Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

We just received notice that one of our beloved Pizza Quest stars, Jim Ruddell, of Ruddell’s Smokehouse in Cayucos, CA, passed away. We featured Jim during our first season, and he also makes a short appearance in our highlight webisode, Pizza as Obsession, which is always found at the top of the Home Page. As Brad English reminded me, the smoked salmon fish taco he had when we filmed with…Read More…

I’ve been home for over three weeks now but am still enjoying flashbacks from Pizza Expo 2018. With over 8,000 people attending everyday, and hundreds of booths, there are probably over 8,000 versions of what Pizza Expo means to the attendees and vendors. For sure, plenty of pizza to taste, ingredients to sample, equipment to test drive, seminars and workshops to attend, and numerous competitions, there are just too many…Read More…

Note from Peter: I’m still working on my recap of the recent Pizza Expo in Las Vegas so, in the meantime, I wanted to share this very insightful post from guest columnist Joseph Calcagno, on the venerable tomato pie. Some of you may recall a series of columns we ran a few years ago by another one of our columnists, Bob Radcliffe, on the same subject (if not, you can…Read More…

Hi Everyone, Once again, here is John Arena, the legendary pizzaiolo from Las Vegas, Nevada, mentoring us all in the craft and history of pizza, with a little help from me, as we make a pizza in reverse, so to speak. You’ll see what I mean when you watch and, who knows, it may give you some ideas to play with on your own. Note: I just returned from the…Read More…

Since I am about to moderate a panel discussion with Nancy Silverton and Brian Spangler at the 2018 Pizza Expo (and expect to see many of you there on March 21st at 9:45), I wanted to bring back this terrific video interview we did with Nancy a few years ago as a way to prime the pump. Between this webisode and the interview I posted a few days ago with…Read More…

Note from Peter: I first met Brian Spangler about 18 years ago, when he owned a small mountain top artisan bread bakery outside of Portland, Oregon. He was hosting a meeting of the Board of Directors for the Bread Bakers Guild of America, and told me he someday hoped to open a place where he could also serve barbecue and pizza. Then, a couple of years later I saw him…Read More…

I know, I know–we are living in the Golden Age of Pizza. The very best exponents of our craft, Tony Gemignani, Anthony Falco, and of course Chris Bianco are turning out pizzas of unsurpassed quality. In fact, I’ve long maintained that today’s amateur pizzaiolo knows as much or more about the science of pizza making than many pro’s did in the past. Big improvements in technique, formulas, dough science and…Read More…

As promised, here’s a recap of my recent pan pizza crawl through Brooklyn and Manhattan, as choreographed by the indomitable Scott Wiener, founder of New York Pizza Tours (and regular contributor here on Pizza Quest). Background note: I am currently working on a book, scheduled for release next year, all about pan pizzas. These include focaccia, schiacciata, Sicilian, grandma, and the increasingly popular Roman and Detroit-styles. On this all day,…Read More…

Hi Everyone, I just got back from NYC where Pizza Quest Guest Columnist (and great guy), Scott Wiener, founder of New York Pizza Tours, orchestrated an amazing all day pizza crawl in search of killer “pan pizzas.” I will explain and post more about it right here within the next day or two, as soon as I can upload my photos and organize my thoughts. I was also in NYC…Read More…

I was talking to Peter the other day and, since I was going to make some pizzas, I asked if he had any ingredient ideas he might throw out for me to play with.  He said “Cauliflower”!  I really do like cauliflower, but to be honest, it’s one of those things that still has my childhood memories of flavorless, steamed cauliflower ingrained in how I perceive it.  It’s an ever-present…Read More…