Archive for category Restaurant Videos
Pane e Vino’s Chef Bruno Quercini, Emilio Mitidieri, and The MAM Brick Oven
Posted by Ben in Pizza Ovens, Restaurant Equipment Videos, Restaurant Videos on April 21, 2008
We got a chance to hang out with our long-time friend Chef Bruno Quercini of Pane e Vino.
Chef Bruno comes from a long line of chefs in Italy. He’s been cooking as long as he can remember and says he received his best culinary training from his mother– learning all her cooking secrets and family recipes by age 13. He’s made Pane e Vino a San Francisco favorite since it opened in 1991. Not only does he make the most perfect risotto (it literally melts with flavor in your mouth), he also makes an incredible pizza that he tops with his very own house-cured meats.
As you might imagine, the highest quality tools are a priority for Chef Bruno. For slicing his meats, he uses a fiery red vintage-style hand-cranked slicer. For his pizza, he uses a wood-burning MAM 505 whose refractory surface imparts his thin crust pies with an authentic Neapolitan-style browned crust in just 2 and 1/2 minutes!
In the 1980′s wood burning brick ovens were popular for cooking and finishing a lot of different dishes. Today we’re seeing a resurgence in the demand for wood burning ovens due to the increasingly popularity of that Neapolitan style, thin crust pizza! Some would now argue that it’s the best of the wood-burning, and the only way to do a thin crust pizza, is with the famous MAM brick pizza oven.
The MAM oven floor is constructed from cement Fondu La Farge, composed of 40% alumina, a mixture vibrated into refractory molds which can withstand heat up to 1350 degrees Celsius or 2462 degrees Fahrenheit. The MAM oven comes in 3 different sizes (30”, 39”, and 55” diameters). You can get it with wood or with gas.
A typical wood burning MAM will consume about 12 logs per day. If you prefer to use gas but still wish to impart a wood flavor to your food you can soak wood-chips in water and place them in a perforated stainless steel container and place them on the oven deck. Chow Restaurants in San Francisco, and El Caserio in the Silver Lake area in LA use wood-burning MAM ovens.
Blue Wave Pizza and The Vx5 Oven Custom-Made with Remco™ Technologies
Posted by Ben in Emiliomiti News, Pizza Ovens, Restaurant Videos on March 19, 2008
A couple of weeks ago, we paid a visit to Bill Gardner’s Blue Wave Pizza in Narragansett, Rhode Island to see how he was faring with his infra-red oven, the new Vx5 custom-made for Emiliomiti with Remco™ technologies. During summer months, 900 beachhouses fill up with vacationing New England families and they all come to Blue Wave for pizza. Bill chose the Vx5 with the goal of efficiently meeting that volume.
And efficient he has been, and in more ways than just cranking out quick pizzas. Because of its revolutionary technology, the Vx5 uses just a fraction of the energy of a conventional gas oven (70,000 BTUs per hour)— and because it does not require a hood, the AC doesn’t get sucked out. Mr. Gardner’s monthly energy bill comes to $450, while a regular gas oven energy bill would be at least $1500, a savings of over $1000 per month alone— which makes a real difference in this time of rising eneryg costs. The Vx5 is truly green!
Bill’s beachtown, surfer-themed pizzeria turns out lovely margheritas, creative shrimp alfredo pies as well as local favorite hot weiner pizzas. He serves organic, fair trade coffee from Santa Cruz’s Surf City Coffee Company.
And in addition to enjoying fresh tasty pizza in a jiffy, his customers can feel good that they’re patronizing an establishment that is investing in green technologies.
The Vx5 is 5×5 ft., can crank out 250 pies per hour and due to its rotating deck, anyone can operate it. Pretty soon we’ll see fast food pizzerias using it!
“We’ve had at least 50 people tell us it’s the best pizza they’ve ever had,” says Mr. Gardner beaming. The pizzeria opened last summer and was an instant success.
Emiliomiti Pizza Cookoff and The Vx5 Oven Custom-Made with Remco™ Technologies
Posted by Ben in Culinary Events, Emiliomiti News, Pizza Ovens, Restaurant Videos on March 18, 2008
We recently tried out the Vx5 oven, custom-made for Emiliomiti with Remco™ technologies. in our San Francisco test kitchen with our pizzaiolo friends, Chefs Giulio Tempesta, Giancarlo Bortolotti, and Marc Vogel. Using the only infrared brick carousel oven technology in the world, these masters produced delicious Neapolitan style pizzas, among other delicacies, in only the time it takes, well…take a bit out of your first slice.
Not ones for all work and no play, we decided to have a party with the world’s favorite food.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Remco, go here, email us at or call us at 415.621.1909.
Santa Cruz Pasta Factory and LM Pleasure Automatic Pasta Machine Ravioli Maker Video
Posted by Ben in Emiliomiti News, Pasta Machines, Restaurant Equipment Videos, Restaurant Videos on February 4, 2008
We spent some time with our friend Steve Simonovich at the Santa Cruz Pasta Factory the other day, which opened late last year, and we caught a demonstration of his all-purpose LM Pleasure turning out lemon-and-herb fettucini, pear and pecorino-romano filled raviolis, and even some small lasagna sheets.
Steve is a passionate, down-to-earth guy. His factory is tucked away in Scotts Valley just outside of Santa Cruz, and already a hit among the locals, especially at the farmers markets. We even got to try some of his fresh apple sausage ravioli and it was delicious. If you’re ever in or near Santa Cruz, you should definitely check it out.
“Our whole business relies on this machine, basically,” says Steve Simonovich.
The LM Pleasure is a combination machine with a flour mixer, a dough kneader, and an automatic laminating machine with a single or double hopper. It comes with a permanent installed large ravioli maker (160mm), which can also perform as a pasta cutter. It performs like a well-oiled machine and makes raviolis of all types, and cut flat (sheeted) pastas such as fettucini and lasasga — a true pleasure to behold and eat!
With the addition of the rear mixer extruder (an accessory which you can customize), you can make all kinds of short pastas, such as rigatoni and fusilli, and long pastas, such as spaghetti and linguini. The LM Pleasure is compact and doesn’t take much space. It’s also easy to clean, work and operate, not requiring additional maintenance. Additional accessories allow you to create a complete line of flat and/or filled pasta such as tagliatelle, ravioli, and penne.
The LM Pleasure is specifically designed for high volume restaurants, small markets and delis, and medium-sized retail and wholesale operations.
To learn more about the LM Pleasure, call PastaBiz at 415.621.1909 or click here.
Emilio Mitidieri to be on the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels: Cold Cuts”
Posted by Ben in Culinary Events, Emiliomiti News, Meat Slicers, Restaurant Videos on December 13, 2007
We’re excited to announce that Emilio Mitidieri, owner of Emiliomiti LLC, is going to appear on the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” in an episode entitled “Cold Cuts” on Monday, December 17, 2007 at 8PM PT.
Here’s a description of the episode (notice the bolded orange sentence decribes the role Emilio plays, except the part about pig head parts and livers, though we have no problem with those parts!):
“They’re the meat in our sandwiches and slices of American pop culture. Take a look behind the deli counter to reveal the secret ingredients in boloney. Watch a master sausage maker craft salami, and pile it on at Carnegie Deli with their famous mile-high pastrami sandwich. We’ll construct exotic cold cuts made of pig head parts and livers, make the cut with the best meat slicers, past and present and see how to make turkey out of tofu. And don’t forget that olive loaf for the holidays. Served cold and cut with precision. Pureed, pounded, and poured, it’s time for a taste of cold cuts.”
He’ll be discussing and demoing vintage BK and vintage style meat slicers from his showroom in the Mission in San Francisco. It’s the only showroom in North America that has the old models alongside the new ones.
You can go to VolanoBiz.com to see more vintage and vintage style slicers.