Peter's Blog

Hi Everyone, For those of you who love cook books, especially older, hard to find classics, here’s a link to a podcast about a new site about to launch called CKBK. The founder, Matthew Cockerill, talks about it on more detail here . There’s also a Kickstarter link for those who want to get in on the ground floor of CKBK here.    Even if you don’t want to kick…Read More…

Hi Everyone, This video just got posted by our local Creative Mornings chapter. If you don’t know what Creative Mornings is, go do a Google search and see if there’s a chapter near you. It’s an amazing community building gathering, a phenomenon, and Charlotte NC just happens to have one of the most dynamic of all the Creative Mornings chapters and, guess what, I got to be the featured speaker…Read More…

Hi Everyone, Great news — the highlight reel from our recent International Symposium on Bread, is now available (it’s only 2 1/2 minutes long). See it here:  Highlight Reel You can also see the opening keynote presentation by Nathan Myhrvold, the creator of the James Beard Award winning Modernist Bread, as well as other presentations. We will continue to add all ten presentations to the channel as we complete the…Read More…

Hi Everyone, I still have a number of posts to bring you, including interviews, Part Two of my NYC pan pizza tour, the International Symposium on Bread wrap-up, and more videos and recipes but things have been a little bit busy. This is the final week of school at Johnson & Wales University, so my Introduction to Baking class is about to take their final exams, and we’re still wrapping…Read More…

Hi Everyone, I’m a little behind on posting, as I’ve been immersed in the second annual International Symposium on Bread (nicknamed, “On the Rise 2”). I just received the photo files from our photographer today and haven’t had time to write up a recap, but that all will be coming soon, so please check back in a few days. Also, this weekend is the 14th Annual Asheville Bread Festival, this…Read More…

We just received notice that one of our beloved Pizza Quest stars, Jim Ruddell, of Ruddell’s Smokehouse in Cayucos, CA, passed away. We featured Jim during our first season, and he also makes a short appearance in our highlight webisode, Pizza as Obsession, which is always found at the top of the Home Page. As Brad English reminded me, the smoked salmon fish taco he had when we filmed with…Read More…

I’ve been home for over three weeks now but am still enjoying flashbacks from Pizza Expo 2018. With over 8,000 people attending everyday, and hundreds of booths, there are probably over 8,000 versions of what Pizza Expo means to the attendees and vendors. For sure, plenty of pizza to taste, ingredients to sample, equipment to test drive, seminars and workshops to attend, and numerous competitions, there are just too many…Read More…

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…

As promised, here’s a recap of my recent pan pizza crawl through Brooklyn and Manhattan, as choreographed by the indomitable Scott Wiener, founder of New York Pizza Tours (and regular contributor here on Pizza Quest). Background note: I am currently working on a book, scheduled for release next year, all about pan pizzas. These include focaccia, schiacciata, Sicilian, grandma, and the increasingly popular Roman and Detroit-styles. On this all day,…Read More…

Hi Everyone, I just got back from NYC where Pizza Quest Guest Columnist (and great guy), Scott Wiener, founder of New York Pizza Tours, orchestrated an amazing all day pizza crawl in search of killer “pan pizzas.” I will explain and post more about it right here within the next day or two, as soon as I can upload my photos and organize my thoughts. I was also in NYC…Read More…