5 ms·

The part about the ovens all running at the same time is funny to me. 10 years from now when some new type of tech is discovered that will let pizza cook faste

The part about the ovens all running at the same time is funny to me. 10 years from now when some new type of tech is discovered that will let pizza cook faster some lonely programmer somewhere will have to find all the places it was hard coded.

WorldMaker 4y ago
The pizza ovens at this scale are massive industrial conveyer belts: the bake time is the time it takes the conveyer to move from the start of the oven to the end of the oven. The length of the conveyer belt is influenced by the number of pizzas (and other baked goods such as pastas, wings, and baked desserts) they want to be able to bake in somewhat parallel (obviously it is something more like a queue, but there's a major overlap in baking times of consequent items). The speed of the conveyer belt is influenced by operator safety concerns and also avoiding the "Lucy and Ethel backup problem" (from the famous episode of I Love Lucy about the conveyer belt at the chocolate factory). In many ways, at this industrial scale of oven the pizza recipes (and pasta recipes and wing types and baked desserts and everything else sent through the oven) are calibrated specifically to the bake times of the chosen oven conveyer belt length and speed rather than the other way around. (Which isn't to suggest that such ovens don't get redesigned from time to time, but that's likely a large enough project that Tracker programmer has plenty of lead time.)
- boomboomsubban 4y ago
  The conveyer pizza ovens I've seen had configurable speeds and temps on them, though nobody ever touched them. I always assumed it was for different altitudes. So the tracker program likely already expects configurable times.
  - toast0 4y ago
    I've seen similar controls on conveyor toasters, and seen conveyor pizza ovens in operation. If you really wanted to adjust the temperature/speed for a particular item, you'd need to leave a gap before and after that item (or group of that items, I guess), and that would ruin your throughput. You really want everything to cook at the same temperature and the same speed. Or you need multiple pipelines, one for each temperature and speed.
    - boomboomsubban 4y ago
      Adjusting for a particular item is nearly impossible, but an oven somewhere like Denver might have a different configured speed and temperature than an oven in Texas.
      - bombcar 4y ago
        I've seen a pizza place where they had two different speed ovens, one was for the simple pizzas and the other was for more complicated/thicker ones.
        function_seven 4y ago
        Back when I worked in a pizza place, we solved this same issue by just pushing the pie in further (for thin), or by yanking one back to the start after a couple minutes (for well-done requests). In the second scenario, prep guy would put an empty screen behind the pizza to reserve the space.
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  Those pizzas ovens are designed for efficiency, consistency, and not to require skilled workers: you pop the pizza in and it will come out exactly the same every time. Handling a traditional pizza oven is tricky and requires skills.
SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
> some new type of tech is discovered that will let pizza cook faster Pizza is actually cooked hot and fast compared to most other dishes already. I want the back of the oven to be 500C / 930F before I start. This is why a pizza oven is specialised equipment, a standard-issue kitchen oven doesn't get that hot (usually tops out under 300C), so doesn't give nearly as good results. And why it takes about 90-120 seconds per pizza to cook in a proper pizza oven. Though IDK, maybe Dominos process is different to this, for their different pizza style. If you wanted to cook even faster, then less toppings would help, but you may not want that, though you might get a good result in 60 seconds. And an even hotter might not work- I suspect that it would not give as good results, e.g. burned in one area and undercooked in another.
- bob1029 4y ago
  > And an even hotter might not work Indeed. >1000F is into meme-like territory regarding cook speed vs temperature tradeoff. If you had an extremely consistent process & everything was tuned you could maybe pull it off, but the stability of the system would be really bad.
- mometsi 4y ago
  There's plenty of room for improvement. <40s: Pressurize the cooking chamber like an autoclave (KFC fryers do this!) Use decompression to get a nice puffy crust edge, like a chinese popcorn bomb. <20s: Add a microwave emitter in the oven floor to ensure the interior cooks before the outside gets charred. <10s: Raise the temperature to cone 10, with a reducing atmosphere to minimize charring. Mount a passive Q-switched laser overhead to blast away any inorganic ash that forms on the surface. <.0000000005s: inertial confinement, I guess
  - joezydeco 4y ago
    Hot air convection ovens with a microwave booster are a real thing. TurboChef tried an industrial size oven that didn't sell well. They had a lot more success making the countertop ovens for Subway and Starbucks.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
seadan83 4y ago
Working at a pizza place, I was surprised there was a well-done and an al-dente option. Nobody knows to ask and it was a pain to track, so I never asked customers. . IIRC there was a button to slow the belt, but generally sliding the pizza back before taking it out generally did the trick and that pizza did not have to be cooked individually

WorldMaker 4y ago

The pizza ovens at this scale are massive industrial conveyer belts: the bake time is the time it takes the conveyer to move from the start of the oven to the end of the oven. The length of the conveyer belt is influenced by the number of pizzas (and other baked goods such as pastas, wings, and baked desserts) they want to be able to bake in somewhat parallel (obviously it is something more like a queue, but there's a major overlap in baking times of consequent items). The speed of the conveyer belt is influenced by operator safety concerns and also avoiding the "Lucy and Ethel backup problem" (from the famous episode of I Love Lucy about the conveyer belt at the chocolate factory). In many ways, at this industrial scale of oven the pizza recipes (and pasta recipes and wing types and baked desserts and everything else sent through the oven) are calibrated specifically to the bake times of the chosen oven conveyer belt length and speed rather than the other way around. (Which isn't to suggest that such ovens don't get redesigned from time to time, but that's likely a large enough project that Tracker programmer has plenty of lead time.)

boomboomsubban 4y ago
The conveyer pizza ovens I've seen had configurable speeds and temps on them, though nobody ever touched them. I always assumed it was for different altitudes. So the tracker program likely already expects configurable times.
- toast0 4y ago
  I've seen similar controls on conveyor toasters, and seen conveyor pizza ovens in operation. If you really wanted to adjust the temperature/speed for a particular item, you'd need to leave a gap before and after that item (or group of that items, I guess), and that would ruin your throughput. You really want everything to cook at the same temperature and the same speed. Or you need multiple pipelines, one for each temperature and speed.
  - boomboomsubban 4y ago
    Adjusting for a particular item is nearly impossible, but an oven somewhere like Denver might have a different configured speed and temperature than an oven in Texas.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      I've seen a pizza place where they had two different speed ovens, one was for the simple pizzas and the other was for more complicated/thicker ones.
      - function_seven 4y ago
        Back when I worked in a pizza place, we solved this same issue by just pushing the pie in further (for thin), or by yanking one back to the start after a couple minutes (for well-done requests). In the second scenario, prep guy would put an empty screen behind the pizza to reserve the space.
mytailorisrich 4y ago
Those pizzas ovens are designed for efficiency, consistency, and not to require skilled workers: you pop the pizza in and it will come out exactly the same every time. Handling a traditional pizza oven is tricky and requires skills.

SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago

> some new type of tech is discovered that will let pizza cook faster Pizza is actually cooked hot and fast compared to most other dishes already. I want the back of the oven to be 500C / 930F before I start. This is why a pizza oven is specialised equipment, a standard-issue kitchen oven doesn't get that hot (usually tops out under 300C), so doesn't give nearly as good results. And why it takes about 90-120 seconds per pizza to cook in a proper pizza oven. Though IDK, maybe Dominos process is different to this, for their different pizza style. If you wanted to cook even faster, then less toppings would help, but you may not want that, though you might get a good result in 60 seconds. And an even hotter might not work- I suspect that it would not give as good results, e.g. burned in one area and undercooked in another.

bob1029 4y ago
> And an even hotter might not work Indeed. >1000F is into meme-like territory regarding cook speed vs temperature tradeoff. If you had an extremely consistent process & everything was tuned you could maybe pull it off, but the stability of the system would be really bad.
mometsi 4y ago
There's plenty of room for improvement. <40s: Pressurize the cooking chamber like an autoclave (KFC fryers do this!) Use decompression to get a nice puffy crust edge, like a chinese popcorn bomb. <20s: Add a microwave emitter in the oven floor to ensure the interior cooks before the outside gets charred. <10s: Raise the temperature to cone 10, with a reducing atmosphere to minimize charring. Mount a passive Q-switched laser overhead to blast away any inorganic ash that forms on the surface. <.0000000005s: inertial confinement, I guess
- joezydeco 4y ago
  Hot air convection ovens with a microwave booster are a real thing. TurboChef tried an industrial size oven that didn't sell well. They had a lot more success making the countertop ovens for Subway and Starbucks.
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago

seadan83 4y ago

Working at a pizza place, I was surprised there was a well-done and an al-dente option. Nobody knows to ask and it was a pain to track, so I never asked customers. . IIRC there was a button to slow the belt, but generally sliding the pizza back before taking it out generally did the trick and that pizza did not have to be cooked individually