Emily Dorio
Before his pizzas bake into leopard-spotted glory inside Enrico, the coal-fired oven named for his great-grandfather, Tony Galzin, executive chef and co-founder of Nicky’s Coal Fired, counts on Bert, his starter, to get the dough going.
Nashville Lifestyles (NL): What is Bert’s origin?
Tony Galzin (TG): “I made Bert when I was the pastry chef at MK in Chicago.”
NL: What is he made of?
TG: “Bert is flour, water, and a symbiotic community of naturally occurring yeast and bacteria.
I started by submerging mashed up organic Michigan grapes, from my pals at Klug Farm, into a slurry of organic whole wheat and distilled water. That created an environment that attracted wild yeast and complementary bacteria.”
NL: What's Bert's age?
TG: “Bert turned eight on August 26!”
NL: So, he’s been with you all along?
TG: “The whole time. When we moved to Nashville, he actually rode in between me and Caroline in our U-Haul truck.”
NL: What are his likes and dislikes?
TG: “Bert likes attention most of all. He needs to be fed new water and flour every day. If that got missed, he would go bad as the amount of ethanol and lactic acid would overtake the yeast.
Bert also enjoys consistency. Small variations in his makeup (he's equal parts flour and water) make a significant impact on the hydration percentages of our final dough.
I'm not sure why, but some days the yeast gets super active and ‘parties’ overnight. We'll come into the kitchen in the morning and he will have exploded out of his container and all over the table and floor. It’s a terrible mess to clean up, but Bert's typically well mannered so we let the little episodes slide.”
NL: His ideal temperature?
TG: “Room temp.”
NL: Places he's traveled?
TG: “Bert's been to Chicago, Nashville, Portland, and St. Louis.”
NL: Why is Bert invaluable to you?
TG: “He's original. Bert has a unique flavor makeup from being in some different environments, and that means the pizza we make at Nicky's tastes like nowhere else.”