Introducing the Perfect Pizza Press

Kelly and I really enjoy pizza. Since we’re vegans (we don’t consume or use animal products), I’ve been making our pizza’s from scratch, dough included, using all vegan ingredients. Vegan cheese, while tasting just fine, has always been kind of an issue when it comes to cutting a freshly baked pizza. I tend to mangle the cheese and the toppings as I cut, and while the pizza is still good, I always feel like the pieces come out messier than they should.

For a while, after each time I mangled a pizza, I’d say to Kelly something along the lines of “I have an idea for a cutter that would pre-cut the slices.” I’m sure I was never that precise, but the idea of a metal utensil that could be used to cut pre-cooked pizza slices always stuck in my mind. I spent time looking for something that did the job, but all I found were either hand held cutters, or large whole pizza cutters, operating on cooked pizzas. Small hand held cutters never worked for me, and large whole pizza cutters started at $200.00. That seemed pretty outrageous for something as simple as I what I had in mind. Finally, I decided to just have one made by a welder or metal worker. That is what I present to the world now:

My invention (for lack of a better word), is a large utensil made of metal, that is pressed into flattened uncooked pizza dough, right after the sauce is put on. The utensil remains in place all through placing toppings on the pizza and the cooking process. The pieces of pizza cook individually, while the metal actually causes the sides of the pizza to cook a little too. The result is a piece of pizza that has all toppings in tact and a clean cut every time. Let me illustrate the process as I tested it myself.

I won’t go into a recipe for pizza or dough here, but simply show the important steps.

First, the dough is spread out and sauce put on.

Second, I spray the Perfect Pizza Press with non-stick cooking spray. This version of the Press requires a tad bit of seasoning.

Next, I firmly press into the dough, using the handles for force and to rock the Press a little to make sure the pieces are cut.

Then I put on the toppings. What you see in this picture are eight slices containing a mix of vegan mozzarella and vegan cheddar cheese, topped with either vegan pepperoni, vegan sausage, or both. You can customize each slice if you want to.

Once cooked, the Press is carefully pulled out. Some cheese stuck in a couple places in my first try, and I think this was due to inconsistent spraying of oil. However, just a quick flick of a butter knife took care of that. The dough did not stick to the metal, and this is the result: Eight perfectly sized pieces of pizza with three different kinds of topping configuration. All other pizza slice devices that I could find are designed to operate on cooked pizzas. My design is the only one I’ve been able to find that focuses on the slice from the beginning and all the way through the cooking process.

There are a few reasons I’m posting this. First, I’m staking my claim to this idea publicly on this day. Secondly, if anyone has seen this before, please tell me. I did a lot of searching and couldn’t find anything that worked like my idea. I even did patent searches. Thirdly, and most importantly, I’m offering this for sale at cost to anyone who would like to try this out for themselves. This is an important step in my eventual goal to market and sell this on a mass scale. It needs more real world use, but I can assure you that it works as I have described, and is extremely durable. Hence, I’m selling it cost because it should last you quite a while.

If anyone is interested in purchasing one of my Perfect Pizza Presses or has feedback please let me know. Since I am not at the mass manufacturing stage, I can’t say what the cost will be until I get an idea of how many people want it to test with. If you’re interested, please email me, and I will let you know when I can calculate the price. Furthermore, since this an early product design, I’ll throw in a 2 year warranty on the Press for any manufacturing defects. It should last nearly forever unless it gets used as a frisbee.

If you’re not interested, but have feedback and comments anyway, I would appreciate that as well. This is completely out of the realm of my normal day job and skill set, and it’s all new to me. Any and all feedback is desired.

To contact me, the best way is shane dot p dot brady at gmail.com. Again, once I get a number (I hope someone is interested ), I’ll be able to give people a price, and if you’re still interested, we’ll work out shipping details as well as what size is needed.

Thank you for reading this and for any feedback it brings on.