We know, you’re thinking “Great, yet another pizza-making robot.” But the inventors of RoDyMan (RObotic DYnamic MANipulation) digitized the actions of noted pizzaioloEnzo Coccia, who wore a motion-capture suit while making traditional pies. Result: a robot going through the motions of making pizzas while producing soulless, pizza-like objects.
More:
“$2.9 Million Pizza-Making Robot Still Can’t Make Pizza,” Joel Hruska, ExtremeTech
Chefs Cookie Monster and Gonger make cranberry muffins, overcoming supply chain issues by driving their food truck straight to the cranberry bog and delivering the finished product by catapult. A dubious small business model, but maybe a pandemic recovery Restaurant Resiliency Program grant is helping out.
Even though one in three of Italy’s pizza makers isn’t Italian, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage has named Neapolitan pizza an Intangible Cultural Heritage.
“The art of the Neapolitan ‘Pizzaiuolo’ is a culinary practice comprising four different phases relating to the preparation of the dough and its baking in a wood-fired oven, involving a rotatory movement by the baker. The element originates in Naples, the capital of the Campania Region, where about 3,000 Pizzaiuoli now live and perform.” — UNESCO (more…)
Bread baking at Shamsullo Dustov’s house in Kumsangir, Tajikistan, near the Afghan border. A film by John Wendle, selected for the National Geographic Short Film Showcase.
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The chalkboard outside Eastern Market’s Silver Spork (above) reminds us that it’s time for autumn pies. Is omission of sweet potato pie an index of neighborhood gentrification?
Anyway, that chart is fine for November, but over at Modern Farmer Molly Birnbaum and Omar Lee have baked up a 4-season pie chart.
“Soggy bottoms and burnt crusts could be a thing of the past for troubled cooks who are making pizzas from scratch at home. A mathematician claims to have come up with the first-ever formula for the ‘perfectly proportioned’ pizza, taking into account factors like the ratio of topping to base. Dr. Eugenia Cheng said pizza lovers get more topping per bite in a smaller pizza, but a more even spread of bites in a larger pizza.”
— “Formula for the perfect PIZZA revealed: Mathematician creates equation to ensure you don’t burn – or undercook – a margherita,” Sarah Griffiths, Daily Mail (links added)
On July 7, 1928 the Chillicothe Baking Company began selling pre-sliced loaves of Kleen-Maid Bread. Iowa inventor Otto Rohwedder had recently invented a machine that sliced bread into uniform slices and wrapped each loaf. “Just think of it!” read an advertisement:
“Every slice perfect and CORRECT, far better than you could cut it yourself….There was a time when you ground coffee. Now you buy it ground. Well, this is the same sort of sensible, logical improvement.”
One result: New-fangedelectric toasters began, um, popping up on kitchen counters all over America.
More:
“A Brief History of Sliced Bread,” Kaitlyn Boettcher, Mental Floss