Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

Sweet.  Tangy vinegar.  Red Wine.  Pepper (big pepper!).  Sweet salt (sweet sweet salt!).  Fennel. What am I talking about?  I am writing this while savoring a Finnochiona Salami from Salumi Artisan Cured Meats in Seattle.  I mean this: it is performing a circus act with my taste buds!  To my palate this salumi reveals a balanced explosion of sweetness that starts with a juicy red wine richness and then reveals a sweet vinegar taste,…Read More…

 Note from Peter:  Scott Wiener is a regular guest columnist here on Pizza Quest but, if you haven’t been on one of his legendary New York City pizza tours, you might not know much about him or about his impressive collection of pizza boxes from around the world. So, here’s a closer look from my recent conversation with Scott.  There are some links at the end if you want to…Read More…

Hi Again, As we continue our visit with David Bravdica and his outdoor Brava Pizzeria della Strada, in Denver, Colorado, he takes us a little deeper into his process. In this segment we look at some of the ingredients, most of them locally grown and sourced (including his flour), that he preps and keeps chilled in his refrigerated rig. As he mentioned in the opening segment, David typically bakes about…Read More…

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to give you an update on some of my upcoming classes and appearances this fall. Here are four, in order of dates: Sept. 3rd: The Decatur Book Festival, in Decatur, GA, 4 PM, where I will be doing a short demo/talk/tasting/signing as a way of kicking off the release of my newest book, “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice 15th Anniversary Edition.”  It will be at the Cooking/Demo…Read More…

Note from Peter: A few months ago I got to be a judge at the Caputo Cup Pizza Championship in NYC (we’ve already posted a few pieces on this event), where I met fellow judge and noted journalist Daniel Young. What I didn’t know until we met was that he was about to release a major book, Where to Eat Pizza, featuring about 1,700 of the best pizzerias in the…Read More…

Pizza a Mano — hand made pizza –– what is it that calls us to be pizza makers? Why would someone like Paulie Gee leave a career in computer technology to stand in front of a hot oven in Brooklyn? Why is a multi-talented entrepreneur like Tony Gemignani unable to keep his hands off any dough ball that crosses his path? I bet that at some point anyone who is…Read More…

I was strolling through my local Whole Foods market one day and, as I often do, got stuck at the olive bar. Contemplating which olives to get to use on some pizza, or just to enjoy, I was drawn to these lovely marinated mushrooms. I popped one in my mouth when nobody was looking…maybe. They were delicious with a little herbed buttery start with a zingy vinegary finish. This would…Read More…

Hi Everyone, As many of you know, I recently launched a new video course on Craftsy called “Artisan Bread Making: Ancient and Sprouted Grains.”  Craftsy allows me to offer a 50% discount to my followers, which means you can get the course for $19.99 instead of $39.99. So, for $20 bucks you can get the full video course, which consists of six lessons plus all the recipes and other resource…Read More…

A few years ago, while exploring the Denver pizza scene (see our recent webisode series on Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza), our friends at The Fire Within told us about a pizzaiolo who was using one of their mobile pizza units (made with a Forno Bravo oven, of course), who was parked right on the famous 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver, just at the base of the iconic clock tower on…Read More…

Welcome to Mid-Summer (unless you’re in the Southern Hemisphere in which case, welcome to Mid-Winter)! Interesting happenings here and there. Here are a couple for consideration: Our friend, Daniel Young, the author of the must have, “Where to Eat Pizza,” just sent out a note with the following message: When it comes to declaring which pizza rises above them all there is strength in numbers. I may be the author of WHERE…Read More…