{"id":2648,"date":"2016-03-22T01:09:31","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T05:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/?p=2648"},"modified":"2017-04-08T21:21:47","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T01:21:47","slug":"united-states-pizza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/united-states-pizza\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Craig Priebe and “The United States of Pizza”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note from Peter: Over a year ago, when I was in Chicago for a conference, I had a chance to taste a sneak peek of Craig Priebe’s new book, The United States of Pizza<\/em> (Rizzoli Publishing), a few months before it came out. Craig is the personal corporate chef for executives of a major Chicago company, and he invited me and a few guests to this private tasting in the company’s Executive Board Room. Needless to say, it was overwhelming — the first thing we saw upon entering were two tables loaded with over 20 different types of pizzas, each one a “tribute” to a classic pizzeria version that Craig had discovered while on his own personal pizza quest. Clearly, here was a kindred spirit!\u00a0 One of the most impressive things for me was that all of these pizzas were baked in a conventional home oven, not a fancy pizza or deck oven. In other words, they are all easily made at home! \"Craig<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A display of a number of Craig’s “tribute pizzas.” Not shown, another table right next to this one, loaded with 10 other “tributes.”<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0Now that the book is out (and selling briskly, I’ve been told), I caught up with Craig and asked him a few questions about the book and his journey. The photos here are mine, but the book is loaded with really excellent food photography by Jeff Kauck, with great back-story information on each pizza by Craig and his co-author, noted food writer Dianne Jacob. Congratulations to Craig and his whole team — this is a pizza lover’s must-have!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–Craig, tell us how you came to write this book and about your own love affair with pizza?<\/strong>
\nGrowing up in an Italian American family I had always been interested in cooking, particularly pizza and pasta. I had a good run with my own pizzeria for 7 years and I published my award winning recipes in my first cook book, \u201cGrilled Pizzas & Piadinas\u201d But I wanted to learn more about all the pizza you find in America. So I began to search for all the different ways we do pizza in America. The results after a 5 year study were impressive. I knew that these recipes across America must be written down, so I started writing. The results became my new book, \u00a0The United States of Pizza.<\/em><\/p>\n

–You pay tribute to so many pizzas and pizzerias from around the country.\u00a0 Why did you choose the ones you did and how did you figure out how to replicate them for a home oven?\u00a0<\/strong>
\nI reference 80 pizzas<\/strong> and pizzerias in the book. I wanted to do about 100 pizzerias but my publisher, Rizzoli, said the book was the right length and so I started cooking. Working at home in an ordinary household oven,\u00a0 I knew that I couldn\u2019t get that oven to 850 degrees, so I had to adjust bake times and the dough ingredients were tweaked to maximize browning and crispiness.
\nI didn\u2019t want this book to be considered a best pizza list. I am sure there are many good ones that I did not write about. I just wanted every recipe on each page to be interesting. Each page would tell a story about a pizzeria across the land and each pizza would be something that was entirely different than the one next to it. I really like the varieties that The United States of Pizza<\/em> displays.<\/p>\n

\"Potato<\/a>

Potato and Gruyere Pieroggi Pizza<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0–Are there some pizzas that surprised you, or exceeded your expectations from when you first heard of them to after you tasted or made them?\u00a0 If you had to pick a top 3 from the book, what would they be?<\/strong>
\nI really enjoy the Pierogi Pizza<\/em> from Jigys Old Forge Pizza in Enola, Pennsylvania. I am amazed each time I make it how 3 pounds of gooey mashed potatoes can be held in a crust which is as thin as parchment. A mashed potato and Havarti stuffed pizza is a beautiful thing. I also am thrilled with any of the sour dough pizzas in the book. The sour dough takes about 5 days to proof , but it is worth every minute because the crust is a perfect thin veneer of crispiness with a soft tangy crumb just beneath that. It is really delicious.\u00a0 I also love the Reuben Stuffed Pie, <\/em>inspired by Dove Vivi in Portland, Oregon. It is a monolith wheel of Corn beef, Swiss, sauerkraut and \u00a01000 island dressing. I love it and you can take it with you anywhere .<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A slice of Craig’s Stuffed Reuben pizza<\/p><\/div>\n

–What kind of cooperation did you get from the various pizzerias. Were they willing to share their secrets or did you have to ferret them out? Did anyone say, “No, I don’t want to be in your book?”\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nSpeaking to pizzeria owners and chefs \u00a0was a great portion of my research. But I didn\u2019t ask anyone for their recipes. Recipes are often proprietary information and I didn\u2019t need their input to reproduce these pizzas. It was enough for me to research the menus and visit many of the pizzerias to eat the product to work the info into a great recipe that would faithfully reproduce each style. I have 30 years of experience writing recipes and cooking so I am quite capable to nail each one down and make it a great recipe.<\/p>\n

–What are some of the things you learned about pizza while working on this book that you didn’t know before, and what tips would you want to share with home cooks who want to replicate these recipes?<\/strong>
\nI became extremely good at making dough. I really have a feel for it after making thousands of pizzas. I was surprised at the variances in pizza across the United States. I was also surprised that I did not need a glorious pizza oven in order to make great pizza at home. Pizza is really about balance and getting \u00a0ratios of toppings and crust diameter and thickness correct. More is not always better. There are many other tips and techniques in the book.<\/p>\n

–Any future projects coming up, whether pizza or not? What are some of your other food passions or obsessions?\u00a0<\/strong>
\nI am interested in pizza on a global level now. It is a big pizza world out there and I intend to discover all of it.\u00a0\u00a0 I cook every day and I make many styles of food. But pizza is my favorite, and I love pizza culture too. I like to learn the who, what, where, when, and why about all pizza everywhere.<\/p>\n

\"Craig's<\/a>

Craig’s tribute to the great Frank Peppe’s White Clam pizza<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note from Peter: Over a year ago, when I was in Chicago for a conference, I had a chance to taste a sneak peek of Craig Priebe’s new book, The United States of Pizza (Rizzoli Publishing), a few months before it came out. Craig is the personal corporate chef for executives of a major Chicago company, and he invited me and a few guests to this private tasting in the…Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":348,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[356,6],"tags":[127,129,132,130,128,131],"class_list":["post-2648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-s3-peters-blog","tag-craig-priebe","tag-pieroggi-pizza","tag-pierogi-pizza","tag-stuffed-reuben-pizza","tag-the-united-states-of-pizza","tag-white-clam-pizza"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInterview: Craig Priebe and "The United States of Pizza" - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fornobravo.com\/pizzaquest\/united-states-pizza\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview: Craig Priebe and "The United States of Pizza" - Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Note from Peter: Over a year ago, when I was in Chicago for a conference, I had a chance to taste a sneak peek of Craig Priebe’s new book, The United States of Pizza (Rizzoli Publishing), a few months before it came out. 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