​Yes, your Free The Pizza geek is reading an amazing, $425, 36-pound pizza book so you don’t have to.

The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Introduction
​(To see the entire 50,000-word review, click here.)

Modernist Pizza
Written by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya
Published by The Cooking Lab; First edition, October 19, 2021
Hardcover: ‎ 1708 pages, 32.7 pounds, 13.78 x 10.24 x 15.94 inches
​​List Price: $425.00
​Amazon discount price as of 03/08/23: $294.99

The amazing thing is a book. What’s inside? A brief history of pizza. A single recommended dough recipe. An explanation about how to bake pizza in your home oven.
 
If you’ve read Free The Pizza!, that description might sound familiar. But, it’s obviously not my book. In fact, it’s the complete opposite of my book. It’s also a stunning example of why I wrote my book in the first place: there's a lot of pizza information out there. Not everyone needs that much intel at the beginning. 
 
But if you’re the right person, you may demand this book. I’ve just received and started reading Modernist Pizza. If you don’t know about this pizza epic, it is extraordinary. Weighing more than 30 pounds (including the 7 pounds of ink required to print it), Nathan Mhyrvold and Francisco Migoya’s masterpiece is a great idea—IF you know what you’re getting into. I thought I did.

But already, I might be in trouble. Over 20 years of doing this, I’ve learned a few myths about pizza—some of which are now being exploded between the pages of Modernist Pizza. The least of those myths regard pizza history. And the history section inside Modernist Pizza is comprehensive enough that it dwarfs the entirety of Free The Pizza!

I’ve said publicly that some of my favorite pizza cookbooks are too much for a beginner who doesn’t yet have an idea of exactly what they want to do in pizza. When a bestselling cookbook demands that you purchase two kitchen scales and diastatic malt and make a sourdough starter and maybe have calipers on hand to measure your pizza and gives you recipes for 17 different kinds of pizza dough what are you supposed to think? It’s easier to sit in a corner and rock.

“But!” you exclaim! “Modernist Pizza! This 3-volume set has more than 50 dough recipes!” Well, I know a few of you out there on this mailing list. You have healthy egos. You are captains of industry. You have advanced degrees and travel the world making huge business deals. You’re not fooled by “thought leaders in the home cooking space” showing you “how to make a fast and easy pizza-night supper” using “quick and easy pizza dough” that is fermented for a total of 20 minutes because, hey, nobody wants to plan ahead or have patience—and you are not some poor schmoe who ends up making a crap pizza before deciding to never do it again.

You are a kingmaker, and you want the king of pizza cookbooks. By that measure, Modernist Pizza is fantastic and you need it. Like my book, Modernist Pizza has a history of pizza, which provides context. Among the 50+ dough recipes, it has a kind of single recommended dough which can be used for various different kinds of pizza. And among the many different explanations for how to bake a pizza, one of them is about using your home oven.

I cover all of these same topics in what I call the “See Spot run and make pizza” version. But your ego will not be satisfied until you’re in the kitchen bench pressing this Olympic-weight pizza cookbook that’s almost as big around as a 16-inch pizza. And who can blame you? (Did I mention it comes with a bright red, stenciled case fabricated of stainless steel?)

If you’ve read my book, you know it contains no big budget research, amazing photography and slick production value. I’m a hack. I don’t even let you choose a dough recipe. And I actually know THREE different styles of pizza dough! (Four if you count Detroit!) All of my photography was done with an outdated Android phone.

You know who you are. And you should buy this book. Everyone else can continue working with me on the kiddie-pool version of home pizza making. And regardless of whether you’re the home-cooking strong man or the regular guy or gal who makes pizza, thanks for being a fan. As always, I hope to see your pizza-baby pictures in our mailbox or on our Facebook page. Free The Pizza!

Want to see more pictures of Modernist Pizza? They are here, along with a link to Amazon. (Cuz you know, regardless of who you are, you're like a moth to the candleflame and you want to buy it even though you've only ever made a pizza from an English Muffin and it made you cry.)
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If the idea of owning a copy of Modernist Pizza attracts you like a moth to the candle flame, you can find it here. If you want a skinnier, simpler, sillier book that teaches only one kind of pizza, you can find Free The Pizza! here.