Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

 Note from Peter:  In January, I had the honor of being one of the judges for the 2016 Caputo Cup Pizza Championship. I served with Metro Pizza founder John Arena and Pete LaChappelle, publisher of Pizza Today Magazine (and also the organizer of the annual Pizza Expo in Las Vegas), as judges in the New York-Style category. Our category actually included any form of pizza baked in a pizzeria-style deck…Read More…

White pizza can take on many forms, whether with ricotta cheese and spinach, as we often find in the popular New York-style version, or simply any pizza without tomato sauce.  In this classic Neapolitan version, Peppe shows how he builds his bianca by first making, essentially, a Margherita without sauce, and then layering on the flavors after it comes out of the oven. In this instance, fresh prosciutto crudo (raw,…Read More…

Of all the controversies in the world, the one that makes the least sense to me is that of how to properly eat pizza. Not a week goes by without a tour guest asking my opinion on the subject, citing alleged faux pas by public figures like Donald Trump and Bill Deblasio. They clearly expect me to react like Jon Stewart, with complete disgust for any method requiring utensils other…Read More…

Note from Peter:  I’ve recommended interesting products here from time to time, but only rarely.  However, I get so many emails from folks lamenting a broken or cracked baking stone that I couldn’t resist posting this guest column from our long time friend, Bob Radcliffe (I remember when I dropped my 10 year old stone and had to fight off serious tears — it was a type of mourning after…Read More…

I often say that pizza is just dough with something on it. But, when you think about it, it can also be dough with something in it (which means, a nicely made grilled cheese sandwich is a kind of pizza too!). In this week’s segment, Peppe shows us how easy it is to use pizza dough to make a classic calzone filled with salumi, ricotta and mozzarella (with a dash…Read More…

Note from Peter:  I recently had the great honor of spending two full days in NYC with John Arena and a host of other pizza luminaries at the World Pizza Summit and Caputo Cup Championships. I was going to blog about it but John did such a great job that I am ceding the floor to him here. Weeks later, and I’m still digesting all the great pizzas and other…Read More…

In my house it’s only my son, Owen, and I who love seafood. When making pizzas for the family I usually make one for us – something that is “our” pizza. One of my favorites to make is just starting with a nice simple marinara with great tomatoes, thinly sliced garlic and some oregano and olive oil as the base and add whatever seafood I’ve picked up. The marinara is…Read More…

Note from Peter: I want to welcome our newest Guest Columnist, Scott Wiener, noted pizza-freak and founder of Scott’s Pizza Tours in NYC, where he has taken over 37,000 fellow pizza-freaks to the finest pizzerias in New York City, both on foot and by bus.  He has also written a terrific book, Viva la Pizza: The Art of the Pizza Box, in which he chronicles his Guinness World Record collection…Read More…

In bread baking, it is the simple baguette that is held as the benchmark of a baker’s skills. A Mexican restaurant better make a killer salsa or I’m out of there. Any ice cream artiste can make fanciful flavors but it is their vanilla or chocolate that proves if they have the golden touch.  For Neapolitan pizzas, it is the Margherita, for sure, but also the lesser known (in the…Read More…

Happy New Year Everyone! I want to start off 2016 by telling you all about my meeting yesterday with author Simran Sethi, who’s recently published book, “Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love,” is destined to join the books of Michael Pollan and Dan Barber as must-reads for anyone interested in biodiversity and sustainability. Her book, loaded with important information about the fragility of our ecosystem and…Read More…