Mr Buckshot
April 4th, 2009, 10:08 PM
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/03/lets-pizza-italian-italy-pizza-vending-machine.html
http://slice.seriouseats.com/images/20090314-vendo.jpg
We're used to getting coffee, soda, candy, and chips from a vending machine. Now, according to the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/business/worldbusiness/14vend.html), if Claudio Torghele has his way, Italians and eventually Americans will be able to get a made-while-you-watch, freshly baked pizza from a vending machine.
The machine does not just slip a frozen pizza into a microwave. It actually whips up flour, water, tomato sauce, and fresh ingredients to produce a piping hot pizza in about three minutes.
The customer presses a button to choose one of four varieties—Margherita (plain cheese and tomato sauce), bacon, ham or fresh greens. A plastic container dumps flour into a drum resembling a tiny washing machine; a squirt of water follows, and the drum goes into a spin cycle, forming a blob of dough that is then pressed flat to form a 12-inch disk.
Tomato paste is squirted onto the dough and cheese is added before it is lifted into a small infrared oven. The baked pizza then slips onto a cardboard tray and out into the customer’s waiting hands. Mr. Torghele says the pizza will cost as little $4.50, depending on the variety.
http://slice.seriouseats.com/images/20090314-pizzadetail.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/23819997@N03/3297250362/)
Photograph from popaitaly on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/23819997@N03/3297250362/)
From the looks of this photo we found on Flickr, this pizza is more of a novelty item than an object of desire. It may be made fresh before your eyes, but it certainly looks like a frozen pizza, doesn't it?
The pizza may not look great (it is machine made, vs hand-made), but I'm still interested. Pizza Hut and Dominos and Little Caesar's aren't cheap, especially when you get them delivered.
These things would be great additions to school cafeterias and university food courts. Arguably, you could just head to Safeway and buy a frozen pizza, but then you have to bake it in the oven, and university dorms typically don't have ovens. This instant-pizza-vending machine would certainly address that problem. Three minutes to make the whole pizza, versus 10 minutes to preheat the oven and another 10 to bake a frozen one...I'm for it.
Anyone interested in seeing these nifty vending machines in town soon?
http://slice.seriouseats.com/images/20090314-vendo.jpg
We're used to getting coffee, soda, candy, and chips from a vending machine. Now, according to the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/business/worldbusiness/14vend.html), if Claudio Torghele has his way, Italians and eventually Americans will be able to get a made-while-you-watch, freshly baked pizza from a vending machine.
The machine does not just slip a frozen pizza into a microwave. It actually whips up flour, water, tomato sauce, and fresh ingredients to produce a piping hot pizza in about three minutes.
The customer presses a button to choose one of four varieties—Margherita (plain cheese and tomato sauce), bacon, ham or fresh greens. A plastic container dumps flour into a drum resembling a tiny washing machine; a squirt of water follows, and the drum goes into a spin cycle, forming a blob of dough that is then pressed flat to form a 12-inch disk.
Tomato paste is squirted onto the dough and cheese is added before it is lifted into a small infrared oven. The baked pizza then slips onto a cardboard tray and out into the customer’s waiting hands. Mr. Torghele says the pizza will cost as little $4.50, depending on the variety.
http://slice.seriouseats.com/images/20090314-pizzadetail.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/23819997@N03/3297250362/)
Photograph from popaitaly on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/23819997@N03/3297250362/)
From the looks of this photo we found on Flickr, this pizza is more of a novelty item than an object of desire. It may be made fresh before your eyes, but it certainly looks like a frozen pizza, doesn't it?
The pizza may not look great (it is machine made, vs hand-made), but I'm still interested. Pizza Hut and Dominos and Little Caesar's aren't cheap, especially when you get them delivered.
These things would be great additions to school cafeterias and university food courts. Arguably, you could just head to Safeway and buy a frozen pizza, but then you have to bake it in the oven, and university dorms typically don't have ovens. This instant-pizza-vending machine would certainly address that problem. Three minutes to make the whole pizza, versus 10 minutes to preheat the oven and another 10 to bake a frozen one...I'm for it.
Anyone interested in seeing these nifty vending machines in town soon?