49 Sports Challenge: Dave the prince of pizzas
6:37 p.m. Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Alright, so this week's challenge isn't a traditional "sport" per se, but you do have to have plenty of skill to compete in this kitchen.
"Hand-eye coordination...It's all in the hands...It's all in these guys," expert pizza maker Brandon Smith said. "I hate to sound like a surgeon or something. It's not nearly as important as that, but it is all in your hands, as quickly as you can move with them."
So it does take some skill, but can you actually classify it as a sport?
"I would qualify it as much but, I mean, it's not a team sport or anything," Smith said. "It's probably closer to golf or something like that, but nobody's really keeping score either, so I would say it's more of a really fun game."
"If you don't practice, you slow down a little bit," Wheat State Pizza owner Ryan Murphy said. "There's different skills in it but, yeah, in a way, it's a sport."
For our purposes today, we'll say it's a sport. Now what type of athletic ability do you have to have to be good at it?
"Kind of David Wells-esque.. You can still be what you are and be really good at pizza making."
Okay, so you don't have to be too much of an athlete for pizza making, so I think I may have a good chance at this one.
But the guy I am going up against has been doing this for several years and he estimates he's made over 14,000 pizzas this year. Brandon is pretty experienced, and he showed me the ropes a little bit, then filled me in on my challenge.
"Alright Brandon, a little bit of a non-traditional challenge, but what's my sports challenge this week?"
"We are going to be racing side-by-side making a pepperoni pizza, from the time we pull it out of here to the time we cheese it and put it in the oven."
"Do I stand any chance against you?"
"I don't think so."
"On your mark, get set, go."
Brandon beat me pretty bad in this one as far as speed, but how did I do overall?
"Other than the pizza being square and the red edges and rounding that up a little bit."
"Not too bad for your second pizza ever. I've seen a lot worse second pizza's ever."
"let's compare on looks who wins the beauty contest?"
"I think mine looks a little bit better, but it all tastes the same in the end, man.">
Comments
Note: ktka.com does not necessarily condone the comments here, nor vouch for the factual claims made therein. Nor do we review every post.
Jun. 17, 2008 at 8:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)bfats (anonymous)
Brandon Smith is the greatest pizza maker of all time...hands down...bar none...greatest of all time.
Jun. 19, 2008 at 6:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)taxiguy (anonymous)
Dave is a far Better Pizza maker. His looks like the pizza in Italy not what folks around here think is pizza. This form a real Italian.
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)