Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

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…

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…

Welcome to a new season of Pizza Quest (previously referred to as Pizza Talk)!  This season we’re going to push the envelope of that key word, Quest, and delve deeper into its meaning and how it plays out in the lives of our guests. Of course, we won’t abandon that other key word, Pizza, but many of the upcoming episodes will expand our scope, exploring our deeper missions: “A journey of self-discovery…Read More…

Hi All, Sourdough is taking over the world! There are a lot of reasons for this, and it goes way beyond flavor. One of the international driving forces of this tidal wave of interest is Vanessa Kimbell, who is the founder, author, and host of The SourdoughClub.UK.com and The SourdoughSchool.com (and three Sourdough School cookbooks).  Based in the UK, north of London, Vanessa has a huge following and is an…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Talk, not only to you, but to today’s guest, Mark Todd, aka The Cheese Dude. During his last visit Mark not only told us how he became The Dude, but then took us on a tour de force tour of the pizza community’s favorite cheese category, pasta filata, or as most of us recognize it, where mozzarella lives, and how it is distinct from all the…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Talk! So, who gets to coin a new culinary term, create his own publishing house, and travel the world taking gallery worthy photos in exotic places, eating the best food ever made, and hiring talented chefs and writers to create a whole new category of food literature? Nathan Myhrvold is who. After the international success of the five volume Modernist Cuisine (now in 12 language translations), followed…Read More…

Pizza Talk (and our “Mother House,” Pizza Quest), has always been about more than pizza. It’s really a celebration of artisanship and the search for meaningfulness wherever we find it. We’ve all seen how the worlds of bread and pizza, in which I spend a lot of my life, have opened to new depths of discovery as the makers of these products made deeper and deeper dives into their possibilities….Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Talk! Portland has recently been feted in the national press for being the best pizza city in America (hey, don’t kill the messenger, but I’ve long advocated for Portland as being the best, per capita, so count me in). And Ken’s Artisan Pizza is one of the reasons why. Ken Forkish made the leap from famous artisan bread baker to, now, famous artisan pizza maker by…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Talk! Today’s guest is the embodiment of the old adage: Think globally but act locally.  By that, I mean that Siler Chapman is a world pizza champion, a protege of Tony Gemignani, and is known well beyond the borders of this city, my city, our city, Charlotte, NC where we both live.  As you will learn in this fun conversation, I have been a fan of Siler’s…Read More…

Welcome back to Pizza Talk! Some background: Over 35 years ago, before I was a bread baker, I entertained the notion of becoming an artisan cheese maker — that is before I lost control of a batch of about 20 wheels of home made cheddar cheese and was greeted by a walk-in covered in blue mold, including all the produce my wife was counting on in her job as head cook…Read More…