Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

I’m in the middle of the beginning of a journey that started quite a while ago.  That’s a mouthful, but believe it or not it’s true!  I just got a Primavera 60 from Forno Bravo and I am beginning to chronicle my tales of learning how to drive this new oven.  I recently posted Part I of my wood fired oven journey (see a few posts below). But…. “Stop the…Read More…

So we come to the end of the story, at least this story that began with Kelly Whitaker and I challenging Patrick Rue to make a beer inspired by a pizza. If you’ve been following it from the start this finale segment is kind of a denouement, as we, sated and satisfied, drift off into the Denver sunset, having our own Pizza Quest version of a Rocky Mountain high. If…Read More…

What is it that makes a great pizza? I’ve been on a personal quest searching for the answers to this question for some time.  I’ve traveled and eaten more than my share of pizza.  I’ve also spent many hours slinging my own pies in and out of my home oven in all in an attempt to further understand and expand this quest.  I’d say I’ve even gotten pretty good at…Read More…

As many of you already know, I did not win the New Yorker Caption Contest this week, though I did get many e-mails from folks saying they thought I should have.  But the winning caption was very funny and I figured it might very well win when I first saw it in the finals, and it did. Was it because the author had more Twitter followers or Facebook fans than…Read More…

So, if you’ve been following our webisode series, we’ve been building up to the moment when the pizza, created by Kelly Whitaker and Alan Henkin of Basta, along with me and the Pizza Quest team — who came up with the Germainia Malted Dough — finally meet the beer created by Patrick Rue and his Bruery team. In the previous segment, we showed the Bruery guys two different pizzas and…Read More…

The perfect piece of fish!   Fresh piece of Yellowtail Sea Salt A little Pepper Chopped Garlic Olive Oil Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice Fire Smoke Timing   Perfection is not easy and once achieved is no longer perfection because it seems there is always something better coming.  That’s interesting to think about. Have you ever seen the most beautiful girl you thought you had ever seen in your life?  How…Read More…

When trying to pick the great pizza cities of the world there are a few places that I call the “usual suspects.” Naples, for many reasons, is often considered number 1, followed by a chorus of voices shouting about New York, Chicago and, for the real pizza fans, New Haven. All of these places can make a legitimate claim to pizza supremacy but if you are serious about pizza you…Read More…

Hi Everyone, I’m taking shameless advantage of this platform to let you know that a caption I submitted was chosen as a finalist in the weekly New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.  It is only the second time I’ve ever tried entering and, frankly, I usually find it hard to come up with anything funny or clever, so I often pass. But this time it came to me in a flash,…Read More…

Quite literally, this dough truly is a brew in Germania!  I’m “working on” a keg of Firestone Double Barrel Ale.  I’ve had it a while and been too busy to use it up!  No time for friends to come help me get to the bottom of this keg. So, I thought I’d draw a pint or two and also use it in my Germania Flour blend from Central Milling. I…Read More…

In our previous webisode we made two different pizzas for Patrick Rue and his team and challenged them to create a beer inspired by one of them. In this segment, you will see the choice that Patrick and his head brewer Tyler made, as well as an interesting discussion on the thinking behind all the choices. The red pizza was made with spiced pork jowl (guanciale), local pistachios, Mimolette cheese,…Read More…