Exciting gift books to energize the jacked-up pizza geek in your life

​Still struggling over what gift to give your pizzamaker this holiday?

Here’s an unusual suggestion: just give up. Right now. Just go into your closet, close the door, ball up in the fetal position, and rock to visions of sugar plums, whatever those are.
 
Already doing that? OK. Here’s another suggestion.
 
Books. As you know, I have a pizza problem. It might be pizza love, if that’s even a thing. Perhaps it is. Perhaps it’s unnatural. Whatever.
 
But if there’s one thing that entices me as much as pizza, it’s books. My book problem long predates the pizza problem. That means the Venn diagram overlap of pizza and books is a special sickness that I enjoy.
​
 
And I can also share with you to help you solve your holiday gift giving dilemma.

Following are six books. Three are about pizza. The other three are clearly about other things. But all the other things are still cooking related.
 
Nothing in there is about personal toenail grooming techniques for wearers of ugly, open-toe German footwear or how to shellac your dragon. You'll have to handle those challenges some other way. These are cooking only, and half are pizza-specific 
 
Also, nothing here is on the scale of Modernist Pizza, the 32-pound monster which was the subject of last week’s commentary and should be attempted only by the obsessed and/or foolhardy.
 
All of the books below are valuable to cooking and can serve to totally change your pizzamaker’s world as he or she knows it. They are good books, all of them bordering on life changing, earth shaking, everything-you-know-is-wrong, paradigm-shifting potential. Each book represents a journey of discovery. You’re welcome and Merry Christmas!
 
(All the links are Amazon affiliate links, which means if you click and buy, Amazon slings some small change in our direction and moves on. Imagine the sound of pennies scattering across a desktop. At no additional cost to you, of course.)


PIZZA 101

​American Pie: My Search For The Perfect Pizza
Written by Peter Reinhart
Published by Ten Speed Press; First edition, November 4, 2003
Hardcover: ‎ 272 pages
​​List Price: $27.99
​Amazon discount price on 12/14/24: $24.99
​
The first book I recommend for any pizzamaker, but especially a novice, is American Pie by multiple James Beard award-winning bread and pizza guru, Peter Reinhart. (Full disclosure: I’ve gotten to know Peter. He’s probably the nicest guy in pizza. That does not change my recommendation.)
 
A former restaurateur and bakery owner, now a culinary instructor at Johnson & Wales as well as at Pizza University, Peter is a storyteller and pizza teacher. This is the book from which I learned pizza. And after listening to Peter’s podcast, where he often interviews professional pizzaioli, I find I’m not alone in that. This book launched many pizza journeys, including those of some now famous pizza people.
 
This book is not a cookbook until a third of the way through. Instead, it is an anthropological travelogue of pizza. Peter goes to Italy and follows pizza through the country, then across the ocean to the US. He talks about how pizza got to be the way it is, and pulls back the curtain on various regional styles before showing the reader the secrets to making any and all of them.
 
It’s useful to know that this book pre-dates two evolutionary components in home pizza: the baking steel and the broiler method. Those are minor points easily solved with a few minutes of further reading. This is still one of the most valuable texts for the home pizzamaker, and forever alters one’s understanding of how and why pizza in the US is the way it is.
 
 
​THE MASTERS DEGREE IN COOKING

 
On Food And Cooking: The Lore And Science Of The Kitchen
Written by Harold McGee
Published by Scribner; Updated edition, November 23, 2004
Hardcover: ‎ 896 pages
​​List Price: $50.00
​Amazon discount price on 12/14/24: $26.59
 
 
When I first began reading this book, I was only about a dozen pages in before it hit me: this is where Alton Brown’s irreverent food science and cooking show Good Eats must’ve come from. A quick Google search revealed that to be 100% correct. Alton Brown admits that Harold McGee inspired him. So do David Chang, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Thomas Keller, to name just a few culinary luminaries. On Food And Cooking: The Science And Lore Of The Kitchen is considered a seminal text of food science and is used in college-level courses.
 
Harold McGee studied astronomy before he turned to literature, ultimately getting a PhD in the romantic poetry of Keats before becoming a food-science writer. His magazine writing credits range from Food & Wine to Physics Today. I’m still reading this book, and sometimes it seems like every page is an epiphany.
 
This is not a pizza book. It’s more like a book about how and why many, many things work. By extension, pizza is one of them. The word “pizza” appears only seven times. But the words “bread,” “dough” and “flour” appear about 500 times each—and this isn’t even a bread book. For someone who already cooks and is already a pizzamaker, this book is an education. McGee is considered a rock star by many, and he makes things understandable for those of us who aren’t scientists.
 
 
​AS SERIOUS AS PIZZA GETS

 
The Joy Of Pizza: Everything You Need To Know
Written by Dan Richer, Katie Parla
Published by Voracious, November 9, 2021
Hardcover: ‎ 288 pages
​​List Price: $35.00
​Amazon discount price on 12/14/24: $21.49
 
 
If you think the idea of using a kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients is crazy, you’re going to find Dan Richer to be totally mad. This joyous book is about the serious work of pizza. Mr. Richer seems to be a driven man. He approaches pizza in ways that might seem extreme. He follows rubrics, practices intent naming, develops relationships with everyone who supplies his ingredients, and measures each pizza emerging from his oven with a pair of calipers.
 
The joy here is in a disciplined approach to the pizza he loves making. That approach has elevated Razza, his Jersey City pizzeria, to what some say is the nation’s best. I’ve been trying to eat there for several years. But every time we drive through New Jersey, they’re closed. (Razza, that is. New Jersey is open for business, with inconvenient hours on most days.) For getting to Razza, I’m going to have to name an intent and develop a rubric. Calipers might help.
 
I doubt there is any pizzamaker in the nation for whom pizza is more personal and precise. The Joy Of Pizza could be used by someone who’s brand new to pizza. But it might scare them away unless they are already meticulous and driven. For a pizzamaker who already possesses a degree of proficiency, the Richer method is a way to elevate the game. Personally, after 20 years of making pizza, I found this book fascinating.
 

​A PEEK INTO THE MIND AND HEART OF AN ITALIAN

The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts On Good And The Good Life
Written by Angelo M. Pellegrini, Ruth Reichl et al
Published by Voracious, November 9, 2021
Hardcover: ‎ 288 pages
​​List Price: NA
​Amazon price on 12/14/24: Various for used, beginning at $12.79
 
 
On her dust-jacket blurb for this book, founder and chef of Chez Panisse, Alice Waters says the book is misnamed. “It should have been called The Prejudiced Palate, because he is absolutely sure and unwavering in his vision of how to live a beautiful and delicious life.” Once you begin digging in to Angelo Pellegrini’s vision, it may become difficult to not envy his early 20th century life in the Pacific Northwest. The Unprejudiced Palate is considered an important work in American food writing. It was first published in 1948, and had been in print until just before I wrote this recommendation, apparently. Nonetheless, it’s worth finding a used edition for its contextual peek into the culinary past, both American and Italian.
 
This book will annoy some, and may even horrify others. It must be put into perspective of the time and place it was written and by whom. Narrated by a man who grew up poor in rural Tuscany during the early 1900s, it is a look back on good food, good drink and la dolce vita. At the time it was written, American culinary ideals were being infected by the message that cooking is drudgery and to be avoided. Pellegrini, who became a professor of English Literature at the University Of Washington, brings his unmistakably Italian perspective to the fore. He’s opinionated, judgmental, idealistic, and makes you wish you could have been a guest at one of his parties overflowing with homegrown produce and homemade wine.
 
Yes, pizza is barely mentioned. But the nation that produced pizza and exported it to the US is worth understanding. This peek at Italian history through the lens of a child who survived abject poverty and as an adult cultivates his indigenous romance-culture culinary sensibilities in the land of plenty helps put much in perspective. (I also have Pellegrini’s 1974 book, Wine And The Good Life, which features a cover blurb saying, “A unique, scandalous, and informative book that tells how to understand and enjoy wines by a delightful raconteur and sinner, the author of THE UNPREJUDICED PALATE." I haven’t found him to be all that scandalous and sinful, though maybe that speaks to the depths of my own character flaws.)
 
 
​FOOD AND COOKING IN A GRAND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE WITH CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT

 
Cooked: A Natural History Of Transformation
Written by Michael Pollan
Published by Penguin Books; 1st edition, April 23, 2013
Hardcover: ‎ 480 pages
​​List Price: hardcover $27.95, paperback $18.00
​Amazon price on 12/14/24: hardcover $27.95, paperback $9.16
 
Here comes the “T” word. I’ve come to believe that the reason so many people are obsessed with making pizza and commit to it with such zeal is this: a fascination with transformation. Specifically, we’re talking about the transformation of prosaic components into a much loved, dopamine-rush inducing flavor bomb.
 
Once again, this is not a pizza book, though it is in part very much about bread. Couching the history of cooking beneath the elements of fire, water, air and earth, Michael Pollan examines the history of that which “makes us human,” providing illuminating context. This is the one book on this list that I own in print, Kindle and Audible. I found it that interesting and worth having as a reference.
 
You may know that Michael Pollan is a controversial figure. He’s been accused of selective and junk science, and has been a lightning rod for debate. That said, he seems to be an equal opportunity offender, with experts from both sides of the aisle taking him on. But there’s very little about Cooked that courts controversy. Instead, it’s an historical examination of the ways we transform plants and animals for our nutrition and enjoyment.
 
Bread, barbecue, cheese and beer are all represented here. And from my experience, all are near and dear to the hearts of many pizzamakers. Moreover, there’s plenty of discussion about our beloved Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast that makes it possible to have beer and bread (and by extension, pizza). I enjoyed this book thoroughly, not least of all for the ever-important context as well as Pollan’s engaging style of storytelling. He has an entertaining and amusing way of making himself a character in his own books. I recommend Cooked for anyone who is even remotely serious about or interested in food.
 
 
​THE SIMPLEST PIZZA BOOK BY THE SIMPLE-MINDED

​ 
Free The Pizza: A Simple System For Making Great Pizza Whenever You Want With The Oven You Already Have
Written by Blaine Parker, foreword by Chef John Courtney
Published by Slow Burn Marketing, May 31, 2022
Paperback: ‎156 pages
​​List Price: hardcover $16.95, paperback $9.95
​Amazon price on 12/14/24: hardcover $16.95, paperback $9.95
 
 
This book was a mission: give the newbie pizzamaker a manual that goes in a straight line from zero to pizza. No choices to make beyond making pizza. No different styles, no different ovens, no decisions beyond making pizza happen. It was born of hearing people telling me their stories of homemade pizza frustration, which resulted in ugly, unpleasant pies, or expensive pizza ovens living in the garage covered in dust.
 
This is the book I wish I’d had when I was trying to make pizza the first time. That's because I probably made every single stupid mistake a beginner can make. Periodically, I would attempt a pizza. They were all failures that ranged from sad to bad. Fortunately, as mentioned at the beginning of this list, I discovered Peter Reinhart’s book, American Pie. In reading that book, I also knew enough to focus, make choices, and drill down into a single style of pizza and work on getting that right.
 
When I wrote Free The Pizza, I created a book I suspected no traditional publisher would ever want to publish. It’s focused, limiting, and basic by design. It discusses only best practices. It recommends essential tools that facilitate success. It yields a product that most Americans would recognize as “pizza” and enjoy. There are also links to printable kitchen worksheets on the Free The Pizza website.
 
One of my favorite reader/reviewers is a woman who found this book to help her husband, who’d been hurling scorched black pizzas into the yard. “Despite hours of YouTube videos, Facebook pizza groups, and internet searches…the quest felt futile and it was brutal…This book was a turning point.” The process is now “fun and therapeutic.”


Have a fantastic holiday whether you celebrate any particular deity or none, and here's to freeing the pizza for the new year!