Pizza Quest Globe

Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

Pizza Quest, with Guests Jillana Miller and Ahmad Butler, aka Miller-Butler

Welcome Back to Pizza Quest! This week’s episode features Jillana Miller and Ahmad Butler who, together, are Miller-Butler, a sizzling-hot mobile pizza and catering company, based in San Pedro, California.  Ahmad competed against me and 10 other finalists at the Real California Pizza Contest in Napa back in August, where we met and became friends. That’s where I first learned how Miller-Butler took on the competitive Los Angeles marketplace, survived…Read More…

Pizza Quest: Shannon Mangini — Things Can Happen Fast

Welcome back to Pizza Quest!         Sometimes it just takes moxie. Shannon Mangini (aka @ThePizzaiola on Instagram)  is living proof of that. In just a few short years since graduating from college in 2018 with a degree in economics, entrepreneurship, and finance (Univ. of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where she was also a lacrosse star) Shannon has, among other things, brought DiFara Pizza to the North Fork of…Read More…

Pizza Quest: Anthony Mangieri, with Big News About His New Line of Frozen Pizzas

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Anthony Mangieri is one of our favorite guests and now that his NYC restaurant, Una Pizza Napoletana, has been recently anointed by one poll as the “best pizzeria in the world,” this is a timely return visit. In this episode, Anthony tells us all about his new line of frozen pizzas under the name Genio Della Pizza, and how he managed to create and package…Read More…

Pizza Quest: Author Ron Costello on The Hill (Where Both He and Peter Grew Up)

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! I haven’t seen Ronnie Costello in 53 years, since he was the catcher on our high school baseball team, and 60 years since we attended Belmont Hills Elementary School as kids. We lived on different sides of Mary Watersford Road, the street that, like the Maginot Line, separated the mostly Irish and Italian kids of “The Hill,” from the mostly Jewish kids of Penn Valley….Read More…

Pizza Quest: Bill Crawford, Winner of the Real California Pizza Contest

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! In this episode, Bill Crawford, former Air Force jet fighter pilot and now owner of Righteous Slice in Wexford, Idaho, shows us all about his Grand Prize winning El Pollo Barracho Pizza (aka “Drunken Chicken” pizza,  with tequila marinated chicken) from the 2024 Real California Pizza Contest, sponsored by the California Milk Advisory Board. Peter competed in this contest too (and didn’t win), working directly…Read More…

Pizza Quest: Bagels with the Yodi’s

Welcome back to Pizza Quest.  Yes, the Yodi’s are back! John Arena and Brian Spangler, our two original pizza gurus, who helped launch these Pizza Talk/Pizza Quest shows during the pandemic, are joined by the global bagel poet laureate of our time, Philip Korshak, for a delightful conversation of show-and-tell as we celebrate the emerging bagel renaissance across the land. More and more pizza operators are getting into bagels, as…Read More…

Announcing My New Class at Pizza University

Dear Followers of Pizza Quest, First, Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!  For those still looking for a last minute special Christmas or New Year’s gift, the folks at Pizza University are offering a 10% discount on all 2024 classes (the offer expires on Dec. 31). This includes the three-day class I’ll be teaching with Scott Wiener on May 13-15, 2024 based on my book, Pizza Quest. If you…Read More…

Pizza Quest: Bagel’s Are Back! Featuring The Owner’s of Kismet Bagels

Welcome Back to Pizza Quest! Yes, bagels are back — with a vengeance! — as wonderful shops are bobbing up all over the country in much the same way as the proliferation of their “kissing cousin” –donut shops — seem to be everywhere (but rarely do we see a bagel and a donut shop combined in one operation — could this be the next big thing?) . The bagel cycle…Read More…

Pizza Quest with guest Blaine Parker, of “Free the Pizza”

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! In this episode, I talk with Blaine Parker, the creator and host of the website Free the Pizza, a site devoted to the unending quest to make pizza in a home oven as good as those from a pizzeria. Can it be done? Blaine says yes, and has written an entire book showing readers how, as well as posting humorous essays regularly on his site…Read More…

Pizza Quest, with guest Ed Zimmerman on The Real California Pizza Contest Results

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Ed Zimmerman is a name not many people outside the pizza and food service industry know (though those of in the pizza world all know him), but all of us, whether in or outside of the profession, are impacted by the creative work he does. His company, The Food Connector, organizes the annual Real California Pizza Competition, on behalf of their client, The California Milk…Read More…

Pizza Quest Info

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Vision Statement

Pizza Quest is a site dedicated to the exploration of artisanship in all forms, wherever we find it, but especially through the literal and metaphorical image of pizza. As we share our own quest for the perfect pizza we invite all of you to join us and share your journeys too. We have discovered that you never know what engaging roads and side paths will reveal themselves on this quest, but we do know that there are many kindred spirits out there, passionate artisans, doing all sorts of amazing things. These are the stories we want to discover, and we invite you to jump on the proverbial bus and join us on this, our never ending pizza quest.

Peter’s Books

American Pie
Artisan Breads Every Day
The Bread Bakers Apprentice
Brother Junipers Bread Book
Crust and Crumb
Whole Grain Breads

...and other books by Peter Reinhart, available on Amazon.com