25 best pizza restaurants Brick Oven Restaurant Reviews Discuss 25 best pizza restaurants in the Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart forums; A well-written article on the country's 25 best pizzas: Link...

[dbhansen]

A well-written article on the country's 25 best pizzas: Link

[PizzaPolice]

One man's opinion.

Thanks for the link.

[acbova]

Dang,

Snob wise I guess it takes one to know one. But I guess having a strong opinion makes for a good critic.

{NOTE: To be honest, I've not read the whole article}

[dmun]

I don't think he's going to get much a cheering section here, considering the following, and the fact that he considers those Chicago casseroles pizza:

A word here about Naples, the home of Italian pizza. That’s supposedly where the pie reaches its pinnacle, in a distinct and idiosyncratic style that some American pizzamakers — let’s resist calling them pizzaioli, as the Italians do — are trying to emulate. They’re going for hotter ovens, puffier crusts, and weepy buffalo-milk mozzarella on top. I’m not impressed. Not by the genuine pies in Naples, and usually less by American imitations, although the mission has a certain nobility of purpose.

I’ve eaten in Naples. From the ancient, brutally hot ovens emerge pies that most Americans wouldn’t recognize. The crust is charred and puffy in spots but tragically thin and pale beneath the toppings. The sauce is chiefly chopped tomatoes, sometimes fresh and sometimes canned, but almost always vivid and bright. (Those San Marzano tomatoes are as good as advertised.) The cheese is mozzarella, but the Italians are proudest when they can substitute fresh mozzarella from the milk of buffaloes and label their pies Margherita DOC. (It sounds like a wine thing, but it’s also a pizza thing.) In my opinion, buffalo mozzarella is pizza’s second-worst topping, exceeded only by whole anchovies — no hot, smelly fish on my pies, thank you. After that, those pizzaioli guys add oil, lots of it, and more liquid is precisely what tomato pies do not need.

This is what happens when a Neapolitan pie comes out of the oven, after it’s been cooked a remarkably short time: The nearly liquefied glob of buffalo mozzarella — now resembling a snowman melting on a warm March afternoon — has become runny. Water drains from the tomatoes. Oil joins the flood. All that excess liquid has to go somewhere, which is why the bottom crust turns to mush, not that it was ever particularly crispy.

This is why Italians need a knife and fork. This is why our pizzas are better than theirs.

Distinct pies
We have, remarkably, seven distinct kinds of pizza in this country, starting with those Neapolitan imitations that represent style over sustenance.

[DrakeRemoray]

Blasphemy!

[james]

I read the article when I was at the gym, and I thought that any article that starts with the premise that the Italians have got their pizza all wrong is a tough row to hoe.

What's next -- the Swiss can't make cheese? :-)
James

[acbova]

One thing that is for sure... My next Pizza party is going to include Mortadella pie! Love that stuff.

[james]

Maybe he's addicted to dough conditioners and artificial ingredients.
James

[Ken524]

His kids have dragged him to "Chuck E Cheese's" one too many times

[dbhansen]

Just for the record (and to clear my name), I said it was a "well-written" article but not that I necessarily agree with what he wrote! Besides, he didn't include MY favorite pizzas!