SETH: Frank, nice to meet you.

FRANK: Nice to meet you.

SETH: I'm excited about this "Hot Mess" that I've heard so much about.

I'm already feeling the heat coming off this oven.

I'm excited to find out what this dish is all about.

FRANK: It's about many flavors, smoky, salty, sweet.

It's... it's me.

It's no, it's just really a really, just, very loud pizza.

So I think we should start with the dough first.

And that's where it really all begins.

SETH: If you don't have good dough, you're not going to have a good pie.

FRANK: Yeah, totally.

And so, this is the dough.

SETH: And you just spread it out with your fingers?

FRANK: Yeah.

SETH: You're never tempted to just toss it up in the air?

FRANK: No, I don't like doing that.

So we use, this is a Durum flour.

When I was researching dough, I learned that a lot of pizzaiolos would get white lung.

This stuff just falls right to the ground, where the Caputo gets airborne.

SETH: Is there ever a moment where it's quiet and nobody else is around, are you ever tempted to just try it?

FRANK: Good deal, yeah, yeah.

SETH: When I was a kid, that's all I wanted to do, was toss pizza dough up in the air.

FRANK: Oh yeah, I catch my crew throwing in the air all the time, man.

But it's cool.

So, the edge of a pizza is called a cornicione.

What I'm doing is I'm taking care not to crush the cornicione, and I'm opening it up.

Then I'll take it, and I'll open it... SETH: So elastic.

FRANK: Even more.

Then you take a pizza peel, put a little bit of flour on it.

At this point, right now, we start with cheese.

SETH: Oh, we're talking about a white pie here.

FRANK: Yeah, we kind of specialize in white pies here.

So we have very unique flavors.

We don't put a white sauce on them.

We throw some cheese on here.

SETH: This is the mozzarella?

FRANK: Yeah, this is the mozzarella.

After that, you get the caramelized onions to go on top.

These are really sweet and really salty.

Then we have the jalapenos, which these are brined for about 10 days.

The thing with jalapenos.

It's called "The Hot Mess" for a reason, because it's supposed to, you're supposed to sweat when you eat it.

We finish it with our house-made bacon.

SETH: I'm guessing this is some pretty good bacon.

FRANK: Yeah, it's incredible.

We cure it and then we smoke it.

My dad, I have to stop him from stealing my bacon.

Now we want to finish it off with a little of our olive oil.

And then from here, it goes into the oven.

SETH: Okay, well I've been feeling the burn from this oven on my back, and it's so mesmerizing watching these flames kind of leap across.

FRANK: It's an Italian dome oven, so it recirculates the hot air over and over again.

You just got to keep adding wood to it.

SETH: What kind of wood are you adding to it?

FRANK: We add oak.

I want a tight grained wood.

The tighter the grain, the harder it is to burn.

It gives off massive BTUs.

It adds a sweetness and a smokiness that you otherwise just aren't going to get in a gas oven.

SETH: I'll let you work your magic here.

FRANK: Sure.

Sure.

Take my pie.

You can see the flames are licking now.

We're good.

Throw this in there.

SETH: So what are you looking for on the, how do you say, cornicione... they call it?

FRANK: The cornicione, I'm looking for a nice shade of golden brown, mahogany, and black.

We want char on there.

Char is a bitterness, and that adds flavor.

SETH: It's not burnt, just charred.

FRANK: Yeah.

So, I would say that's it.

SETH: Wow, look at the bubbles.

FRANK: Yeah, it's hot.

And then from here, we'll throw on some gruyere cheese.

It's a great melting cheese.

So I'll raise it to get the heat...

The term is "doming", and what you're doing is kind of finishing the pie off.

You want to just quickly fill in the rest of the colors with the nice mahogany.

Then that's it basically.

SETH: Oh, nice.

A thing of beauty.

Let's head to the table and give it a try.

FRANK: All right.

I've been to Italy.

I've had their pizza, and I didn't want to emulate it because I know that it's not quite possible to get the produce that they have there, here.

I was just trying to create something of my own.

There's a lot of nuances in pizza that people don't really think about.

It's just not what's on it.

It's the crumb, the crust.

It's every little detail.

We really care about the pie, the food.

And I want, I want it to be the best.

SETH: All right, Frank, well I want to honor "The Hot Mess".

I want to try it while it's hot out of the oven.

That is flavorful like you promised, hot, smoky and surprisingly sweet too.

FRANK: I'm sweating looking at the jalapenos right now.

SETH: That is a nice slice of white pizza.

You know, normally, I'm a red sauce kind of guy... FRANK: Yeah, me too.

SETH: This might be able to make a convert outta me.

Neapolitan pie, you pick it up, it's just dripping wet.

This kind of holds its shape.

FRANK: Yep, that's the goal.

SETH: Not a knife and fork pizza.

FRANK: Definitely not, unless you want to.

SETH: You know, that char, now I'm getting near the crust, it does give it that little bitterness.

FRANK: That char is a different...

It's bitter, it's not sour.

It's bitter, so it's got many different textures, the smell.

You can smell it.

And it's a really pretty pie too, you know?

It's got little gems on it.

SETH: It glistens a little bit.

FRANK: Yeah, it does glisten.

SETH: The happy... FRANK: And it's got some cheese on it.

SETH: Well, it's delicious.

It's amazing how much is involved, from the work with the dough, getting that fire just right in the oven, to be able to have this hot, bubbly "Hot Mess" on the table.

Thanks for showing me all the steps and uh... FRANK: My pleasure.

SETH: Thanks, Frank.

FRANK: Absolutely.