Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

Note from Peter: I met Lou Bank at the Fermentation Festival in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, where he put on an amazing dinner using all sorts of fermented foods (plenty of kimchee!!) and local pork and grains, but mainly it was a celebration, and “Master Class,” in mezcal. We tasted five different rare, artisan examples as Lou explained all the nuances. I’m no expert in mezcal spirit beverages, or tequila, it’s most…Read More…

Note from Peter: A few months ago I posted about this wonderful book by journalist Simran Sethi. It just recently came out in a soft cover version, which means it’s more affordable and, as you will see below in my review, well worth reading. If you like Michael Pollan and Dan Barber you will love this book.  Here’s my review, enjoy! Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We…Read More…

 Note from Peter: I met Albert Grande a number of years ago when he wrote to me about his website, pizzatherapy.com, which I immediately loved, and we’ve been corresponding ever since. I think of “Pizza Therapy” as an ongoing love letter to all of us, from an east coast guy transplanted to Hawaii, about the pizza memories of his youth. But, of course, it has become much more than that over the…Read More…

We’re back with David Bravdica, at his Denver outdoor pizzeria, Brava Pizzeria della Strada. In previous segments he told us how he got into and built his pizza and catering business, leaving a nice job in the corporate world to do something he loves.  Feel free to check out those three previous segments in our Webisode archive if you haven’t already seen them. This time around David shows us his…Read More…

Egg on a pizza!!! To me, egg is one of those unique ingredients on a pizza that, when done right, can elevate the experience of enjoying a pizza from good to great — from a meal to an indelible moment in time! There is something special about getting the egg just right – sunny side-up, with a runny beautiful yolk that you can spread across the cooked pizza, essentially, creating…Read More…

Note from Peter:  I met Meathead Goldwyn a few weeks ago at the Decatur Book Festival, where he held the culinary stage immediately before I went on, so I had a chance to watch his presentation, which was on “Busting Myths About Barbecue and Cooking.”  It was a fun filled hour, full of great tips on temperature control, best brands for food thermometers, how to cook a steak to the…Read More…

Hi Everyone, Here’s a link to a great pizza crawl this coming Wednesday, that our friend and regular guest columnist, Scott Weiner, is involved with. The proceeds go to support hunger relief, so please check it out and participate if you can.  http://sliceouthunger.org/nycdollarslicenight/ Let us know if any of you take part by posting comments below. We’d love to hear about your experience.  And thanks, Scott, for all your hard…Read More…

Hi Everyone, I’ve been on the road a lot lately, teaching classes and doing book signings for my new book, “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice 15th Anniversary Edition,” and I wanted to share a few observations and also give you the details for my upcoming appearance at the 9th Annual Fermentation Fest, in Reedsburg, Wisconsin on October 8th and 9th. First, these have been very challenging weeks, across the country and…Read More…

Last month we explored the basics of extending dough, but of course that is only part of the process. Once the dough has been properly shaped you have some choices to make. Most amateur pizza makers dedicate a great deal of thought to what they are going to put on their pizza and that is certainly important (we will cover topping selection in an upcoming installment). Right now let’s focus…Read More…

This time around David Bravdica shows us his award winning wild mushroom pizza, “The Fun Guy.”  This pizza is so tasty that I won’t say much here, but let you savor it yourself when you watch the video. However, I would like to point out that you pay attention to Dave’s dough shaping technique. We get e-mail requests all the time from folks wanting to know how to stretch a…Read More…