Northeast Ohio Grasp Pizza chef out to show Cleveland-style pizza higher than Detroit and Chicago in Hulu’s new ‘Greatest in Dough’ present

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Michael LaMarca, proprietor of 13 Grasp Pizza places in Northeast Ohio, is an skilled in Cleveland-style pizza and he’s displaying others why it’s the very best. LaMarca’s pizza chops will probably be judged Monday, Oct. 3, on Hulu’s new pizza competitors sequence “Greatest in Dough.” The present drops at 3 a.m. Monday and is out there for streaming after that.

Within the episode, LaMarca competes towards pizza cooks from Chicago and Detroit to show Cleveland-style pizza is the very best within the Midwest.

“Our area has a novel type of pizza,” says LaMarca, who, as captain of the U.S. Pizza Staff, travels all over the world selling pizza. “You hear about New York- and Chicago-style, however now we have a novel type of pizza as properly.”

“Our dough is extra of a bread recipe than a pizza crust recipe,” he explains. “It’s made with bread flour, fashioned and baked in a pan with a 45-degree edge.”

The sauce is completely different than different areas as properly. Whereas tomatoes are a near-universal sauce ingredient, Cleveland pizza sauce is seasoned with garlic and oregano in addition to basil, sugar and salt. He provides {that a} true Cleveland pizza makes use of a mixture of mozzarella and provolone cheese.

Getting again to the dough, LaMarca says, “Baking is a science. Dough is a science. It needs to be precise. The flour can’t be bleached or bromated. That provides chemical substances and issues I believe aren’t needed for dough.”

Whereas he received’t give away the award-winning course of, he notes, “We use a particular mix of flour. It’s high-gluten flour. We use extra of a bread recipe. When it bakes it’s crunchy on the underside and comfortable inside.”

LaMarca’s crust recipe has been a long time within the making. “I’ve been making dough since I used to be 6 years outdated. I might go to work with mother when she labored at a pizza store in Strongsville. I discovered to roll dough, lower cheese and do different duties. And I bought to make my very own pizza for lunch daily. It grew to become an habit.”

Because of this, he all the time needed to personal a pizza store. When the unique proprietor of Grasp Pizza in Mayfield Heights retired, LaMarca stop faculty and purchased the small, unassuming storefront. He took over in July 2000.

Sadly, LaMarca was recognized with celiac illness six years in the past and might now not eat his prized crust. Celiac is an immune system dysfunction that triggers bodily reactions to consuming gluten, a protein present in wheat, barley and rye.

“God has a humorous humorousness,” he laughs. “My ardour is in entrance of me daily and I can’t eat it.”

So, he developed a gluten-free pizza crust. He will get the “flour” from Naples, Italy, and the store makes 1,000 gluten-free shells every week for the native Grasp Pizza retailers.

When he eats gluten-free pizza, he says his favourite pizza is a conventional Cleveland-style cheese pizza.

Author Paris Wolfe is a Life and Tradition reporter — with an curiosity in meals and dining–for Cleveland.com. You possibly can attain her at pwolfe@cleveland.com. Right here’s a directory of her posts.