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Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Every now and then we are fortunate to welcome back the legendary John Arena, who I refer to as the Yoda of Pizza. Often, Brian Spangler of Portland’s Apizza Scholl’s, also joins us and we refer to the two of them as The Pizza Yodi’s. It’s one of our most popular series and always a lot of fun for me.  Well, Brian couldn’t make it…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! When I first met Randy Clemens he was a seventeen-year-old guy looking for a purpose in life, something to sink his teeth into, and volunteering to be my assistant for a bread class I was teaching at Sur la Table in Los Angeles. Fast forward 23 years and join me as I catch up with Randy who, after writing three books (including the famous “The…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Kyle Ahlgren returns with some great news regarding the online baking courses he has created for Central Milling’s Artisan Baking Center. He’s also offering a special discount code for all Pizza Quest viewers and listeners (and your friends). In our conversation, Kyle takes us behind the scenes regarding what it involves to create these terrific baking courses with a number of the best teachers/bakers in…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! NYC is a treacherous place to open a new pizzeria.  The competition is fierce and public is vocal and not always diplomatic. But the lure of reaching for holy grail of pizza is hard to resist, and now Chef Ian Coogan, formerly of Eleven Madison Park and the Jean George lineage of great chefs (among other top-tier mentors), and currently the culinary director at the…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Elizabeth Brasch is committed to delivering what she calls, “a higher order of pizza,” at Mellow Mushroom, where she serves as VP of Marketing and Menu Innovation. As anyone who has been to any Mellow Mushroom location knows, the notion of a pizzadelic experience is not at all far-fetched. And, for those who own their brands, this conversation with Elizabeth will be especially enlightening as…Read More…

Welcome Back to Pizza Quest! This week we welcome fellow podcaster Jimmy Carbone, host of HRN’s Beer Sessions podcast. Jimmy has been hosting his “convivial ale salon” on HRN (Heritage Radio Network) from the network’s earliest days, beginning about 15 years ago.  Peter recently was a guest of Jimmy’s on Beer Sessions, talking about the pizza/beer connection, so this time Jimmy returns the favor and joins us here to share…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! In this episode, we are joined by Eddie Fischer (no, not the famous singer and husband of Debbie Reynolds and father of Carrie Fisher), but the OTHER Eddie Fischer, a Jersey guy, the founder of How U Doin?, a new boys and girls club about to launch near Dallas, Texas. Yes, he and I share a long, shared history of East Coast pizza questing but,…Read More…

Dear Pizza Quest Followers, The Quest goes on, and we’ve enjoyed expanding the scope of our journey with you our fellow Questers. Thank you so much for your support and appreciative feedback for the diverse variety of guests and topics of this past year. We’re in the process now of lining up a unique and exciting array of guests for the 2025 season, and plan to return in early January…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest!      Marco Pacelli is doing something wonderful in Redondo Beach, California at his pasta shop, Fatto a Mano’. After a lifetime of working for Michelin-level fine dining restaurants, he and his wife, Arlene, decided to open a small pasta and Roman-style pizza shop showcasing the foods inspired by Marco’s Aunt Concettina, the woman who shaped his culinary passion during the summers he spent with her…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Chef Fiore Tedesco was born completely deaf and couldn’t hear anything until he was five years old, when his hearing was miraculously recovered through a risky series of operations. He made up for lost time after that, retraining himself to not only hear, speak, and expand his vocabulary, but to also play drums in a rock band and then travel the world with his bandmates….Read More…