Interviews

Note from Peter: I first met Chris Bianco just before he burst on the national scene, sometime back in the late 1990’s. One of my baking students was from Phoenix and told me about him and, when I went to Phoenix for an IACP Conference and needed a place to bake breads for a presentation I was making, my student said, “He not only makes the best pizza in Phoenix…Read More…

Note from Peter:  I first met Ajith Dharma at the 2015 Forno Bravo Wood-Fired Oven Expo in Salinas, California and, surrounded by hundreds of fellow fire freaks, we became instant friends. As the new owner of FireWithin Mobile Ovens he has built very sensitively and strategically upon the foundation established by the original founder Joseph Pergolizzi, who we’ve featured here on PizzaQuest in the past, and Ajith has now grown…Read More…

 Note from Peter: I finally got to meet Paulie Gee, the legendary pizzeria operator, at the recent International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. It was an instant “bromance!”  So, I was thrilled when Paulie agreed to do an interview with me for Pizza Quest. His responses, as you will see below, are extremely humble and inspirational as he shares his journey from the world of intellectual technology (IT) to the…Read More…

Note from Peter: I finally met Leo Spizzirri for the first time at the recent International Pizza Expo, after years of hearing about this pizza genius who always, I was told, works “behind the scenes.” At the Expo, Leo presented a number of demo’s for Forno Bravo, showing how to create more than just pizza in a wood-fired oven. Each demo started with about 5 people in the audience (after…Read More…

Note from Peter: We’ve been loving the contributions of John Arena here on Pizza Quest for the past four years. He not only is a mentor to many, and an educator, but his columns on what pizzeria operators need to know can serve as a master template for everyone in the business. Since most of you already all of this, I’ll let the following interview fill in the gaps and…Read More…

Every New Yorker claims to know where to find the best slice in the city. They argue about it as if it were a question with a definite answer. And even if a real answer existed, confirming its legitimacy would require tasting every single slice in town. Enter Colin Hagendorf, the only man who can truly claim to have explored the depths in search of New York’s best slice. Between…Read More…

A few years ago A fellow named Andris Lagsdin wrote to me here at Pizza Quest to introduce himself and to tell me about a tool he had developed called The Baking Steel. I was skeptical that it would work as well as he promised but he offered to send me one, and also one for Brad English, to play around with. Needless to say, we both loved the Steel…Read More…

Hi Everyone,     As noted in my post of January 19th, I got to spend some time with Phillip Korshak in Austin, Texas at his pizzeria Home Slice, where they make about three thousand pizzas and slices a day to an unending line of both sit-down and take-out customers. The place was hopping and I imagine it always is.  It was our first time meeting face to face and…Read More…

Note from Peter:  I’m not going to say much here other than to implore you to read this interview with two of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met, Nadezhda Savova-Grigorov and her husband, Stefan Grigorov, who live in Sofia, Bulgaria. I guarantee that after you read about the work they are doing you will feel a newly energized hope for the world, which is  just what we need at this time…Read More…

Note from Peter: I met Lou Bank at the Fermentation Festival in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, where he put on an amazing dinner using all sorts of fermented foods (plenty of kimchee!!) and local pork and grains, but mainly it was a celebration, and “Master Class,” in mezcal. We tasted five different rare, artisan examples as Lou explained all the nuances. I’m no expert in mezcal spirit beverages, or tequila, it’s most…Read More…