NY-Style Pizza, Marco’s Style, with Guests Kathleen Kennedy and Scott Wiener

Welcome back to Pizza Quest!

New York-style pizza is back on the rise, but what exactly does that mean — New York-style Pizza? And what makes it so beloved by so many people — not just New Yorkers? Ask a hundred people and you’ll probably get 101 different answers. But we got to the bottom of this divisive yet alluring question with our guests in this episode, Kathleen Kennedy and Scott Wiener.

Kathleen is the Director of Culinary Innovation at Marco’s Pizza, where she leads menu development and flavor innovation for one of America’s fastest-growing pizza brands  (the last I heard Marco’s was the 5th largest pizza chain in the world). With more than 40 years of experience in the food industry, Kathleen has held executive chef, product development, and consulting roles for a number of globally recognized brands including Kraft, Starbucks, and Walmart. At Marco’s, she is known for driving bold, flavor-forward menu innovation, including the brand’s acclaimed Magnifico lineup and Fiery Flavors offerings, while staying rooted in quality ingredients and authentic pizza craftsmanship. We’ll find out more about all that in this episode.

But I also want to welcome back our most frequent Pizza Quest guest, the legendary Scott Wiener, our man on the street and, frankly, he’s everywhere in the pizza world. Not only is he the founder of Scott’s Pizza Tours in New York City, but also the co-founder of Slice Out Hunger, host of his own television shows, owner of the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s largest pizza box collection, and, really, he’s the most knowledgeable guy I know about the history of pizza and, pretty much, everything else you could want to know about pizza.

Scott recently took Kathleen and her colleagues on a tour of New York’s finest New York Style pizzerias as part of her project at Marco’s Pizza to create an authentic New York Style Pizza for the over 1,200 Marco’s pizzerias spread across the world. That limited time offer (LTO to those in the trade) just rolled out for a summer test drive. That’s where we’re going to start today’s conversation, so,  join me as I welcome Kathleen Kennedy and Scott Wiener to Pizza Quest!