Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

I think I stumbled onto something here. I was out market foraging one day recently and a little round of cheese caught my eye. It was a Cowgirl Creamery Triple Cream called Red Hawk. I was looking to make some pizza and I thought maybe I could play around with this, or worst case play around with it over some crackers! When I got home I tasted it. Yeah, it…Read More…

The very first stop in our Pizza Quest filming expedition ten years ago was at Pizzeria Mozza, Nancy Silverton’s groundbreaking restaurant in Los Angeles, where a pizza themed menu was elevated to destination fine dining. The pizzas there were — and still are — both creative and exquisite, raising the bar (and now much copied) for what a pizza could be. Nancy is a visionary, whether as the founder of…Read More…

The very first stop in our Pizza Quest filming expedition ten years ago was at Pizzeria Mozza, Nancy Silverton’s groundbreaking restaurant in Los Angeles, where a pizza themed menu was elevated to destination fine dining, with lines put the door. The pizzas there were — and still are — both creative and exquisite, raising the bar (and now much copied) for what a pizza could fully be. Nancy is a…Read More…

Tony Gemignani is a rock star in the pizza universe and has done so much to help elevate the quality of pizza throughout the world. I call him “The Mozart of Pizza” because he is so proficient — a master, actually — in every style. In this two part interview, he shares with us his story, drive, vision, and competitive spirit. It’s been ten years since we filmed with him,…Read More…

Tony Gemignani is a rock star in the pizza universe and has done so much to help elevate the quality of pizza throughout the world. I call him “The Mozart of Pizza” because he is so proficient — a master, actually — in every style. In this two part interview, he shares with us his story, drive, vision, and competitive spirit. It’s been ten years since we filmed with him,…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Talk. In this final part of our conversation with the Pizza Yodi’s, Brian Spangler and John Arena, we wrap things up and also hear how they have managed to keep their restaurants profitable, their staff working, and pivot their business plans during this age of Covid. John and Brian will return in future episodes as part of our Pizza Yodi’s series, but upcoming episodes will feature…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Talk. In this second of three parts, our Pizza Yodi’s, John Arena and Brian Spangler, continue describing how they have tweaked and tinkered with their dough over the years in the ongoing quest for their version of the pizza pizza. As they reveal, the learning never ends….

Welcoming to our new series, Pizza Talk, presented by Pizza Quest. This first posting features a short welcome segment followed by our kick-off episode, featuring our panel of dough and pizza guru’s, John Arena and Brian Spangler. I call them our Pizza Yodi’s. Over the next few months we’ll be adding to our Yodi panel in a never-ending quest to explore the full gamut of knowledge collectively held by our…Read More…

Note from Peter: I met Mike Kurtz at Pizza Expo in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and became fascinated with the exponential growth of the product he created, Mike’s Hot Honey, especially when I served as a judge at pizza competitions and noticed how many competitors were using it on their pizzas. As a specialty product, it seemingly tipped over into ubiquity rather suddenly. When someone creates anything…Read More…

Hi Everyone, If you haven’t already registered for the wonderful Fermentology series created by NC State University, here’s the link for free registration as well as both the Zoom and Livestream info. The sessions are only 20 minutes long (like a TED Talk), and the weekly topics are outlined in this link: https://cals.ncsu.edu/applied-ecology/news/fermentology-mini-seminars/ . If you want to start a sourdough starter and join us for a special sensory session…Read More…