Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart

When I make pizza, it’s always an event.  Baking in a home oven, I can’t make an extra large pizza for the family, or friends and call it a day.  I’m limited by not having one of those large pizza ovens!  Frankly, I don’t think I’d like to do that anyway.  Half of the fun in making pizza is trying a few different recipes, or letting the kids or guests…Read More…

I have to go to a meeting in a few minutes but before I do I wanted to get this info to you regarding how to order sprouted wheat flour directly from Lindley Mills. I spoke with Joe Lindley yesterday and he said, “Just have them call us here at (336) 376-6190 and we’ll work out a way to send it to them.” The mill is located in Graham, NC,…Read More…

Welcome back everyone!  This week we’ll be posting a terrific new photo essay by Brad English, our “Watch Mr. Wizard” pizza experimenter (and also the director of most of the videos on Pizza Quest). Brad has a number of new pizza experiments to share with you but this week we’ll start with something he calls his “Upside Down Margherita Pizza.”  You’ll find out what he means by that on Wednesday….Read More…

  Lately I’ve been thinking about pizza and mythology. Certainly the history of Italy is punctuated by myths and legends, from the time of the Etruscans right up to the exploits of the current Prime Minister. So why wouldn’t the subject of pizza be any different? The plain fact is there are a lot of myths and fables (some true and some not so much), but also misinformation, and even…Read More…

This week we conclude our visit to Pizzeria Delfina with a fresh mozzarella lesson from head pizzaiolo Anthony Strong. If you look closely, you’ll see Chef Craig Stoll in the background talking with our producers, Brad English and Jeff Michael (Jeff’s the tall one with hair, Brad you’ll recognize from his photo on our home page). We had so much fun with Craig and Anthony during our visit with them,…Read More…

I knew pizza was a hot subject but we recently received a note from the folks at the California Culinary Schools website telling us about their top 50 pizza blogs. We’re happy to have made that list, considering we’ve only been up and running for three months and probably were just getting started when they started working on it. But I want to congratulate all the blogs and websites who…Read More…

This week we continue our Gastro adventure with a trip back to the Pizzeria Delfina kitchen, where head pizzaiolo Anthony Strong gives us a lesson in how to pull fresh mozzarella curds into smooth, creamy cheese balls. A definite must-see, which will post on Thursday! On Tuesday I’ll be posting on my Peter’s Blog a link to the California Culinary School’s top 50 pizza blogs list. It’s a great list…Read More…

Lately I’ve been thinking about barbecue pizza. My favorite local purveyor of pies recently had a daily special he called, “BBQ Pizza.”  I could not order it.  I have little doubt that it was a delicious nosh, but the name just rubbed me the wrong way, and I shared my thoughts, which follow here, with the pizziaolo. Topping a pizza with some combination of meat and barbecue sauce—regardless of quality—does…Read More…

In this segment, Pizzeria Delfina’s head pizzaiolo, Anthony Strong, takes me on a short walking tour of the one block section of San Francisco’s Mission District known as The Gastro. We explore the Bi-Rite Market where we eat gourmet chocolate and devour the lightest, flakiest pork rinds (chicharones) I’ve ever had And then we go across the street to visit with owner Ann Walker at the Bi-Rite Creamery for some…Read More…

This is Part II of my recipe pictorial of Jay Buonchristiani’s Lamb with Fennel Sausage and Mushroom Pizza recipe.  You saw the making of the the first pizza in the original pictorial.  I continued on, making 2 more pizzas since you can never just make one pizza anyway, right?!  But, the reason I split this pictorial up was because I sort of stumbled on something interesting.  I have had great…Read More…