Guest Bloggers

Lately I’ve been thinking about Roger Bannister. No, Bannister is not the latest hot shot artisan pizza maker. For those of you too young to remember, Roger Bannister was a British track & field athlete who on May 6, 1954 became the first person to run a sub 4 minute mile. Roger, who was later knighted for his efforts, broke what was considered by the general public to be an…Read More…

  Lately I’ve been thinking about pizza and mythology. Certainly the history of Italy is punctuated by myths and legends, from the time of the Etruscans right up to the exploits of the current Prime Minister. So why wouldn’t the subject of pizza be any different? The plain fact is there are a lot of myths and fables (some true and some not so much), but also misinformation, and even…Read More…

Lately I’ve been thinking about barbecue pizza. My favorite local purveyor of pies recently had a daily special he called, “BBQ Pizza.”  I could not order it.  I have little doubt that it was a delicious nosh, but the name just rubbed me the wrong way, and I shared my thoughts, which follow here, with the pizziaolo. Topping a pizza with some combination of meat and barbecue sauce—regardless of quality—does…Read More…

Lately I’ve been thinking about “counterfeiters.”  More specifically, I’ve been thinking about a Latin saying that dates back to the early 1500’s, Caveat Emptor, or, “Let the buyer beware.” In this era, more than any other, it has become crucial that we understand what is truly behind the labels on the products that we buy. Unfortunately this is especially true of Italian products.  With global awareness creating unprecedented demand for…Read More…

A couple days ago, I was doing some work on my laptop at a little cafe in Boulder.  Taking a sip from my Cafe Americano, I looked up to realize I was surrounded by people who seemed completely hypnotized by the light of their computers.  Then a group of high school students came through the line, texting and talking away.  With a quick swipe of a credit card the baristas…Read More…

I’m not sure who was working at the world’s great pizzerias the first week in March, because it is clear that for a brief time the center of the pizza universe was the Las Vegas Convention Center. The International Pizza Expo has always been the premier event for professional pizza makers, but this year the show has improved to an astonishing degree. It has become a place where mozzarella d’…Read More…

Lately I’ve been thinking about how pizza gets a bad rap in the world of nutrition.  Specifically, I find it irritating that pizza, all pizza, is largely dismissed as “junk food.” Don’t get me wrong, as a nutrition professional I love the work that folks like Jamie Oliver are doing out there.  We need to think more about the things we put into our mouths that fall under the increasingly…Read More…

Lately I’ve been thinking about my ninth grade history class. What I recall most vividly was that at the time I had almost no interest in world history. Like a lot of kids that age, I wasn’t looking much at the past, and I really couldn’t understand what all that old stuff had to do with my life. You see, by the age of 15 I had already spent several…Read More…

Lately I’ve been thinking about pizza and the industrial revolution. Ok, I know we think of pizza making as a craft or even an art form, but let’s face it; before the recent artisan pizza renaissance the state of pizza was in pretty sorry shape. So how did something that was an expression of individuality in the hands of a great pizza maker like Antonio Pero (founder of Totonno’s) become…Read More…

Note to readers from Peter: This is the the second part of Jenn Burn’s recent adventure in Costa Rica, picking beans on an organic coffee farm as part of a work study project. Jenn is a student at Davidson College, just outside of Charlotte, and has previously had numerous articles published that chronicle her transition from teenager to young adulthood (I hope to run some more of those here in…Read More…