Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

Susan and I spent the weekend in Philadelphia for a Reinhart family reunion and to celebrate my mother’s 80th birthday, and I had chance to revisit some of my childhood haunts and spend time with old friends prior to the big event. I had planned to stop at Mama’s to pick up a cheese steak (the best!) on our way in from the airport, but our flight got delayed and…Read More…

Wow–it’s August already, which is really hard to believe (other than by this relentless cross country heat wave, which confirms that it is, indeed, August). So, this week we have some fun new material to post, including a Peter’s Blog on Tuesday about my trip to Philadelphia and the incredible pizza I had at Osteria. Brad English is also lending me a photo or two of his recent visit to…Read More…

One of the great joys in being on the quest for perfect pizza is that it truly is a discovery process. As Chef Jensen Lorenzen and I played in his outdoor kitchen at the Cass House Inn I think we both felt that we were stepping into exciting, new territory. He knows food and ingredients and how flavors come together; I know dough; he had a brand new wood-fired oven…Read More…

One of our Guest Columns by Tom Carrig was called “BBQ Pizza–Not”.  It got me thinking about, what else, barbecue pizza.  My first introduction to this type of pizza was back in the 90’s when the BBQ Chicken Pizza became all the rage at California Pizza Kitchen, and also at Louise’s Trattoria here in Los Angeles, CA.  We could talk a lot about this explosion of “new” pizza ingredients that…Read More…

Lately, like many of us across the country I’ve been thinking about heat. Now, I’m no stranger to intense heat. I’ve been working in front of a pizza oven for over 40 years and I live in Las Vegas where, one day last week, the temperature topped out at 119 degrees. So, let’s just say heat is a big part of my life. As pizza makers and bread bakers, we…Read More…

A week away from pizza–it was hard. Every time I passed a pizza place on the island of St. Martin I had to fight the desire to check it out as an act of PQ duty. But it was our vacation, Susan and I, and that included a vacation from anything that would draw us back into the things we were vacating. Let’s face it, sometimes you just have to…Read More…

I’m back after some wonderful R&R, and we have lots of new postings for you this week, beginning on Tuesday with the latest Peter’s Blog about my recent trip to the Caribbean full of some pretty amazing non-pizza meals. Can’t wait to fill you in…. On Wednesday, we’ll be posting Brad’s latest creation — a barbecue pizza that meets Tom Carrig’s recent BBQ rant (see the Guest Columns archive) —…Read More…

Note From Peter: Teresa Greenway is a serious home baker and sourdough expert who has been corresponding with me for the past few years. She has written her own beautiful book on all things sourdough, loaded with photos, and is making it available as a free download for anyone who wants to get it from her website (see the link at the end of this article, or go to her…Read More…

I have been corresponding through our email with a Pizza Quester named TJ about making the Buonchristiani Lamb Sausage with Fennel Pizza.  TJ asked a few questions and then went off and had great success making the pizza  (that really is one that you have to try — I love that pizza!).  In one of TJ’s emails he told me about one of his own favorite pizzas.  It’s a thinly…Read More…

A long time ago, I took a trip with my high school buddy, Milan.  We went to Europe one winter to ski and roam around a little.  The two of us didn’t have any real plans, beyond hitting some key ski spots like Chamonix, Zermat, Davos, St Anton, and Kitzbuhel among many others.  We had a stop planned in a small farm town in Slovakia to visit his relatives but,…Read More…