Pizza Quest Globe

Peter’s Blog, Oct. 26th, SF

Written By Peter Reinhart
Wednesday, 26 October 2011 Peter's Blog

Wed. We’re halfway through the photo shoot and have come with some great shots and lots of product to bring to Omnivore tonight at 6 PM. There’s always something going into or coming out of the oven, eventually being styled by Karen Shinto into a composition that Leo can assess and light for the camera. The rest of us gather around and offer suggestions or ooohhs and aahhh’s and then Leo pulls the trigger and a number of variations of the original shot show up a video monitor until we have some that everyone likes. We’ve been very happy, and the collaborative process seems to be working.

Una Pizza Napoletana

I’m writing this now on Thursday, the day after the Omnivore event and after an exciting evening of pizza at — here it comes….Una Pizza Napoletana, the one-of-a-kind pizzeria helmed by the now legendary Anthony Mangiere. I’ll come back to that in a bit but first, a quick recap of Omnivore. Omnivore Books is owned by Celia Sack, and has, in the few years since I’ve been dropping in, established itself as a serious destination cook book store (and also a sweet pet supply store in the adjoining location next door), despite the small space located way out in Noe Valley. Celia runs a fine author program too, bringing in many A-list writers as well lesser known niche writers like me. Last evening she was able to draw about 30 people, some who had traveled from as far as Monterey and the East Bay. Denene had a chance to tell them her story, of creating the gluten-free, sugar free recipes that the book is based upon, as a way to heal her body and reverse her type-2 diabetes. The crowd, which mainly came to hear about pizza, seemed really interested in the gluten free phenomenon and they all got a chance for a sneak-peek taste of some of the products that we brought from the photo shoot.

One of our delicious pies…

Afterwards, a few of us headed over to 11th and Howard St., a rough looking neighborhood with and lots of locked doors, and nearly walked right past Una Pizza Napoletana until we caught the reddish glow emanating from a blue mosaic tiled domed oven and then saw a dining room full of happy pizza freaks. Once inside, I saw Anthony Mangieri woking at a small, spare pizza table, his back to the oven, which he would then face, pivoting around with a loaded peel as he slid another pizza through the open door. Two minutes later a beautiful, puffily charred pizza emerged, landed on a plate, which was then quickly escorted by one of the servers to whoever ordered it. Anthony was so focused on filling the steady stream of tickets that he hardly noticed me clicking away on my Leica Lumix while we waited for a table to clear for our group of eight (it was about a 20 minute wait). We ordered 6 pizzas among us, as they were running low on dough balls and a few people came in after us, but we could easily have consumed a whole pizza per person. They were wonderful–both traditional in appearance and balance of ingredients but also distinct and uniquely unlike anyone else’s Napoletana pizzas.

Peter and Anthony having a chat…

I loved the slight tang of his naturally fermented dough– perfect in San Francisco, which made me wonder why more pizzerias didn’t capitalize on the ambient, only-in-San Francisco sourdough cultures. The crust was light and tender, but full of the ciabatta-like structure that I crave in pizza. We were all happy campers, whether we ordered the Margherita, or two variations — one with smoked mozzarella and arugula, and the other with sliced cherry tomatoes and garlic as well as fresh mozzarella. So I waited till the dough had run out and Anthony was able to decompress a bit from his lazer-like focus and introduced myself. I instantly liked him and his earnestness, and introduced him to Melissa (my editor from Ten Speed Press) and Leo, our photographer and asked him if he’d be willing to let us come back with the Pizza Quest crew someday. He said yes, so I decided not to push into interview mode but to allow him his well deserved after-performance wind-down. There’s so much I want to talk with him about — I think there’s a lot going on below the surface that contributes to the depth of our collective experience. Leo and I discussed, as we left, how much it seemed like Anthony’s make-up station was like an altar, and how he was like the high priest as he placed his pizzas into the consuming fire of the domed oven that looked like a miniature Byzantine church. It was like a laicized iteration of a sacred ritual, a sacramentalizing of an otherwise ordinary mundane event. In other words, a manifestation of everything I’ve been writing about for twenty years — that every meal has the potential to be a Last Supper, a bringing together of heaven and earth — or not. It all depends on the eyes of those doing the looking (or eating), and also those doing the cooking. I could go on and on about this but want to wait till I get back to have a real sit-down with Anthony and see how much of this is conscious on his part and how much just unintended grace. Should be a lively discussion. I’ll be back one more time this week with a wrap up of our SF adventure. We now have only four more beauty shots to take on Friday, as well as the author shots (Denene and I are already planning our wardrobes!). Brad has promised to insert a few of the photos I’m sending him tonight (he’s the only one on our team who knows how to load photos into the blogs–something I still have to learn), so keep checking back. More to come from San Francisco….

Comments

gene hill

When do we get the recipe for the GF Pizza – at least the formuala for the flour combinatin you are using I can not wiat for the book.

peter

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to release that recipe until the book comes out –so sorry. But, as soon as I am allowed to I will post it up here and, by then, we may even be able to do a survey of gluten free pizza already on the market or from other books. I’ve tasted three brands that I really like but, of course, none of them are carb-free like ours. However, I’m very pleased with the one we developed at Amy’s Kitchen (I think they market it as a Rice Flour Crust with the notation of “Gluten Free” appearing somewhere on the box. Let me know what you think of iit and also of any other brands that you like. Thanks!!

Jesse

Wow, San Francisco is turning into quite the pizza city. You could call it the New Haven of the west coast! It’s now at the top of my travel list.

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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