Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

Welcome back to Pizza Talk! In the fall of 2020 I had the joy of meeting with London-based Thom Elliot over Zoom. Thom is one of the two self-named Pizza Pilgrims, the other being his brother James (who also dropped in for a brief cameo). Their recently released book, Pizza: History, Recipes, Stories, People, Places, Love is their chronicle of a global journey in search of great pizza and how to make…Read More…

It was a beautiful day and I had some dough resting in my fridge.  What more could anyone want?  I could feel my wood fired oven calling out to me as I left the beach. I stopped by my market on the way home and the first thing that caught my eye were the pineapples.  They were perfectly ripe, not too soft, not too hard and I thought immediately of…Read More…

Welcome back for another fascinating segment of Pizza Talk. This time around we tracked down one of the most unique operations in the country, not because it is a mobile pizzeria but because of how the owner, Luis Perez, makes it happen using 4 single unit RoccBox ovens mounted into a 3-wheeled Piaggio Ape van in Rochester, NY.  It basically looks like a rocket ship — I love it!! I won’t…Read More…

We’re back with another exciting episode, one that we’ve been holding onto for a number of months while gearing up for Season Two, featuring our beloved “Pizza “Yodi’s” (Brian Spangler and John Arena), joined by a major “Yoda” in his own right, Adam Kuban. Adam is not only an important long time voice and influencer in the pizza world (think Slice, and also Serious Eats, where he was THE voice) but…Read More…

Hi Everybody, Welcome back to Season Two of Pizza Talk!! We took a longer than expected break due to a crazy busy schedule and the reopening of commerce, so we’re going to kick off this new season with some episodes that were recorded in the fall of 2020, when things weren’t looking as hopeful as they do now, so you will hear references to pivoting and resilience, but these conversations…Read More…

This week’s episode features a whole new level of pizza box art, as you will see. I don’t want to say too much here, as it will ruin the surprise, but here are some clues and new words to add to your pizza lexicon: Calda Pizza; the “Walker-Lock” design; George Clooney, and Lake Como.  Put them all together, as Scott Wiener will do for your here, and you are in…Read More…

This has been a brutal year for so many of us and, with great sadness, we say farewell to the beloved “Dough Doctor,” Tom Lehmann, who succumbed to Covid last week. I had the privilege to sit on a few dough panels with Tom, who knew more about dough science than all of us combined, and who took such pleasure in sharing his knowledge with the world. He is the…Read More…

Due to the crazy holiday push we will not be posting a Pizza Box the Week with Scott Wiener this week. However, please rejoin us next Saturday, Dec. 19, for another post, featuring the famous George Clooney box from Scott’s collection. I will say no more — you will need to return next week to see it for yourself. Till then, have a great week! NOTE: New episodes of Pizza…Read More…

It is with great sadness that I report on the passing of Shawn Randazzo, who we interviewed here on Pizza Talk just a few months ago. Shawn, as we discussed during the interview, was in treatment for glioblastoma brain cancer and had high hopes for a full recovery, but it was not to be. Our hearts are broken for him and for his family, wife Kerri,, and their four children….Read More…

Scott Wiener has often discussed pizza boxes not just in terms of functionality but also as works of art, and in this segment he brings such a box. As you will see, it is special edition box designed specifically for use during the holiday season conveys, in its own way, a sense of peace and tranquility. Since we can all use more of that, this is the ideal episode for…Read More…