By Omie Drawhorn
One hour prior to opening, Daniel Jimenez is molding pizza dough into circular pies, and sprinkling on toppings before they go into the wood fired oven. Jimenez, who along with his wife Katie, own and operate Old Oak Oven, sell pizza by the slice and whole pizzas out of their food cart on Jersey Street next door to Blue Bird Montessori.
Daniel Jimenez has worked everywhere from four star French restaurants to Portland’s Hot Lips Pizza, but in the kitchen making pizza is where his heart and passions lie.
Jimenez said the secret to his mouthwatering pizza is all in the crust.
The wood-fired oven is heated to between 800 and 900 degrees which gives the pizza “its beautiful seared crust. It’s crunchy like a baguette,” he said.
The dough is supple and the dough he is working with on Wednesday was made Monday morning.
“I make the dough 48 hours out, it gets the sugars to come out; fermentation is crucial,” he said. “If you don’t have good skins, you don’t have a good pizza.”
He said pizza dough is like an artist’s canvas to him. As he places the ingredients on the pizza, the cheese goes on first, which is opposite of the way most pizza restaurants.
“This way it doesn’t sog out the dough,” he said. “It allows the cheese to bake in the crust; it’s the way it was done in the old days.”
As a kid growing up in an Hispanic household, he ate Mexican food six days a week. He was a little jealous when classmates would talk about traditional “American” foods like grilled cheese sandwiches and pizza.
“When my father got paid on Thursdays, he’d buy a pizza,” he said, adding that enthusiasm of eating pizza has stayed with him.
With the bright colors of the peppers, cheeses, meats, sauces and greens, pizza is “a treat for the eyes,” Jimenez said. “It’s a farmer’s market on crust.”
Jimenez loves to get creative with toppings, and doesn’t skimp. He uses local, sustainable and often organic ingredients, and includes a seasonal selection.
Although he didn’t work in the kitchen at Hot Lips, the culinary school graduate was inspired to make his own pizza on his own time.
Every Sunday for the last four years, he would have friends over to eat his homemade pizza.
“My friends would beg me for an invite,” he said, adding he enjoys creating new pizza varieties.
Through word of mouth, Daniel said he has doubled the sales and product over the past two weeks, currently making 24 pizzas a day. Daniel is planning a Cinco de Mayo pizza for May’s First Friday – May 4.
The hours are Wednesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Pizza is $3 to $4 a slices and whole pizzas range from $15 to $17.
