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peppertree

(21,642 posts)
Fri May 7, 2021, 01:04 PM May 2021

Italians grapple with the convenience and cultural terror of a pizza vending machine

The Mr. Go Pizza machine is a marvel of modern engineering. After a customer selects one of its varieties, which range in price from €4.50 to €6, the good Signore Pizza kneads, seasons, tops, and cooks a fresh pizza in three minutes.

The whole process is visible through a little window. It’s great.

And yet, despite the miracle this technology represents, Reuters’ interviews with locals show that the development of an automatic pizza maker has prompted the kind of reactions that might be expected from someone suggesting a robot raise their baby.

One man says Mr. Go’s pizza “looks good but it is much smaller than in a restaurant and there [are] less topping[s].” Another customer says “it’s OK but it’s not pizza” while a woman named Gina “rejected the concept outright.”

“Terrible,” Gina said. “Pizza really needs to be eaten hot, immediately. This doesn’t work for me.”

At: https://news.avclub.com/italians-grapple-with-the-convenience-and-cultural-terr-1846844796



Ma che cazzo è questo?: Claudio Zampiga inspects the outcome at Rome's first automatic pizza vending machine - capable of kneading, seasoning and cooking a pizza in three minutes.

It remains to be seen how Italians will react to the device, in a country where customers are accustomed to watching a pizzaiolo prepare pizza in a wood-burning brick oven within sight of your table.
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Italians grapple with the convenience and cultural terror of a pizza vending machine (Original Post) peppertree May 2021 OP
Looks good to me soothsayer May 2021 #1
Compared to microwave pizzas around here... Buckeye_Democrat May 2021 #2
My Italian wife was expressing her horror about it this morning. CaptainTruth May 2021 #3
The crust definitely doesn't look bubbly! Buckeye_Democrat May 2021 #4
When I lived there they had two kinds of pizza in Rome. BigmanPigman May 2021 #5
I'm a pizza fanatic... mac2766 May 2021 #6
A youtube video... mac2766 May 2021 #7
The crust looks more like a proper Neapolitan... Buckeye_Democrat May 2021 #8
this is a crime against humanity. nt Javaman May 2021 #9

Buckeye_Democrat

(14,855 posts)
2. Compared to microwave pizzas around here...
Fri May 7, 2021, 01:13 PM
May 2021

... it looks pretty decent!

Don't really know without tasting it, though.

CaptainTruth

(6,594 posts)
3. My Italian wife was expressing her horror about it this morning.
Fri May 7, 2021, 03:27 PM
May 2021

In the pic the crust looks like Neapolitan style pizza, which means the dough should be left to rise for 48 hours before the pizza is made. Are they really doing that in a vending machine?

Buckeye_Democrat

(14,855 posts)
4. The crust definitely doesn't look bubbly!
Fri May 7, 2021, 03:34 PM
May 2021

The kind of thing that should happen if damp dough is allowed to slowly ferment, then cooked at a high temperature to trap the steam-created bubbles in the gluten.

BigmanPigman

(51,613 posts)
5. When I lived there they had two kinds of pizza in Rome.
Fri May 7, 2021, 04:52 PM
May 2021

There was the kind served from a bizza bar where giant rectangular pans are filled with assorted varieties. You walk up and tell the counter person how big a slice you want. They hack off a slice, weigh it then charge you and you walk out eating it at room temp.

The other kind is sit down, small, round, very wet, and is eaten with a fork and knife starting in the center.

This pizza machine reminds me more of the kind you grab to go from the pizza bars.

 

mac2766

(658 posts)
6. I'm a pizza fanatic...
Sat May 8, 2021, 09:54 AM
May 2021

Not so much fanatical about how good it either is or is not, but fanatical in that I love to eat pizza. I prefer to eat a freshly made and piping hot pizza straight out of the wood oven at my favorite pizza restaurant - The Tuscan Oven, Pensacola, FL - but I'll eat frozen pizza as well. Heck! I even eat Pizza Hut pizza, if you can believe that. Oh... one exception is Papa Johns. I haven't eaten a Papa Johns pizza since the douche bag owner started spouting off.

I would gladly put my money into a vending machine that made me a pizza in 3 minutes. I'd imagine it wouldn't be the best pizza that I will have eaten, but it is pizza, and as I've stated, I love pizza.

I'm going to have to see if I can find a full video of the machine actually taking money, making the pizza, and then dispensing it to the customer. That should be fun to watch.

 

mac2766

(658 posts)
7. A youtube video...
Sat May 8, 2021, 10:01 AM
May 2021


I believe I'd eat that pizza. I might even be tempted to invest in the vending machines.

Buckeye_Democrat

(14,855 posts)
8. The crust looks more like a proper Neapolitan...
Sat May 8, 2021, 10:09 AM
May 2021

... in that video!

I'd try it!

My coworkers would've LOVED having such an option in the break room! Looks far better than some old mini-pizza wrapped in plastic that comes with microwave instructions!

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