Peter’s Blog: Year End Wrap Up

It’s the final day of 2011 and also the end of our first year of Pizza Quest. So, first, on behalf of the entire team (who I will name at the end), thank you for your loyal following of our journey, and for sharing your own.  As riders on our metaphorical “bus,” you and we went to some great places together this year, including Pizzeria Mozza and La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles, The Cass House Inn in Cayucos, CA, The Taco Temple in Morro Bay, Pizzeria Delfina, Tartine Bakery, and Bi-Rite Market and Creamery in San Francisco’s “Gastro District,” Stanislaus Tomatoes near Modesto, Pizzeria Basta in Boulder, CO, and also The Fire Within Mobile Wood-Fired Oven Summit, also in Boulder. During the past few months we also shared a number of illuminating visits with Tony Gemignani, of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana.  All of these videos are either still on this home page or waiting to be viewed in the archives of either our Webisode section or the Instructional section. For newcomers to the site, please feel free to go through all the sections and catch up to those who have been with us from the start. You’ll also find a number of excellent Guest Columns and lots of photo recipe sessions by Brad English, Teresa Greenway, and others, as well as foundational recipes for doughs, sauces, herb oil, and focaccia.  It’s amazing how much info has accumulated in just one short year, so thank you again to all of you, including our contributors, for creating this amazing community dedicated to the celebration of artisanship, both in pizza and in all aspects of life.

You will find, posted earlier today, a year end recipe pictorial from Brad in which he completes his four-part cycle of making his own versions of what we called the Signature Challenge Pizza, created as a collaboration between Kelly Whitaker (Pizzeria Basta) and us as a gauntlet throw-down to Patrick Rue of the world famous The Bruery. His team of brewers then came up with their own one of a kind signature beer that they dubbed Birra Basta, which debuted at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver back in September. Again, for newbies, go back to the Peter’s Blog posts from that time period and read all about it. Of course, we have hours of video footage that we plan to share in the coming year, from the original issuance of the challenge in Boulder, then on and to the first unveiling of the pizza at The Bruery itself in Placentia, CA, and then, finally, to the “Big Reveal” in Denver at the beer festival. All of that is still to come, along with new footage from other fabulous pizzerias, but in the meantime, Brad made four home-style variations of the Challenge pizza and the final version just posted today. It helped, as you will read, that he was able to procure the last keg of the Birra Basta from The Bruery, which he’s been nursing along for the past couple of months (I’m sure the keg is under lock and key). We were all so excited about the results of this pairing and, especially for Brad, and also for the rest of us vicariously, we’ve been able to enjoy the fruits of his personal quest to bring it all home. This is exactly what we hope for you, as well, that you not only enjoy the videos and content on the site but also make some killer pizzas at home and also get out there on your own quests for the perfect pizza and your own memorable moments.  We’ll be back soon, throughout 2012, with more postings and we love having you “on the bus” with us.

Till then, here are some personal thanks to all those who make Pizza Quest possible: Brad English and Jeff Michael, the co-creators of Pizza Quest who asked me to join them on this most amazing of adventures — and thank you also to both of their wives, Shanna and Julie, and their families, for letting the three of us play in the sandbox together; James Bairey and everyone at Forno Bravo, our partners in this website venture, who provided all the technical web expertise and introduced us to their own, growing, wood-fired oven community;thanks to Geoff Rantala, our trusty web designer;  Francis Wall and the folks at Bel Gioioso Cheese, our first charter sponsor who made it possible for us get these first webisodes filmed and edited; our amazing Director of Photography, David Wilson who totally gets what this quest is all about; all our other video and audio crew members including Annette Aryanpour, our talented film editor who does such a great job keeping the footage so lively and entertaining; Maria De Barros who shared her wonderful music with us;  the folks at Crash & Sue’s Post Production facility, who edited our first webisode, Pizza and Obsession, which we use as the intro for all newcomers; Joseph Pergolizzi, owner of The Fire Within, and builder of amazing mobile pizza ovens, who is now also one of our sponsors and our link to a whole world of fabulous artisans, Keith and Nicky Giusto, of Central Milling, who not only created the special flour blend for the Signature Challenge dough but are now an official sponsor of Pizza Quest.

Also, thank you to the Guest Columnists who contributed their thoughtful essays and recipes: Teresa Greenway, our resident sourdough maven; John Arena (of Metro Pizza); Michael Hanson, “the Sacred Baker;” Tom Carrig, Tony Gemignani, who contributed one of our first guest columns (“Respect the Craft”); Caleb Schiff; Brad Otton; Jenn Burns; Alan Henkin of Pizzeria Basta; Wes Baily; and John Della Vecchia; and Brad’s sister Kristin English.  You’ll find them all in Guest Column archives.

Another round of thanks to all the folks we featured in the webisodes and for the generous amount of time they all gave us so that we could dig deep in order to find out about the fire that burns in each of their bellies.

And, of course, my own thank you to my wife, Susan, who continues to support me on my Quixotian quests.  All Questers need great partners and we here at Pizza Quest, well, we’re all lucky to have ours.

Happy New Year everyone–more to come in 2012….