Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Baker Miller Pizza Pop-Up Sells Out Faster Than It Takes to Make Dough

By Patty Wetli | April 10, 2015 7:01am

LINCOLN SQUARE — Rachel Post is a pizza maker without a restaurant; Baker Miller is a restaurant without a pizza maker.

So the two are joining forces April 21 for a three-course pop-up dinner hosted at Baker Miller, 4610 N. Western Ave., that will offer a glimpse of what Post's forthcoming pizza joint, named Our House, might look like once it finds a home.

Tickets for the dinner, announced via Facebook and Instagram, were snapped up in less than a day, or several hundred fewer hours than it took Post to develop a recipe for the pizza she plans to serve.

Post, who gained a following for her pizzas as a baker at Lincoln Park's Floriole, spent the better part of the past three months testing crust recipes using Baker Miller flours, which differ substantially from standard varieties.

Rachel Post spent three months testing pizza crust recipes using Baker Miller flour. (Instagram/Rachel Post)

To add an additional degree of difficulty, Post conducted her experiments in her Albany Park kitchen, which lacked much of the equipment, like a proofing oven, found in a commercial settings.

"It takes a little finesse," Post said of making do with less gadgetry. "You've got to think like MacGyver."

She played around with Baker Miller's red winter wheat and white winter wheat, looking for the holy grail of texture, lightness and flavor.

"I started testing in January and around the middle of March I had something where I thought, 'Yeah, this is good,'" Post said.

The result, she said, is neither New York, Neapolitan nor Chicago style, but rather borrows from all three.

Whereas some people consider pizza crust a mere conveyance for toppings, for Post, as a baker, it's critical to her creations.

"I think a lot of times, people don't think of pizza and bread as the same thing," she said.

But what is pizza if not a form of open-faced sandwich?, Post argued.

"I don't want people to discard their crust," she said.

Those lucky enough to have nabbed a ticket to April's pop-up will feast on a pie topped with beets, greens, pickled rhubarb and ricotta sauce, among other seasonal ingredients.

"I feel like I like different toppings on a pizza. I do draw from other cultures and what they put on their flatbreads," said Post, citing Albany Park's Middle Eastern restaurants as one source of inspiration.

A Rachel Post pizza creation: cherries with arugula and sopressa. (Instagram/Rachel Post)

Post, who has a culinary degree, has spent most of her career on the pastry side of the business, the last six years at Floriole, where owners Sandra and Mathieu Holl encouraged her to spread her wings.

"I kept trying to build on my job, to make it more interesting to me," she said. "Sandra and Mathieu ... let you run wild with it."

Like every other place she's ever worked, Post found herself introducing pizza — which marries her interest in bread-making and savory cooking — to the offerings at Floriole.

"We did a couple of pizza dinners, then started doing it once a week, twice a week," she said. "It got to the point where all I want to do is pizza."

Post gradually recognized what had been staring her in the face all along: "I keep trying to make pizza. Maybe I should do pizza."

She left Floriole to focus her attention on Our House, which is still in what Post called the "developmental phase" as she scouts for a location and secures financing.

Wherever she lands, Post's intent is to establish a connection with the community, something pizza is uniquely positioned to do.

"Pizza is really approachable," she said. "Even bad pizza reminds you of something good."