3 Comments