Pizza Quest Globe

Interviews

A Conversation with Chef John Ash, The Godfather of Wine Country Cuisine, on His New Book

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! This episode features a conversation with Chef John Ash, who for the past 40 years has been known in Sonoma and Napa as the Godfather of Wine Country Cuisine. His restaurant, John Ash & Company, helped to define that regional aspect of what later became known as California Cuisine back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He, along with chefs like Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, Joyce…Read More…

Pizza Quest: BBQ and Grilling Special Edition with Steven Raichlen

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…

Interview with Mike Kurtz, The Hot Honey King

Note from Peter: I met Mike Kurtz at Pizza Expo in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and became fascinated with the exponential growth of the product he created, Mike’s Hot Honey, especially when I served as a judge at pizza competitions and noticed how many competitors were using it on their pizzas. As a specialty product, it seemingly tipped over into ubiquity rather suddenly. When someone creates anything…Read More…

Interview with Jonathan Goldsmith

Written By Peter Reinhart
Tuesday, 07 August 2018 Interviews

Note from Peter: Jonathan Goldsmith, is the founder/owner (aka Padrone), along with his wife, artist Ginny Sykes, of Chicago’s most well-known and honored Neapolitan pizzeria, Spacca Napoli. Many of you have been fortunate enough to have eaten there, or have met Jonathan at various pizza events such as the Northeast Pizza & Pasta Show, Pizza Expo, and other gatherings. Many of you have also sought him out for advice and…Read More…

Interview: Brian Spangler of Apizza Scholls

Written By Peter Reinhart
Tuesday, 13 March 2018 Interviews

Note from Peter: I first met Brian Spangler about 18 years ago, when he owned a small mountain top artisan bread bakery outside of Portland, Oregon. He was hosting a meeting of the Board of Directors for the Bread Bakers Guild of America, and told me he someday hoped to open a place where he could also serve barbecue and pizza. Then, a couple of years later I saw him…Read More…

Interview: Joe Fugere of Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria, Seattle

Written By Peter Reinhart
Tuesday, 13 February 2018 Interviews

Note from Peter: I first met Joe Fugere, founder of Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria in Seattle, WA, at the 2016 Caputo Cup in Harlem, and then saw him again at the 2017 Pizza Expo, and then again at the more recent Caputo Cup in Atlantic City in October. We picked up our conversation each time as if time hadn’t intervened at all. From the first, I was impressed with Joe’s…Read More…

Interview: Massimiliano Saieva and Alex Manzo, Roman Pizza

Written By Peter Reinhart
Tuesday, 23 January 2018 Interviews

Note from Peter: A few months ago I posted about the wonderful experience I had at the Atlantic City Pizza and Pasta Show, where I met Alex Manzo and Massimiliano Saieva, the masterminds behind the new Roman-style pizza movement here in the USA. It was my first time tasting Massimiliano’s pizzas and I was blown away! While he was making his “al taglio” pizzas (“baked in a pan”) I spoke briefly with…Read More…

Interview: Michael Shepherd and Siler Chapman, of PerfectingPizza.com

Written By Peter Reinhart
Tuesday, 02 January 2018 Interviews

Hi Everyone, I ran into my long time friend (and Charlotte pizza legend), Siler Chapman, at the Northeast Pizza and Pasta Show in Atlantic City a couple of months ago, where I discovered that he has partnered with his World Pizza Champions teammate, Michael Shepherd, on an exciting new venture. They both agreed to fill me in on their new consulting and coaching business, PerfectingPizza.com, so I’ll let them take…Read More…

Interview with Will Grant, Caputo Cup Champion

Written By Peter Reinhart
Tuesday, 05 December 2017 Interviews

Note from Peter: I met Will Grant in October, in Atlantic City during the Caputo Cup Pizza Championship, where I was serving as a judge in the Non-Traditional Category (this meant, pretty much, anything goes, as opposed to the Traditional category which limited total toppings to three). Will had come to my interview, earlier that day, with pizza maestro Joe Beddia, and afterward he filled me in on his life…Read More…

Interview with Joe Beddia of Pizzeria Beddia

Written By Peter Reinhart
Tuesday, 03 October 2017 Interviews

Note from Peter: I grew up in Philadelphia, a city that takes its food pretty seriously. We always had a few great, iconic pizzerias (Tacconelli’s, Marra’s, Francoluigi’s, Caccia’s Bakery, Santucci’s and others) but, unlike New York City where pizza is a primary marker of cultural identity, it was really the cheese steak, hoagie, roast pork sandwich culture that gave Philly its culinary claim to fame. But, in the past few…Read More…

Pizza Quest Info

Resources

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