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We recently wrote about all the commotion over a Detroit-style pizza being made in Brooklyn. The New York Post wrote an editorial about it titled: "Detroit-style Pizza is the New Hipster Horror."
Photo from Unit 120 website
The paper says:
What a diss to Ray’s Original, Famous Original Ray’s and the city’s other classic slice-venders. Even aficionados of those Chicago quiches — “deep-dish pizza” — must be appalled.
Now, Christine Chiaola of LA Weekly writes about the Detroit-style pizza in Los Angeles:
In the battle for regional American pizza dominance, Detroit seldom gets mentioned with much frequency or fervency. Even in Los Angeles, conversations mostly center on New York vs. Chicago – if there's much of a fight. We've been more consumed with Neapolitan renditions after all.
Chefs Alvin Cailan and Isa Fabro don't have much at stake on either side. Both native Angelenos, the duo created one of L.A.'s best Detroit-inspired pies at Cailan's Chinatown restaurant incubator Unit 120. In doing so, they may have opened the floodgates for the type of heated exchanges that can bring out the inner trolls in most of us. Not that there's much to gripe about, really. The two will be the first to say that Detroit's tradition is more of a reference than a recipe.
"We take certain nuances like the cheese crust," says Cailan. Adds Fabro, "It's square and thicker. We're selling it as one big pizza." They acknowledge that they've veered away from other traditional Detroit elements like using sauce ladled over cheese or baking the pie in an industrial parts tray.
Perhaps the strongest tie to the Motor City is in the crispier crust. Mastered by Fabro after a week's worth of testing, the dough renders a crust similar to a focaccia. Having encountered one too many burnt or under-baked pies, the chefs pursued one that would exemplify the Maillard reaction, a chemical process responsible for its golden-brown crust.
