John Arena and Leo Spizzirri: The Current and Future Stars of Pizza

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 this time but we are fortunate to have a new member of the Pizza Yodi pantheon, Leo Spizzirri, the Director of Education at Pizza University, and a certified master teacher extraordinaire (aka Maestro)  who is recognized throughout the world. In this episode, John tells us about his upcoming trip to Naples for a ceremony in recognition of the top 50 global pizzerias (including 10 from the USA), and shares his own thoughts on some who did and didn’t make the list, as well as those who he values as the national treasures of the American pizza universe. Leo adds his own views on the mentors in his life and pays tribute to John’s legacy of mentoring the next generation of pizza luminaries. Listen to two of the great ones, right here in this week’s episode of Pizza Quest.