Final Webisode, Tony Gemignani, Respect the Craft

It’s fitting that we wrap up our first year of PizzaQuest.com with the final segment of our series with World Champion pizzaiolo, Tony Gemignani. We did it in grand fashion, climbing to the top of a hill above the Golden Gate Bridge, looking back on Tony’s new “kingdom.” It looks almost like the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz, and the view was truly majestic, as you will see (you can see Angel Island and a hint of Alcatraz off in the distance too). But it also gave us a chance to reflect back on some of the key life lessons that Tony shared with us during our time with him. His catchphrase at the restaurant is “Respect the Craft,” and he elaborates a bit in this segment about what he thinks are the keys to success for anyone getting into the pizza game (for those who were with us way back when we launched, you may recall Tony’s guest column — still available in the archives of the Guest Columns section — in which he writes about his strong feelings regarding respect for the craft).

Perhaps his most valuable parting advice in this segment, which sums up so perfectly what we’ve discovered in all our encounters with artisans everywhere that we traveled during our first year of Pizza Quest, and a great place to end the year, is this: “You have to be in love with it.”