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| THE PIZZA GENOME PROJECT By Tom Boyles - PMQ Editor-in-Chief |
Click here to download the pdf of this article. Click here to view the advertising index for this issue. |
You can view
Steve Green’s tour
of the University
of Parma,
as well
as the interviews
of Professors
Goffrini and
Panizza at www.pizzatv.com.
Back in May, PMQ went on a three-week pizza crusade throughout Italy in search of the answer to one question: What is Italian pizza? In this issue you are going to read about several of his discoveries, but the best way to really get at the core of what he discovered is to view the videos he filmed along the way. In these videos, located on PizzaTV.com, you will see, hear and discover many of the old world and new ways of making pizza and about cutting edge technology and even research being done in the birthplace of pizza.
One of the stops he made was at the University of Parma where he met with Professors Paola Goffrini, Ph.D. and Elena Panizza, Ph.D. Here he discovered Italy’s versions of Tom Lehmann, who are not only studying pizza dough, they are breaking it down scientifically…all the way down to its DNA profile. Well, they aren’t necessarily breaking pizza’s DNA down, but they are looking closer at the relationships between yeast and inserted bacteria and how this affects dough. As a matter of fact, they are looking at the DNA structures of different strains of yeast and bacteria to better understand how these two interact.
“We are starting to classify microorganisms in yeast and dough,” Dr. Goffrini said. “Before, research in this area was basic. This is the first time research of this type has been done on a scientific level and not from a culinary point of view. With us looking at new additions of microbiological insertions into the dough, we hope to be able to create new and healthier doughs. I believe we can not only improve the taste of doughs, but also improve the softness and how light a dough is in addition to finding healthier dough recipes.”
All of this research comes at a price and right now the bill for the dough research at the University of Parma is coming from the 5 Stagioni Flour Company. Their interest in this sort of research is twofold; 1) to improve their product, and 2) because they think this type of scientific research can find new ways to create foods.
It’s not only food companies who are becoming interested in pizza research, the scientific community is too. Scientists are looking at the interaction between bacteria and yeast when the two are put together and this is new research for scientists who until now had only looked at each item individually.
If you would like to learn more about this research, what they have discovered and what they are working towards, be sure to go to PizzaTV.com and watch the interview and tour in its entirety. While you are there be sure to check out the other videos of tours and interviews with the Caputo Flour Factory, 5 Stagioni Flour Factory, the World Pizza Council, the creation of the world’s longest pizza, the Compador Tomato Company and so much more. Here you can discover with Steve Green just what it takes to make true Italian pizza.