Craft Pizza
The current rage for homemade pizza in Ooni ovens all over the country encourages a person to take a closer look at a professional. Thomas Novosel, The Happy Valley Chef with a mobile, wood-fired pizza oven, is poetry in motion at his craft.
Swinging between the raging fire and the assembly table, Thomas wastes no motion. The prebaked crusts are his “blank canvas” to swirl with sauce, sprinkle with cheese, and then complement with toppings that range from wild chanterelles to traditional pepperoni. He always features a creative fruit-forward pizza. This week it was Blueberry Brie with roasted garlic, blueberries, shaved red onion, mozzarella, and a rosemary balsamic reduction topped with arugula.
“You always want to see your sauce,” cautions the pizza master, “less is better on pizza. You can always add things when you take it out.”
A lot of behind-the-scenes work goes into creating the mise en place that makes his pizza production so fluid. In his kitchen, fifty pounds of King Arthur Sir Galahad 11.7% protein flour is hand mixed, fermented at room temperature for 6 hours, and then cold fermented under refrigeration before being shaped. The 10-inch dough circles are baked in the pizza oven and stored for use on-site. Each market session uses about 150 crusts, 200 on a busy day or longer market. Thomas makes the marinara that he uses for the pizzas, and the toppings vary weekly though there is always fresh mozzarella and basil for the Margherita so popular in the summer.
Thomas burns red oak in his oven because it burns hotter. His supplier gathers the wood from the Black Moshannon area and supplies the chef with wild mushrooms like the chanterelles or hen of the woods he encounters in his forays.
After a restaurant career that included stints at State College establishments and in South Carolina with renowned chefs, Thomas launched the business seven years ago. He relies on the support of rock-solid helpers, Mike Tedesco, Gina Sellers and Andy Weaver. Also on the team is his wife Alanna who does the social media piece as well as graphic design. Their children Owen, 10, and Amelia, 6, are sometimes spotted at the markets, and grandparents Mike and Julie Desmond frequently help with corralling the children so the parents can work.
In addition to the pizzas that fly over the vendor table at an astonishing rate, The Happy Valley Chef sometimes has a prepared salad to accompany the pizza or soups that can be taken home and reheated. Thomas also does private events and offers cooking classes for team-building sessions.
On the horizon for the enterprising chef who does R&D excursions to NYC, Pittsburgh, Philly, and New Jersey is the Pizza Expo in October in Atlantic City with 80 competitors for Best Slice.
Should he go and stand against the top pizzaiolos on the East Coast? I think he can. I think he can.
To up your own home pizza-making session, observe The Happy Valley Chef on Sundays at Boal City Brewing from 2 to 7, Tuesdays at the Boalsburg Farmers Market from 2 to 6, and Saturdays at the North Atherton Farmers Market from 10 to 2. Or purchase one on the spot and take a hot bite.
