Last week’s anti-political rant about the Detroit pizza served to reporters on Air Force One got me thinking: how many people even understand the thrill that is Detroit-style pizza? It’s easy to make, comes with an element of crunchy, caramelized high like none other, and it’s a total surprise how much people love it. I’ve made over 1,000 round, flat pizzas recognizable as some evolution of Neapolitan tradition. And people love them. One guy I know says my pizza has ruined him for any other. But the few dozen Detroit-style pizzas I’ve made are the ones that make people’s heads snap around in surprise.
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It doesn't matter if you vote red, blue or pink--politicizing pizza is a crime against decency.2/3/2024 Oh, the char of it! Does humanity have any hope left? When they start taking our pizza and injecting it with politics, the situation is dire and requires activism. I’m speaking, of course, about the Air Force One Detroit Pizza Debacle. If you slept through it (as it deserved), we’ll clarify that for you forthwith. A lot of political differences in our world could be solved if pizza were involved. You can put people from all political positions around a table with good pizza, and it brings them together. But leave it to that bastion of high-quality journalism in The City That Never Sleeps to do the opposite, dragging pizza into a fight it didn’t have coming. I haven’t offered a simple kitchen tip in a while, so here it comes. Get ready for the ensuing mayhem. If you’ve spent any time around here, you’ve heard me say it: Scales are not necessary for making pizza. I’ve said as much to pizza pros, who instantly label me a scoffer and a misanthropist. So be it. Among American home cooks, there’s a clear and resonant hatred of the dreaded kitchen scale. I have a theory for why this is. It’s related to a less-than-stellar education system. How daring are you, and are you ready for a crazy pizza challenge that sounds easier than it might really be? Would you like to try making a polarizing form of pizza using a barely tested dough? First, a short tale, and then some details. (And know those details are all reflected in the pizza in the photo above, which is an actual Free The Pizza Production developed using the methods in question.) Last week, the conversation was pizza inspiration that knows no sane boundaries. And that’s fine. It’s so much better than the tyranny of “Pepperoni or nothing!” This week, part 2 of our conversation with Serhan Ayhan puts the spotlight on the truth about ovens and the things that matter more. (Flour, anybody?) And perhaps the most important thing you need for making pizza is free. In fact, it’s impossible to buy… If you like making pizza, and you want to push the boundaries a little, it’s fun being inspired by other people’s pizzas.
For me, it’s usually the easy-to-find pizzas of high-profile pros like Dan Richer, Chris Bianco or Nancy Silverton. But there’s a pizza amateur who is may be the single most inspiring pizzamaker I’ve ever witnessed. Serhan Ayhan and I met in Atlantic City at the Pizza & Pasta Northeast (PPNE) trade show. Serhan was there not as a pizzeria pro (though he’s been one), but as an enthusiastic pizza amateur. By day, Serhan works in financial due diligence with a famous multinational investment bank. You may have seen him and his wife in the New York Times’ Real Estate section in a feature called “The Hunt.” The two stories there detail their hunt for a new home—including an oven big enough to accommodate his pizza peel. (We've all been there, right?) Last week, I talked about hitting five of the top-rated pizza joints in Pizza City USA (AKA Portland, Oregon)—except… Pizzeria number 5 was a last-minute substitution based on a Google search for the closest pizza joint. I’d never heard of it, never saw it on any list—and it was the biggest surprise of my two-day pizza expedition. So, after years of regarding them with suspicion, I’m officially skeptical of the best pizza lists. FROM THE “I DO THESE THINGS SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO” FILES… I’m back, intact and fat, from two days in rainy Portland, Oregon. I went there because it’s The Best Pizza City In The United States. I suppose the big question here is: What did I find? Is the pizza any good? And does the city deserve its reputation for eccentric hipsters? Are you tired of having conversations about pizza? Are you growing weary of eating surprisingly good homemade pizza because your pants are now straining at the waist? Every time the two of you travel together, are you having to say “No, I don’t want to try the three best pizzerias in this town tonight.” If so, you are living with a pizza geek. With that in mind, I can heartily recommend this as a holiday git: the 35-pound, three-volume ultimate masterwork of pizza, Modernist Pizza by Nathan Mhyrvold and Francisco Migoya. Are you thinking about buying a pizza oven as a gift for someone who’s brand new to pizza?
Here’s a tiny tale about three “first” pizzas. The first time I made a “pro-quality” pizza was at my home in Los Angeles. We had a vintage 1950s Wedgwood stove that came with the house. It was retro cool. I had just read Peter Reinhart’s book, American Pie: My Search For The Perfect Pizza. A bought a stone and a peel, and made a pizza using his instructions. The fact that I was able to make a pizza that was so convincing was astonishing to me. I'd spent years laboring under the belief that an incredibly hot oven was required. I didn't realize that a home oven was hot enough for making the kind of pizza I enjoy most. |
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
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