Do these pizza slices look attractive and/or appetizing?
When I went to one of my all-time favorite West Hartford restaurants last Saturday, I ordered the same thing I frequently order. A small pizza with extra sauce and very light cheese, to-go. Sometimes, I order pepperoni, but this time I wanted a very simple pie.
All week long, I'd been thinking about getting a pizza on Saturday. One week earlier, I went to the same restaurant and placed the exact same pizza order. The pizza I got last week was superb! A generous layer of pizza sauce covered the delicious, golden-brown crust along with a small amount of melted and browned mozzarella cheese.
As a former pizza cook at three different pizza restaurants, and a lifelong pizza-lover, I know a little bit about making and baking pies. As soon as I opened the box holding this pizza, I said "What is this?"
When I looked closer at this funky pizza pie, it appeared that it had cooked in the oven, then another coat of pizza sauce was spread on top of the cooked cheese. It looked to me like the extra layer of pizza sauce on top was applied cold and was not heated in the oven.
Seeing this unusual pizza made me wonder if it was a pizza that was previously cooked, then covered with a bunch of extra sauce when I placed my order. From experience, I know that somtimes pizzas don't get picked-up by the people that order them, and will often sit on top of pizza ovens for hours.
Even if the pizza was baked fresh for my order, the extra sauce should be able to fit comfortably underneath the cheese. While I am very fond of this restaurant's pizza sauce, the visual presentation was not very appealing.
It should be added that when I was paying the cashier , I could easily look into the mostly-open kitchen, and noticed three new employees whom I'd never seen before. Two of the staff members appeared to be prep cooks and one guy was holding a pizza peel while standing near the pizza ovens.
Since I've been patronizing this restaurant for decades now, I know some of the employees by name, including the waitress who rang me up that evening. A few minutes after seeing this freaky-deaky pizza pie, I called the restaurant and spoke to the waitress on the phone.
It was reassuring to hear her say that I could bring the pie back right away, and they would cook another one for me. Because it was already fairly late at that point and I didn't feel like going out then, I said I'd try to get there the next day.
Although I wasn't able to get back to the pizza restaurant the following day, I do appreciate their offer to replace the pie. Maybe, in the future, I'll have to check the appearance of all the pizza pies I order. Hopefully, not.
