Guest Columns

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…

I’ve been thinking a lot, lately, about my recent adventure on a coffee farm in Costa Rica. It was, for me, a life changing experience–or at least it forever changed my relationship with that powerful bean — and I don’t even drink coffee. But now I can’t even smell it brewing without thinking about how disconnected most people are to where it comes from and what the real costs are…Read More…

Recently I have been thinking about artisanship, integrity, and the pizzaiolo. I am an Englishman with no Italian heritage and, as such, do not feel well qualified to make pronouncements about what constitutes an authentic pizza, if in fact there is such a thing. But I am a professional pizza maker, and have been wondering what shortcuts can be made without sacrificing authenticity. I perfected my pizza making skills with…Read More…

  Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about three inspirational pizza makers. At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I often call them the Father, Son and Holy Spirit of pizza. They are three men who couldn’t be more different in their contributions to the world of pizza, but together create, represent, and inspire all that we should be in our quest to serve pizza that is both delicious and meaningful….Read More…

  By Guest Columnist Caleb Schiff Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about balance and pizza. A Neapolitan pizza, for example, is best summarized by the short description: “Fresh ingredients on good bread.” It’s really a simple concept. Yet, because of the focus on the basics, the room for perceived-error is small. Other pizza styles that may be heavily topped or have many components can hide inconsistencies in the dough…Read More…