By Tracy Morin
These days, who isn’t looking for a troubleshooting tip, a time-saving trick or an insider strategy to help give their pizza dough—and pizza business—an edge? When it comes to the competitive world of pizza making—and pleasing customers who believe you’re only as good as your last pie—everyone could use a leg up.
Fortunately, while the pizza biz may be competitive, its shining stars are anything but cutthroat. They’re happy to share the tips, tricks and techniques that have worked to catapult them to national and global recognition. Read on for the most valuable dough knowledge that four of these award-winning experts have acquired over years in the pizza business.
Wilhelm Rodriguez, owner, Papa’s Pizza, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico
Rodriguez, a featured speaker at PMQ’s Pizza Power Forum and member of PMQ’s U.S. Pizza Team, most recently won first place in the 2025 International Pizza Challenge in both the Traditional and Traditional International categories, as well as second place in Pizza Maker of the Year.
1. Control your time and temperature religiously. Most dough failures come from ignoring temperature. Dough doesn’t care about your schedule—it follows its own rules. Always measure your water temperature to hit your desired finished dough temp. Use an infrared thermometer for your flour if needed. Even 5°F difference can change fermentation dramatically.
2. Cold fermentation is your friend. Long, cold fermentation develops flavor and strength while giving you more predictability in busy operations. I often use 48 to 72 hours in cold storage. Just remember to let dough balls equilibrate at room temp before opening, so you don’t fight with elasticity.
Related: PMQ’s 2025 Dough Survival Guide: Taming the Beast That Makes the Feast
3. Embrace higher hydration. More water in your dough isn’t just better—it’s transformative. Higher hydration gives you better oven spring, open crumb and a softer interior with a crisp crust. But you have to learn how to manage it: Use proper mixing times, adjust for your flour’s absorption and train your team so they don’t panic when handling stickier dough. Don’t be afraid to push your hydration higher over time—it’s one of the best ways to elevate your pizza.
4. Don’t rush the bulk ferment. One of the biggest mistakes is skipping or shortening bulk fermentation to save time. But that early development is key to extensibility and flavor. Even in a busy shop, find a workflow that makes it part of your process.
5. Use the right tools—but don’t let them do all the work. Sheeters and rollers are great, but they can degas your dough if you’re not careful. For artisan or Neapolitan styles, I never use them. For tavern or Detroit styles, they can help with consistency. Know your style, and train your staff to use the tools properly—not as shortcuts that lead to poor dough management.
6. Embrace par-baking strategically. Par-baking can solve many problems: managing rush periods, ensuring consistent bakes for difficult toppings, or improving structure for tavern or Detroit styles. But don’t let it become a crutch for underfermented or poorly managed dough.
7. Educate your team. Your staff is your quality control. Teach them to read dough. Show them signs of overproofing or underproofing. Make them check temperatures. Empower them to say, “This dough isn’t ready,” even during a rush.
8. Master the process. Your dough recipe is only a starting point. It’s the process—your discipline with time, temperature and fermentation—that makes great pizza. Don’t chase hacks that skip those fundamentals. Instead, master the basics so you can adapt to any kitchen, oven or style you want to serve.
Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow, co-chefs, Flour + Water Pizzeria, San Francisco, CA
Flour + Water and its co-chefs, McNaughton (pictured below) and Pollnow, have been extensively recognized, including by the James Beard Foundation, Forbes and Zagat.
1. Control = consistency. When working with dough, it’s essential to control your variables as much as possible to ensure consistency and to eliminate any external factors that could compromise the flavor and texture. At Flour + Water Pizzeria, we are fortunate to have a dedicated Dough Room, where we’ve established protocols that allow us to ensure the best possible product every time. We start by taking the temperature of the flour and air within the Dough Room; this dictates the temperature of the (always) filtered water to account for the friction factor (the heat that is generated from mixing and kneading). We further control temperature during the fermentation process by using a proofer retarder.
2. Experiment with a pre-ferment. Because pizza dough has so few ingredients, we use a pre-ferment to develop additional flavor complexity. Using a pre-ferment is also beneficial if you have limited refrigeration space in your pizzeria.
3. Minimize flour. When stretching the dough, use the least amount of flour possible on your stretching surface to avoid sticking. Similarly, minimize the amount of flour on your pizza peel when firing the pizza. Too much flour on the undercarriage of the dough will create an unappetizing chalky texture on the exterior that detracts from the finished product.
Related: Optimizing Your Pizza Dough With ‘How to Bake Bread’ Author Michael Kalanty
Robert Garvey, co-owner, Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co., Chicago, IL
In 2025, Robert’s was named the country’s sixth-best pizzeria in the 50 Top Pizza USA rankings—a significant jump from its 10th-place finish in 2024.
1. Choose weights over measures. One of the most important things for me is weighing everything—the water, flour, yeast, oil, etc. If you’re using measures of any kind, they aren’t consistent enough to make you consistent! People think a certain container of water, for instance, is going to be the same every time they pick it up, and it’s not the same. Weigh all of your product before you mix the dough.
2. Take temperatures. I always activate the yeast with 70°F water. If it’s colder than that, it takes much longer for the dough to respond. Also be aware of the ambient temperature of the room you’re in. If the room is cold, the dough takes a longer time to knead. I like to stay pretty steady at 72°F room temperature, which keeps everything consistent.
3. Be patient with fermentation. A lot of the dough’s flavor has to do with fermentation. At least a 48-hour fermentation time is critical to get the proper fermentation and proper flavor in the crust. The issue with that, though, is you need the cooler space to do it. I know other pizza makers don’t refrigerate at all and do a 24-hour ferment. I’ve tried to do it in a 24-hour period, but I just don’t like the results.
Related: Why Is an Amateur Pizzaiolo Adding Water to His Dough ‘Until It Breaks’?
4. Monitor the oven. Make sure that your oven temperature is consistent. I use a gas-fired brick oven, so each pizza will drop the stone temperature underneath it, just under the circle of the pie, by about 50°. So, for a consistent product, you want to be sure that the stone comes back to temperature before you cook your next pizza—which, in my case, means about a five-minute recovery time. Otherwise, you end up with a pizza that is absolutely beautiful on top and white on the bottom. So be patient, ensuring your oven is up to temperature each time. I use temperature guns to make sure.
5. Train staff step by step. When everybody is doing the same thing the same way, there’s consistency of the product. Every step of the process is really important—whether it’s the stretcher, the builder, the baker, the expediter—and everybody has a specific role to fill. It’s not just one item, but a team effort, so training and communication among the team is critical. The more training I do, the more skilled my guys become and the better the product is. As each year goes by, we just get better and more consistent.
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
