2013, Here We Come!

Welcome to 2013! As we start a new year and also begin our third year here on Pizza Quest, I wanted to give you all a quick glimpse of what’s coming up.

But first, a hearty thank you to all our contributors, partners, and supporters. This is  especially so for Forno Bravo, who partnered with us from Day One in creating this site and continues supporting us in so many ways. Also, our sponsors, Central Milling, The Fire Within, and DiNapoli Tomato Products, as well as our founding sponsor, Bel Gioioso Cheese.  Also, a special thank you to John Arena, our most frequent Guest Columnist, and to all others who contributed columns.

And, finally, I’d like to thank Brad English and Jeff Michael, who came up with the original idea for Pizza Quest and invited me to join with them in making it happen. Brad, as you already know, is our regular “If I can do it so can you” columnist, and he’s come up with some incredible pizza concepts as well as lots of fun journal entries and pictorials about his never-ending quest for the perfect pizza. As Calvin Trillin phrased it, he’s “…just a big hungry boy looking for a good meal.”  And thanks also to our webisode Director and fellow Quester, David Wilson, and our editor Annette Aryanpour, who make all our webisodes sizzle.

Thank you all and now onward, to a great 2013!

Upcoming: For those in the Texas area, I’ll be doing a short tour of seven Central Market Cooking Schools, offering a demo class based on my new book, “The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking.” I won’t be doing any pizza or bread classes on this tour (though I will show a wonderful gluten-free focaccia), but I’m happy to hang out with any bread or pizza freaks after the class if you come by. Here is the schedule; if you would like to attend a class, please visit their website:
www.centralmarket.com/Cooking-School.aspx 

January 23rd – Austin
January 24th – Houston
January 25th – San Antonio
January 26th – South Lake (4:00 pm – 6:30 pm)
January 27th – Dallas (4:00 pm – 6:30 pm)
January 29th – Fort Worth
January 30th – Plano
**Please note all classes will be at 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm unless otherwise noted.

A reminder that I’ll soon have the log-on for you for the upcoming Craftsy free pizza mini-course — hopefully within a week or so. Please check back for those details.

And, of course, there’s Pizza Quest: In the coming months we’ll continue the Basta webisode series, which will soon move into the great pizza/beer challenge. Brad has more to say about his NYC mini-quest, along with a new recipe, coming later this week, for a wonderful fire roasted tomato pizza. I also expect some great pictorials from him in the next few weeks after he fires up his new Pizza Steel, which should very exciting. Of course, John Arena can’t leave us hanging — we’ll soon have the next installment in his “Are You Ready to Turn Pro” series. And, as always, lots of other surprises.

I’ll be back soon with the Mini-Course info and more news and views. Thanks to all of you for being such loyal Questers and for spreading the word. We have a big year ahead….