Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

For the past twelve years I have been a presenter at the annual Asheville Bread Festival. There are a lot of things I like about this festival, an event that celebrates bread,of course, but also something even deeper. In fact, it reminds me a lot of PizzaQuest, where pizza is just the tip of the iceberg as we explore what I often call, “a fire in the belly that drives…Read More…

 As much as I love them, pizza competitions are super weird. You only get one shot to make the greatest pizza of your life, the one that’s going to win you the pride and admiration of all your friends and colleagues, but you have to do it in a strange place with an unfamiliar oven and dough you made in the hotel bathroom sink. These factors plague my brain while…Read More…

Deviled eggs were always a big deal in my family. Well, most things food related were. The unfortunate thing is that we tended to only see them show up during the holidays. It’s definitely a great party food – easy to pick one up and pop it in your mouth and swing back later and pop another in there. Repeat as often as necessary and warranted by how good they…Read More…

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the greatest of them all… Gennaro Lombardi, Frank Pepe, John Sasso (Johns Pizza in NYC), Totonno Pero…legendary pizza makers who have created a lasting impact on the craft. Wouldn’t you love to be able to travel back in time and experience pizza from the hands of the true masters? Surely they were the greatest pizza makers in history right? Nah, nope, no way,…Read More…

So here we are, at the end of our 10-part series with pizza maestro Peppe Miele, finishing up with one of my favorites, the Calabrese pizza.  Here’s the bottom line about this pizza: Calabrese salami is not pepperoni — it’s way better!  Not that pepperoni is bad, after all, how bad can any spicy salami with paprika be (other than how greasy it gets but, hey, for some people this…Read More…

Note from Peter: I’ve been receiving a lot of requests for a proper VPN Napoletana dough. I’ve posted this previously on the Forno Bravo site, but wanted to be sure I also made it available here on PizzaQuest — especially in light of Brad’s recent post on making Margherita pizzas in two different ovens. Enjoy!! A true Naples dough uses only flour, water, salt, and yeast. Some versions substitute sourdough…Read More…

My name is Brad English and I make pizzas. I have been told by my youngest that I am “ruining pizza” for my family. Now, to be fair to myself, she’s a fickle eater! She loves my pizza when I make it her way, which is with pepperoni or salami and “regular” mozzarella, just like she can get at any of our local pizzerias. I say to her, you have…Read More…

Note from Peter: Over a year ago, when I was in Chicago for a conference, I had a chance to taste a sneak peek of Craig Priebe’s new book, The United States of Pizza (Rizzoli Publishing), a few months before it came out. Craig is the personal corporate chef for executives of a major Chicago company, and he invited me and a few guests to this private tasting in the…Read More…

Over the years, with little more than some extreme luck, I’ve been able to spend time with some of the world’s great pizza makers and enthusiasts. Pizza has a complex sub-culture that includes artisans, entrepreneurs, teachers and, on occasion, some very interesting philosophers who view our craft as a metaphor that grants insight into the nature of humanity. For the very best thinkers in the pizza world there is no…Read More…

Just heard from Norma Knepp, who was interviewed earlier this week in my post on Tuesday. She has now returned from Las Vegas where she competed for the US Championship at the Pizza Expo. She reports that she had a wonderful time, met dozens of pizza luminaries, got interviewed for PMQ TV by our friend, Albert Grande, of PizzaTherapy.com, didn’t place in the competition but had fun regardless (BTW, Nino…Read More…