When it comes to a defining memory of pizza, nobody expects to see the Finnish grandmother or the bottle of ketchup...

You have a defining pizza memory, don’t you? We all do. You remember the place, the taste, the smell, and the people involved. But does it include your grandmother?
 
It does at Pizza Expo.
 
Pizza Expo in Las Vegas is like any trade show, but with better snacks. It’s the kind of place where business happens, but it happens just a little differently than at the car-wash trade show next door.
 
In a way, the pizza business is the family you choose. And the people you meet on the trade-show floor are also a little different. For one, it’s all about pizza.
 
And if you don’t already know, pizza is all about people.

So I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by some of the answers that came when I posed the question, “What is your defining pizza memory?”
 
And interestingly, instead of a chef remembering a chain pizza or someone recalling a local pizza joint whose pizza recipe died with the owner, we got something new.

We got grandmothers from around the world. 

It figures that, at Pizza Expo, there would be no shortage of interesting pizzas of memory. What we didn’t bank on was grandma being the central character in so many of them—especially a grandmother in Finland wielding a bottle of ketchup.
 
I was in the exhibit hall, and figured I’m at the top trade show for the pizza industry. Why not go to the top of the homemade pizza-business food chain?
 
I went straight to the Ooni booth. If you’re unfamiliar with Ooni, this is one of the 21st century’s greatest entrepreneurial success stories: the world's first affordable, portable wood-fired pizza oven. Ooni is a crowdfunded, award-winning, raging international success story.
 
Ooni CEO Kristian Tapaninaho is from Finland. And as a CEO, he is one of the happiest, friendliest people you’d ever want to meet. I walked up to him without an appointment, he greeted me with a smile, and had no problem sitting down with this stranger who clearly was not going to be placing an order for a pallet of pizza ovens.
 
I asked him what he considers his defining pizza memory. There was no hesitation…
 
“One of my really early childhood memories goes back to my grandmother in my hometown, Pyhäjärvi. [International phonetic alphabet pronunciation: “pyhæˌjærʋi.”] This is a memory around my grandmother's house where she used to live. It was a farmhouse. They had 20 cows and a very small farm. It’s kind of my earliest memory.
 
“My grandmother used to make this kind of very rudimentary pan pizza. She had a bread-style dough, and spread it across a pan. And it was baked in a regular electric oven. So you're looking at only about 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
 
“She often used ketchup as the sauce. I don't think we even had canned tomatoes in the ‘80s in Finland, so I don't think that would've been a thing. So ketchup for the sauce, and a lightly sautéed mince. Not English style mince meat, which is a sweet filling used in pies but, I think, ground beef in American English. Usually lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. Simple flavors in Finland around those days. And then, big slices of tomatoes, and cheese on top of that, and then it was baked in the oven. Maybe a bit of dried basil as well. All dried spices and herbs like that. I don't think we had any fresh ones at that stage.
 
“That goes to my first early pizza memories from my childhood. It was always a special occasion to have pizza. A bit out of the ordinary. And it was always wrapped with that warmth and joy of visiting their farm. Until I was 7, we lived two hours north where my parents were still studying so this was not every week at all. 
 
“Is there any pizza today that makes me think of that pizza? No, not really. I've asked my mom to keep an eye out in old bookshops and places like that, if she's ever in one, to look at cookbooks from the seventies and eighties. I’d like to see if she could actually find some of those early recipes for what we thought of as pizza back then in the ‘80s in Finland. The dough was quite different from what you get today.
 
“I think pizza is better thought through these days. And, I mean, nobody would use ketchup as a pizza sauce these days. I'd love to try and recreate that pizza as close as possible, but then maybe twist it a little to be a bit more to, I don't know, I don't want to say “palatable.” But it wasn’t fantastic pizza. We didn't eat pizza very often when I was a kid. I can't imagine there was a lot of pizza in Scandinavia at all.
 
“The pizza that we got in restaurants back then was closer to German flammkuchen style. A really thin-base kind of thing. And there are other maybe memories of that style of a pizza. But it's only been in the last 15 years that pizza has become a thing, really. And I hope [with Ooni] we've maybe played a little part in that around the world, introducing people to that and maybe inspiring a few people to get into pizza making.
 
“It takes a lot to start a pizzeria. It's not just having an idea, but actually finding enough people to run the pizzeria for you. I think that's what I find that pizzerias struggle with the most, is just getting great pizzaiolos in to continue doing great quality at a consistent rate.”

Well, that was a different trip down the memory lane of pizza. 
 
Kristian Tapaninaho’s tale is unexpected, and is one reason why this project is so much fun. There are some unexpected memories that come out of all this. His is just one of many.
 
We’ll be talking more about grandmothers and pizza. In the meantime, if you’d like to play the pizza memories game, feel free to send along your pizza memory. Just click here, and in the subject line write “Pizza Memory.”  In the comment section, go ahead tell your story--the taste, the people, the smell, the place.  
 
A tremendous thanks to Ooni CEO Kristian Tapaninaho, a gentleman and an artist who is beyond generous with his time.

If you'd like to know more about Ooni, you can find them at Ooni.com. We also had an extensive interview with the masterful Serhan Ayhan, and the various Ooni ovens he uses are displayed on this page here. 

(Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you make a purchase on any of those linked pages, the merchants pay us a percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you.)
 
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Did you know that you can make memorable pizza in your home oven? My weird little book is one way to do it. (Or you can also buy an Ooni. We interviewed Serhan Ayhan, who has many.) My book is less about recipes and more about how to get from zero to pizza. Besides learning to make great pizza, there’s not much else you can do with it. In fact, you can’t even use it to level a table leg if you buy the Kindle edition (which is less expensive than print editions, and has active links to instructional videos and printable kitchen worksheets). To learn more about Free The Pizza: A Simple System For Making Great Pizza Whenever You Want With The Oven You Already Have, click here. ​