Yountville Cooks! Chez Panisse Cafe’s pizza dough
Most of the men and women interviewed for this column I know, some of them casually and many are good friends. This time, I am writing about someone that I met rather recently at a casual dinner party at the home of mutual friends. I enjoyed getting to know him and his wife, and when I found out that cooking was his passion, I thought, what a perfect candidate to interview for the column. Luckily he agreed.
So, I met with Jack Nelson, part-time Orinda and part-time Yountville resident, on a sunny morning. As happens with most of my candidates, the conversation was so interesting and there was so much to write about, that trying to fit all on one page, is a daunting task.
Jack was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in a family where home cooking was the norm rather than the exception. His mom and grandma were great cooks, basic stuff, but very tasty. They always made their own bread, rarely bought store-bought bread and even taught him how to make bread.
After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1980, he moved to Berkeley that August to attend law school. One of the reasons for his decision to move west was the weather. That winter the wind chill from where he moved, was 10 degrees below zero. Arriving in California for him, was a win-win. Besides the great weather, he lived 10 minutes from campus, and as fate would have it, one year later in August of 1981, he met his wife Ellen, who was born and raised in Berkeley.
During his first year in Berkeley he lived in a house with four other guys and during that time became an adventurous cook. One night a week, each had to shop, cook and clean up after a dinner for everyone. They experimented with Chinese, Indian, Italian and many fun dishes were created and enjoyed. This set-up worked for six months until their schedules changed and it became more difficult to follow the rotation. While the dinners ended, the fun memories of those meals have continued in Jack’s cooking repertoire.
After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley Boalt Hall College of Law in 1983, Jack joined Reed-Smith a large global law firm, where he became an expert on litigation and commercial disputes. In 1984, he and Ellen were married at the Berkeley Community Church and later moved to Lafayette and eventually to Montclair, a district of Oakland where they lived for eight years. In 1990, Jack made a partner with the firm and was fortunate to work in London from 2012 to 2014. He retired right before Labor Day in 2023.
Jack and Ellen loved living in Montclair, but after having two daughters, Lauren and Caitlin, decided raising them in Orinda would be a better fit for the family. There were always lots of fun family times in Orinda with an emphasis on great home-cooked meals, just as Jack remembered with his family. Today, Lauren, 32, is engaged to be married and Caitlin, 30, delivered Paige Louise Woods, Jack and Ellen’s first grandchild, in January.
Jack and Ellen loved living and raising their family in Orinda and had no intention of buying a house anywhere else. Then, during a Tour of Napa Bike Ride while they were staying at the Lavender Inn in Yountville, they spotted a house for sale that was reminiscent of a French country house. In August 2015, they became second homeowners in Yountville. After a bit of remodeling, in December of 2015, just as in Orinda, they began to make memories here in Yountville where this home is also filled with lots of fun times with family gathered around, cooking and having a great time.
Chez Panisse Cafe’s Pizza Dough
Makes one 12 – 14-inch pizza. Scale up as needed for multiple pies.
Mix together 1/4 cup lukewarm water, 1/4 cup flour and 2 teaspoons active dry yeast. Let it rise 20-30 minutes. It should be foamy.
Add in 1/2 cup lukewarm water, 1 tablespoon milk, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and 1-3/4 cup flour. (unbleached all-purpose flour is fine with Alice Waters, but Jack prefer’s King Arthur brand ‘00 Pizza Flour, which Safeway carries.)
Mix the dough with a wooden spoon until all the ingredients are incorporated and then turn it on a lightly floured surface. It should be soft and a little sticky. Knead the mixture for 10-15 minutes. Add a little flour as necessary to keep it from sticking to the surface but do so very sparingly. The dough should always be soft and moist, as this will produce the lightest and crispiest crust.
Turn the dough into a bowl lightly rubbed with olive oil and drizzle a little more oil over the surface of the dough to keep it from developing a crust. Cover the bowl and put it in a warm place for about 2 hours until has doubled in size. Punch the dough down and let it rise another 40 minutes. Shape it into a flat large circle or a few small ones and it’s ready.
Preheat an oven to 500 degrees, set up a wood-burning oven to temp or even a grill. To make the pizza you must work quickly so the dough doesn’t stick to whatever surface you prep it on. Sprinkle some cornmeal on a paddle or thin baking sheet. Spread sauce lightly on the dough and then add toppings. “Less is more” are the words to live by with both sauce and toppings. It is also a good idea to give the prep surface a little shake or two while you work to make sure the dough slides and is not sticking to the surface, which will prevent a most common disaster.
Slide the pizza off the prep surface onto a pizza stone in an oven or the floor of a wood oven or directly onto hot grill grates directly over very hot coals (really – it works). If the oven or grill is hot enough, the pizza should be done in as little as 5 to 6 minutes. A lot of toppings may require a couple more minutes.
Pizza is an art, not a science, so experiment.
