According to the Detroit Free Press, “Here in Detroit, we all know what it takes to make a great Detroit-style pizza: dough for the thick but airy crust, absurd amounts of cheese and ladles of rich, long-simmered sauce.”

“But the special ingredient most people don’t know about is the pan — a certain blue-steel industrial utility pan made for decades by a small company in West Virginia. Or at least they used to be made there, until the company closed its line about a year ago and moved the work to Mexico — where it still hasn’t been able to get production going. Restaurant supply companies here — and apparently everywhere else — have been out of them for many months. Pizza makers’ orders for pans are stacking up by the thousands and causing problems for big chains and small independents alike. ‘You wouldn’t even believe how many pans we have on back order’ — at least 4,000 small and medium sizes and 700 extra larges — says Patti Domasicwicz at People’s Restaurant Equipment in Detroit. She hasn’t received a shipment since April.”

Read more: Sylvia Rector: Shortage of steel pans has Detroit-style pizza makers scrambling | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/20110123/COL20/101230384/Shortage-of-steel-pans-has-Detroit-style-pizza-makers-scrambling#ixzz1ByAZxged