Pizza Vending Machines: Let's Pizza Vs The Pie-O-Matic

Pizza Vending Machines Come and Go...But the Pie-O-Matic will live forever...

Marty sent me the following article from the New York Times about Pizza Vending Machines in Italy.

"Is Europe bringing back the automat? Claudio Torghele hopes so.

Over the last decade, Mr. Torghele, 56, an entrepreneur in this northern Italian city who first made money selling pasta in California, has developed a vending machine that cooks pizza. The machine does not just slip a frozen pizza into a microwave. It actually whips up flour, water, tomato sauce and fresh ingredients to produce a piping hot pizza in about three minutes..."

The article goes on to explain how through various testing different devices the developers of Let's Pizza were able to create a viable machine that will actually make pizzas...

You can read the entire article here.

According to the Let's Pizza Website:

Let's Pizza is the only machine able to create pizza by kneading it on the spot and adding only fresh ingredients; water, flour, tomatoes, mozzarella and various toppings.
The aroma and the taste of an Italian pizza made with only the best Italian products at any time of the day or night in a practical takeaway cardboard box is ready for you.

And the company goes on to explain: "The pizza is untouched by human hands..."

Let's Pizza is innovative, yes. But not the first pizza vending machine...

 Lew Cennoti a pizzaiolo from Connecticut was light years ahead of his time. Lew is reported to have invented the first frozen pizza. He also invented the first pizza vending machine known as The Pie-O-Matic.

Lew Cenotti's Pie-O-Matic

I wish I had met Lew Cenotti. He was from West Haven, Connecticut and made pizza from 1950's-1978.

 His pizzeria "Lew's Apizza" served legendary pizzas and incredible subs. I know I would have enjoyed our conversations. He was a dedicated father, husband and pizza professional. His wife, Louise, was known as "Mrs. Lew!"

"One of Lew's many accomplishments in addition to the first frozen pizza, was the first Pizza Vending Machine. The machine, which actually created pizza before your eyes, was featured at the World's Fair. This machine made pizza which was a smaller version of the pizza served at "Lew's Apizza".


His son Stephen, who along with his two brothers (Lenny and Phil), lived upstairs from "Lew's Apizza" reports:

"Every morning around 6:00 AM he would go downstairs and mix the dough, by hand, fresh everyday. He would also shape some of the dough into loaves of bread. Don't take my word for it. Ask ANYBODY who lived in West Haven then..."

You can view more pictures and read all about the "Pie-O-Matic" Pizza machine at this link:

Lew Cenotti's Pie-O-Matic

Thanks Lew. You were an exrta-ordinary pizzaiolo!

 pizza in heaven,

albert grande
The Pizza Promoter

 If you really want to get serious about making pizza and pasta, get the best pizza and pasta package ever assembled,  (Made in Italy), right here.

White Pizza Memories from Dick Cami

Noted pizzaiolo Dick Cami shares the following pizza tale, exclusively for The Pizza Therapy Pizza Blog:

Hiya Albert...here's a story that happened to me when there were only about four or five pizzeria's in the Bronx...that's going way back:

White Pie

We opened the Daiquiri Palace about twenty two years ago in Palma, Majorca and my partner's son Gil Davis runs it now as a seasonal business, besides daiquiri’s we serve fresh made pizza’s on the beach. I'm a transplanted New Yorker that moved to Miami in '59 and I've been in the nightclub and restaurant business all my life, I now live Portland, Oregon

My grandfather was a chef who came over from Faenza, Italy to work at the Ritz Hotel in New York City in the early 1900’s and when he retired he still kept his hand in the business by making sauces for local restaurants in the upper Bronx and he also made a lot of specialties for Mercurio's market in Mount Vernon, an Italian specialty store. As a little boy I remember going with him every weekend when he made all their sausages, salami's and other varieties of cold cuts plus dessert items like Zuppa Inglesia.

One of my jobs was to prick holes in all the sausages he had just made with a brush that had a thousand tiny little needles in it. Another job he gave me was to grate the Parmiggiano cheese. I remember him saying, "Dickie make sure I’ma hear you whistle...OK?"

"What for Grandpa?"

"So I maka sure you no eatta the cheese."

He was no dummy.

I don’t know who invented the first four-cheese pizza but I’ll never forget
The first time he made me one. In these restaurants he always made me a pizza for lunch…I always looked forward to it but on this one particular day as I sat in the booth waiting for my pizza to arrive he finally came and slid an all white pizza in front of me. I was shocked because I thought he was playing a joke on me…I didn’t see any sauce so I asked him,

“Hey grandpa…what happened you forgot the sauce?”

He gave me a slow burn look and said, “Mangia e sta zito.” Which translate to, “eat and shut up.”

I honestly can't tell you what was in that cheese pizza he made...I just remember it was fabulous. As far as an Alfredo sauce...I'm not much in favor of putting a lot of liquid on a pizza...I'm from the old school of picking up the slice, bending it over and eating it from there.

Thanks…Dick Cami

Now that's some pizza story Dick!
Thanks for sharing,

albert grande
The Pizza Promoter

Here is some charming pizza you may want to discover. 14 K White Gold!