Peter’s Blog, Week Three

Here we are, already into our third week of PizzaQuest.com and the site just keeps filling up with more great content. If you check out Coming Attractions you will see our publishing plan and blueprint not only for this week but for the weeks to come. I won’t repeat all that here but I do want to give you a few new updates:

–For those of you who read my baking blog, you know that I’m also working on a new book in the midst of all this Pizza Questing. If you are interested in becoming a recipe tester, click over to that blog for details. On January 15th the gates will officially open and we’ll take the first 50 applicants. Everyone else will go on the waiting list till the next round, which will probably be in about two months.

–We have some great Guest Columns coming up in the next few weeks, including this week’s posting from Joseph Pergolizzi, whom you have seen in action in one of our Instructional videos. Joseph has created one of the most unique artisan businesses in the United States, The Fire Within, and I’m proud to have him as a friend and Pizza Quest contributor. His thoughtful comments this week on the concept of what he calls The Third Place will broaden your frame of reference on community building. We’ll be posting his column this Friday (Friday will always be Guest Column Day, just as Thursday will always be New Video day).

–Here at Pizza Quest we’re looking into some upcoming opportunities to get back on the road. Nothing definite to report yet, but when we do get back on the “bus” we’ll be sure to let you know in case you want to meet us there. We’ve even fantasized about getting a real bus, like Ken Kesey, and putting an antenna dish on the front and decorate it up to look like a big pizza. Don’t know when, but it’s going to happen one of these days. That’ll be a bus worth getting on.

–This week, now that the holiday break has ended, classes begin again here at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, so things will be getting crunched for me. But we have so many terrific students that it’s actually energizing being around them. A group of our students, along with their faculty advisers, have cultivated an organic garden right in the middle of center city Charlotte, a block from the school, and they even make their own compost with the kitchen scraps from all our cooking labs. We’re looking to build a wood-fired oven in the middle of the garden in the next phase, so stay tuned. If any of you ever make it to Charlotte be sure to call the school and get on one of the daily tours, and ask your tour guide to show you the garden. If you are coming, write to me at peter@pizzaquest.com and let me know. If I’m able, I’ll try to meet you.

Continue to enjoy PizzaQuest.com, please add your comments to the various features, and, till next time,

May Your Pizzas All Be Perfect!

Peter