Pizza Quest Webisodes

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! We recently did a show that we called Bourbon 101 (June  ), and have done other shows that celebrate artisanship in subjects adjacent to our usual focus on pizza (olive oil, mezcal, tomatoes, and various types of cheeses). But, when Joe Salonia, co-host of HRN’s podcast series, Cutting the Curd, offered to take me on a journey of his personal specialty cheese category, Swiss, it…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Over twenty years ago, after Jonathan Goldsmith fell in love with traditional Napoletana wood-fired pizza while living in Italy and became a mid-life apprentice to the local masters, he decided to bring it back to his hometown of Chicago, where it was still a new thing. Spacca Napoli was thus born on the North Side, and has become a pizza pilgrimage destination site ever since,…Read More…

Welcome back to another episode of Pizza Quest. In our never-ending celebration of artisanship wherever we find it, this week’s episode turns a lens onto one of the truly great American crafts, distilled whiskey, most notably, Bourbon. And here to explain it all is my long-time friend, culinary educator, and award-winning author Albert Schmid, whose newest book, Bourbon 101, was just recently released by The University Press of Kentucky.  Many…Read More…

Note: Many of our episodes this year were recorded in audio format only, as we were on location at the International Pizza Expo. Here’s the link to our most recent posting, which you can find at www.heritageradionetwork.org Enjoy!! Central Milling Flour has emerged as one of the most highly sought premium brands for artisan bakers of all types of products, but especially for breads and pizzas. We caught up with…Read More…

Welcome to this special Memorial Day edition of Pizza Quest, with our special guest, Steven Raichlen, author of The Barbecue Bible, now celebrating its 25th anniversary with a new, updated edition. Memorial Day signifies many things important to us all as we honor those who have made our freedom possible. It also instinctively compels us to break out the BBQ grills and charcoal. In this episode, Steven shares with his…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest. In this episode, we meet Meghan Murphy-Gill, aka The Reverend Meghan Murphy-Gill, an Episcopal priest who also happens to be a serious baker of bread and, most importantly, a fabulous writer who has authored a new book, The Sacred Life of Bread. The subtitle of her book is “Uncovering the Mystery of an Ordinary Loaf.”  As we continue our back and forth exploration between “pizza”…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest. In this episode we continue to expand the scope of Pizza Quest to include a focus more on the quest than on the pizza. Bread, as many of you know, is the uber-mensch in my own quest, of which pizza is a delightful sub-set. Lately, more and more authors have added their own words and thoughts to the multi-dimensional sense of meaning embodied by bread….Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest where, as you will see this week, it is often more about the Quest than it is about the Pizza. Michael Goldfarb is one of my oldest and best friends, beginning back in the third grade at Belmont Hills Elementary School, located just outside of Philadelphia, over 60 years ago. We’ve stayed in touched ever since, each on our own quests for adventure and meaning….Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest, As you know, we’ve been putting a lot more emphasis on the Quest aspect of Pizza Quest these days and this episode is a great example. In 1971, over 50 years ago, I was a founding member of a restaurant collective in Boston called Root One Cafe, one of the early organic food restaurants in the country. Yes, we were pressing out carrot juice way…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest, where we celebrate artisanship wherever we find it (or, as we often say, “It’s more about the Quest than it is about the Pizza”). This episode features Maurizio Leo, the author of the hottest new bread book on the market, The Perfect Loaf. Maurizio, like many bread bakers of this era (myself included), was not formally trained as an apprentice or at a culinary school before…Read More…