Peter's Blog

As many of you already know, I did not win the New Yorker Caption Contest this week, though I did get many e-mails from folks saying they thought I should have.  But the winning caption was very funny and I figured it might very well win when I first saw it in the finals, and it did. Was it because the author had more Twitter followers or Facebook fans than…Read More…

Hi Everyone, I’m taking shameless advantage of this platform to let you know that a caption I submitted was chosen as a finalist in the weekly New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.  It is only the second time I’ve ever tried entering and, frankly, I usually find it hard to come up with anything funny or clever, so I often pass. But this time it came to me in a flash,…Read More…

Here it is, as promised, a pictorial guide to the best steaks I’ve ever had, for a fraction of the cost of Morton’s, Peter Luger, Ruth’s Chris, and all the others.  Of course, you need the super high heat of a wood-fired oven, such as this sweet little Primavera 60 in my back driveway next to the garden. I made these for a dinner party for my wife Susan’s birthday;…Read More…

Welcome back and I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! I’ve been getting requests to describe again how I do the 4 minute steaks in my Forno Bravo Primavera 60 wood-fired oven (of course, these can be made in any size W-F oven but I happen to have the 60). We are just a couple of days from putting on a steak dinner for my wife’s birthday…Read More…

A few weeks ago I posted about the first part of a local mini pizza quest I went on here in Charlotte. In that post I focused on Wolfgang Puck’s new Pizza Bar, but that was only the first stop of the day. From there, journalist and fellow pizza lover Michael Solender, along with photographer Tonya Russ Price and went to three other places, which I want to tell you…Read More…

Last week I took a local reporter, Michael Solender, on a local mini-Pizza Quest for a story he is writing for a local magazine. We were accompanied by photographer Tonya Russ Price. We picked four local places to visit, all of which I consider among Charlotte’s best: Wolfgang Puck Pizza Bar; Luisa’s Brick Oven Pizza; Mellow Mushroom; and Pure Pizza (where I serve as “consulting partner”). Michael’s article, which I’m…Read More…

This will just be a quickie, as I’m working on a deadline for a project, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up that in the coming days I will be posting a report on my recent mini-pizza quest around Charlotte, where I had a chance to visit with the Executive Chef of Wolfgang Puck’s new “Pizza Bar.”  For some unknown but beneficial reason for me, Wolfgang chose Charlotte…Read More…

Hi Everyone, In light of our recent webisode posting about the Basta/Bruery Pizza/Beer Challenge, I think this announcement is very timely. Sadly, it will be more useful to those of you who live near Charlotte, NC so, if you don’t, but have friends or family in this area, please feel to tell them about it. On Saturday, March 2nd we will be hosting a “Farm to Fork” Pizza/Beer Pairing Dinner…Read More…

Hi Everyone, I plan to write more about my recent trip through Texas, and we have some new postings to add this week, but my friend Steve Steingard, with whom I’ve shared many pizzas (and cheese steaks) while growing up together in Philly, just sent me this link and I wanted to share it with you, asap, because it highlights some very spectacular pizzas, both traditional and innovative.  No list…Read More…

Great news. —  the Craftsy mini-pizza course launched yesterday and we already have 2,200 subscribers! To get the free video course, “Perfect Pizza at Home” go to www.craftsy.com/pizza and sign up. Did I mention that it’s FREE!!  I just watched the whole series from my hotel room (yes, I’m still in Texas) and I have to say, I’m really pleased with how it turned out. Check it out and let…Read More…