Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

Here at Pizza Talk we love that Anthony Falco, like Babe Ruth, called his own shot and hit it out of the park. A few years ago, after an illustrious career at Roberta’s and other pizza palaces, he declared himself an “International Pizza Consultant” and, guess what? The consulting opportunities began rolling in. Of course, he could actually walk the talk, so this was no empty boast, and Anthony has…Read More…

Laura Meyer has worked with Tony Genignani for many years and is both a protege’ and a prodigy.  In this fascinating conversation, Laura talks about her personal journey and the process of finding her own award-winning “voice” while also helping Tony build one of the most important pizza brands and training programs in the world. Laura is also one of a growing number of women stars in the pizza community…Read More…

This week Scott shares with us the story of the first box from his Guinness World Records collection and, wouldn’t you know it, it’s from, yes, Pizza Hut — from their Rocketeer promotion back in the early 1990’s. I’ll let Scott fill in the rest of the story as he continues his weekly unveiling on Pizza Box of the Week. Take it away Scott!

We’ve had both Chris Bianco and Rob Dinapoli on Pizza Talk individually, hearing from each how they came together to collaborate on their game-changing Bianco-DiNapoli Tomatoes.  This time around we get to hear the whole story from them together and, of course, much much more, including an update on the These Hands movement. This pandemic crisis has hit everyone hard and, at the time of this interview, the city of Phoenix,…Read More…

Everybody loves Paulie Gee (aka Paul Giannone), the Brooklyn-based pizza entrepreneur and now padrone of a multi-unit pizza empire. There are so many reasons to love Paulie, including his back story as an unfulfilled businessman who found his path and his passion late in life, to his influence on the up and coming generation of pizza operators who view his ethos as a model and template worth following, and, of…Read More…

Scott Wiener is back, this time with a Schiacciata box from Sicily (oh, what a life he leads, tracking and eating pizzas around the world and then bringing back boxes to add to his collection, which now numbers more than 1,500)! Also, don’t forget to check out Scott’s non profit website, www.sliceouthunger.org which is used to feed people, and especially now via his Pizza vs Pandemic initiative, to get free…Read More…

When Kelly Whitaker first appeared on Pizza Quest many years ago in a number of fabulous webisodes, we predicted.a James Beard Award in his future. Well, the time is drawing nigh, as Kelly is now a finalist for this year’s Beard Awards, which will be announced in September. Hear all about it, also about his proprietary pizza flour blend and relationships with local growers and millers, and all that has…Read More…

Now that Dan Richer has joined the Yodi discussion with John Arena and Brian Spangler it was inevitable that we’d see one of his doughs in action. This time around he makes a pizza in his home kitchen using his signature method of sourdough starter with a small spike of commercial yeast. In future episodes we’ll be meeting with other great pizza makers who have moved into the sourdough sector but, at this…Read More…

Scott Wiener joins us again, as he does every week, with another Pizza Box of the Week from his Guinness Book of Records collection. Your clue for this week is contained in the title, so I won’t say anymore but,  let’s have Scott take it from here to tell you the whole story!  

Sourdough Pizza is a major trend in the pizza world these days. In this episode, John Arena and Brian Spangler, our resident Pizza Yodi’s, invite Dan Richer, our newest Yoda, to further explore the category, as well as sharing their own techniques. Brian will show us how he makes his classic version, and later we’ll see how the others do it. You’ll be amazed at how much you will learn…Read More…