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Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

Exciting News! My New Pizza Quest Video Class

Written By Peter Reinhart
Friday, 05 August 2022 Peter's Blog

Yes, it’s finally here! This new video class was shot with terrific production team from the Artisan Baking Center, where we feature techniques four of the pizzas from the recent Pizza Quest book, as well as doughs and other features and bonus content. For more details, here’s the link to the page with all the descriptions. https://artisanbakingcenter.com/p/pizza-quest?affcode=1233633_ma1m67e5 But wait — there’s more! If you decide to purchase the course by…Read More…

Pizza Quest Season 3, Episode 9: Pizza Leah, Sonoma County’s Rising Star

Leah Scurto was born to be a food star, not just a pizza star, as you will learn in this entertaining conversation with host Peter Reinhart. Half Mexican, half Italian, born into a family of food lovers who shared wonderful family meals during her early years, Leah’s current success was simply meant to be. You’ll hear all about her award winning pizzas and culinary vision for the future of Pizza…Read More…

Pizza Quest Season Three, Episode 8: Pane’ di Pala, the Birth of a New Product, with Michael Kalanty

Michael Kalanty was my faculty colleague when I taught at the California Culinary Academy back in the 1990’s. Since then, he and I have been on parallel tracks, both as educators, bread authors, and as product developers. In this episode, Michael shares his long and winding road from pastry chef, bread expert and educator, product developer for major food companies, and even how he became a “Certified Master Taster.” All…Read More…

Pizza Quest Season Three, Episode 7: Eidref Laxa Searches for “What’s Good Dough?”

Three years ago, Eidref Laxa started a podcast in San Jose, California as a way to learn everything he could about pizza so that, maybe, one day he could open his own pizzeria. Over 150 episodes later, “What’s Good Dough“ has become a goldmine of pizza knowledge, culled from the giants in the industry who have generously shared their knowledge with Eidref, who then shares it with his listeners. In…Read More…

A Spicy Pickled Asparagus Pizza Pie

I recently saw a post about pickling asparagus and, wow, that looked good!  After a couple of weeks the idea was still buzzing in my mind, so  I found a few recipes for a spicy pickled asparagus and made a couple of jars.  Both versions came out great, but this one (linked below) was my favorite using jalapeños rather than red pepper flakes to add the spice.  Plus, you end…Read More…

Pizza Quest Season Three, Episode 6: Geno From Jersey and His Grandma Pie

Everyday, new pizzerias open everywhere to varying degrees of success. But what is it that causes some of them to immediately break from the pack and generate buzz and excitement? Geno DiPaolo and his daughter Gena somehow found that “secret sauce” to make it happen in Charlotte, NC, at their Geno D’s Pizza. Geno is known as by his fans as “Geno from Jersey,” and that is part, but not…Read More…

Pizza Quest, Season Three, Episode 5: Ji Hye Kim, Korean Cuisine Re-imagined in Ann Arbor

Welcome Back to Pizza Quest, Ann Arbor is one of the great college towns in the country, but it is equally revered in the food world as the home of Zingerman’s, the destination deli and bakehouse that has become a benchmark brand, the Zabar’s of the mid-west if I might be so bold.  But it is also a restaurant incubator, via their “Community of Businesses,” as witnessed by Miss Kim,…Read More…

Pizza Quest, Season Three, Episode 4: Pizza Champion Tommy Garnick’s Artisan Journey in the Desert

Welcome back, everybody.         Tommy Garnick is known and loved throughout the pizza world as the Grand Champion of the 2019 California Milk Board Pizza Competition, and as the former owner of Brava Pizza in Denver, and as an instructor at The Fire Within Wood-Fired University. More recently, however, Tommy has relocated to Tucson, Arizona, where he and his partners are building a multi-purpose artisan culinary and crafts…Read More…

Pizza Quest, Season Three, Episode 3: Marc Forgione, From Iron Chef to Peasant

Welcome Back to Pizza Quest, Once upon a time in New York City 1999, there was a restaurant created by Chef Frank DeCarlo, built around a wood-fired oven, called Peasant. Who knew then that this now iconic place would foreshadow a movement toward cooking with wood that has embedded itself throughout our food culture. Chef Marc Forgione, a friend of DeCarlo’s and a regular at Peasant, was on his own…Read More…

Pizza Quest Season Three, Episode 2: Alan Cahn, The Transformation-Meister

Hi Everyone, and welcome back to a new and different kind of season on Pizza Quest. For the past few years we referred to these interviews as Pizza Talk, but this season our focus is broadening and will be more about the quest than the pizza (but we won’t forget pizza, too!). In this new episode I’m catching up with Alan Cahn, one of my oldest and dearest friends —…Read More…

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Vision Statement

Pizza Quest is a site dedicated to the exploration of artisanship in all forms, wherever we find it, but especially through the literal and metaphorical image of pizza. As we share our own quest for the perfect pizza we invite all of you to join us and share your journeys too. We have discovered that you never know what engaging roads and side paths will reveal themselves on this quest, but we do know that there are many kindred spirits out there, passionate artisans, doing all sorts of amazing things. These are the stories we want to discover, and we invite you to jump on the proverbial bus and join us on this, our never ending pizza quest.

Peter’s Books

American Pie
Artisan Breads Every Day
The Bread Bakers Apprentice
Brother Junipers Bread Book
Crust and Crumb
Whole Grain Breads

...and other books by Peter Reinhart, available on Amazon.com