So, just as I finished putting sauce and cheese on the pizza, my intuition said, "You could stop right there. That’s a great, simple pizza." But no, I was busy answering the same question I posed to you a couple of weeks ago: What outrageous homemade pizza inside you is growling to get out? And after my experience, I continue to believe outrageous pizza is fun. But be ready for the possibility that there will be blood. Not actual blood. Not even fake blood. Metaphorical blood. Maybe just tears. Or, as in my case, an annoyance that can be assuaged by sausage and judicious surgical removal of the genius toppings. If you were here for that last conversation, I asked you to send your ideas for your outrageous, locally inspired pizza.
0 Comments
 Are you excited by fake hot dogs made of tofu and fake pepperoni made of wheat gluten? Unlikely. My normal take on such products is simple: Just stop it. If you stopped eating meat, stop pretending to eat meat. You know the only real taste is disappointment. So, when the email hit my in-box, my first reaction was doubt. The very cheery message read, “I saw your name on the press list for the Pizza Expo next week and was wondering if you'd be interested in stopping by the Prime Roots booth to try the world's first Koji-pepperoni.” Great. Fake meat. But there was one big difference here... I admit, koji is captivating. Mushrooms and fermentation are both fascinating topics—and koji is a fungi used in fermentation for various Japanese foods. But who makes fake meat out of koji? So after a sincere internal struggle, I replied to the email...  If you pay attention to what happens here in the pizza pages, you know I sing the praises of some classic and minimalist pizzas. Last week’s homage to pizza marinara is a perfect example. It’s a pizza so simple you might accuse it of being boring—until it shows up and whacks you in the mouth with a minimalist maximum flavor bomb that spins your head around and modifies your hairstyle. But that doesn’t mean I’m all about minimalism. Yes, may have heard me say that less is more—but that’s the nature of a good pizza. If you're making a pizza and you overload it with a hogshead of sauce, cheese and toppings, you’re going to end up with a regrettable and unfortunate situation that may require a shovel. But I do believe in unleashing your inner creative monster chef and coming up with your own classics--and they in no way need to be minimalistic, just well thought out.  I said I wasn’t going to bother trying. I had given up before I started. The hottest pizzeria in Los Angeles right now is Pizzeria Sei by William Joo and Jennifer So. It's a tiny, Tokyo-style pizza joint at Pico and Robertson, across the street from a kosher deli and a tattoo parlor. Reservations were two weeks out. But it was VPN pizzaiolo, pizza consultant, and “Professor of Pizza” Noel Brohner of Slow Rise Pizza Company who turned me around. He said in an email, “Don't blow off Sei. Go between lunch and dinner. Their simple pizza rosa is the best I've ever had. William is a pizza savant!” On the strength of that recommendation, I stumbled back online, began clicking buttons, and like a blind pig found the lone truffle: an unlikely reservation for two at 4pm Friday. (This place has only nine stools at the counter and about half a dozen chairs at some tiny tables.) So I booked it, and we followed Professor Brohner’s lead: the Pizza Marinara was one of three pizzas we ordered. Was it really that good? Let’s put it this way: good enough that a week later I’m still thinking about it, and... I’m encouraging you to attempt the heresy of making pizza marinara yourself. OK, maybe “heresy” is too strong a word. But almost every person to whom I’ve ever suggested pizza marinara has said, “That’s boring.” Oh, trust me. It’s not.  You may know of him. Seen him. The hats. The glasses. The grin. He is a character, and he is very much pizza famous. His name is Paul Giannone and he’s from Brooklyn. But he’s better known by his professional moniker, Paulie Gee—as in the very famous Paulie Gee’s Woodfired Pizza and Paulie Gee’s Slice Shops. And Paulie Gee is hungry for a pizza partner in The City That Care Forgot. Paulie recently said to me, “I need to find someone who has a passion for pizza and is entrepreneurial and has chutzpah.” I admit, the man is amazing. His enthusiasm is so infectious, I feel like I’m making a huge mistake by not becoming a pizzeria operator. |
AuthorBlaine Parker is the award-winning author of the bestselling, unusual and amusing how-to pizza book, Free The Pizza. Also known as The Pizza Geek and "Hey, Pizza Man!", Blaine is fanatical about the idea that true, pro-quality pizza can be made at home. His home. Your home. Anyone's home. After 20 years of honing his craft and making pizza in standard consumer ovens across the nation, he's sharing what he's learned with home cooks like you. Are you ready to pizza? Archives
June 2025
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed