Peter's Blog

A week away from pizza–it was hard. Every time I passed a pizza place on the island of St. Martin I had to fight the desire to check it out as an act of PQ duty. But it was our vacation, Susan and I, and that included a vacation from anything that would draw us back into the things we were vacating. Let’s face it, sometimes you just have to…Read More…

Today (Monday) we made pizza dough during the first day of our week long Kid’s Baking Camp at Johnson & Wales. I’m jazzed, because tomorrow we’re going to actually make the pizzas with my 14 campers, all between 13 and 15 years of age. These are great kids and today, on Day One, we made killer chocolate chip cookies, wonderful soft dinner rolls, and flaky blitz biscuits. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we…Read More…

A Primer on Flour Hi Everybody, I’ve been getting a lot e-mails asking about flour and how all the different types work for pizza. Here’s a quick, and by no means comprehensive look at some of your options. There is so much good flour available that you can’t go wrong, but with all the interest in Italian style flour as well as the various types of American flour, it might…Read More…

Last week I reported on our recent quest and pizza/beer challenge at The Bruery in Orange County (Placentia, to be more precise–their tap room is open to the public on weekends if you happen to be in the neighborhood!). I just want to add a few words this week on one aspect of our experience there, something I addressed on film during the taping but, since it won’t run for…Read More…

Yes, I’m late with this posting. I promised it by Thursday but, as so often happens, time got away from me and I couldn’t get online from where I was. But here I am, to tell you only a bit about our latest quest. It may take a while before we get it all edited and posted, so this is just a little advanced notice to let you know what’s…Read More…

  Welcome back everyone. I mentioned in the Coming Attractions about how much I enjoyed the recent Jon Stewart rant about NY pizza.  I found it at: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-1-2011/me-lover-s-pizza-with-crazy-broad” —  but you can also track it down via a Google search under Jon Stewart Pizza (one of these days I’ll have to figure out out to put one of those click here buttons into these postings). Anyway, I’m sure most of…Read More…

Hi Everyone, I promised to tell you how to get your hands on some of that great flour from Central Milling, as well as the “Super Sprout” sprouted whole wheat flour from Lindley Mills. So first, here’s the number for Keith and Nicky Giusto at Central Milling, in Petaluma, California: (707) 778-1073. Ask for Keith or Nicky and tell them you read it right here. Before you do, check out…Read More…

Hi Again, As the song goes, June is busting out all over. So many cool things happening everywhere that I wanted to mention a couple of them for those of you who, like me, enjoy discovering things at the front edge of the wave, before the rest of the world catches up. Two that I’m tracking are the following: If you’ve followed some of the “Comments’ we’ve received every now…Read More…

  This is a time for commencements, graduations, and the completion of cycles. On Saturday we celebrated the annual graduation of our students at Johnson & Wales University and I loved watching our 1,100 grads confirm their educational experience by marching up to proudly accept their diplomas, going through the formal, ritual ceremony that marks such a significant transition into adulthood. It was indeed a confirmation service, like a bar…Read More…

We’re about to visit with Chef Jensen Lorenzen and his wife Grace in a small coastal town in Central California with a series of upcoming webisode segments.  I was recently watching one of the pizza making sessions where Jensen and Peter used some unique local ingredients and created a wonderful pizza.  I felt compelled to give it a shot. I recently came “clean” hinting that my pizzas may look more…Read More…