Peter hasn't seen Ronnie Costello in 53 years, since they played together on their high school baseball team. It has also been 60 years since they attended Belmont Hills Elementary School together. They lived on different sides of Mary Waters Ford Road, the street that, like the Maginot Line, separated the mostly Irish and Italian kids of "The Hill" from the mostly Jewish kids of Penn Valley. There are a lot of stories that each of them could tell (and have) about living on those two sides of th...
Feb 04, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 43
Welcome back to Pizza Quest. On this episode, Peter talks with one of the fastest rising stars in the pizza firmament, Michael Vakneen , co-founder of Truly Pizza in Dana Point, CA (near Laguna Beach), partnering with pizza legends Chris Decker and John Arena. Michael is also making some of the best pizza in Las Vegas at his Double Zero Pie & Pub . He consults and he competes, winning many of the championships he enters (he's a member of the World Pizza Champions team), working at the highes...
Jan 28, 2024•30 min•Ep. 42
On this episode we welcome Bill Crawford , former Air Force jet fighter test pilot and, now, the owner of Righteous Slice in Rexburg, Idaho. Bill shows us all about his Grand Prize winning El Pollo Barracho Pizza (aka "Drunken Chicken" pizza, with tequila marinated chicken) from the 2024 Real California Pizza Contest, sponsored by the California Milk Advisory Board. Peter competed in this contest too (and didn't win), working directly across the bench from Bill during the competition, so he's pa...
Jan 21, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 41
The pizza and artisan bread worlds inevitably found each other during the past two decades, and it's a marriage made in heaven. Now, we see a lot of cross-over as pizzerias are making their own breads and many bakeries are making great pizza. The common denominator in all of this is the Bread Bakers Guild of America , which serves as the networking repository of knowledge and training for everything related to the art and science of bread. The Guild is at the root of the improved quality in brea...
Jan 14, 2024•37 min•Ep. 40
Welcome back to Pizza Quest. Yes, the Yodi's are back! John Arena and Brian Spangler, our two original Pizza gurus who helped launch these Pizza Talk/Pizza Quest shows during the pandemic, are joined by the true global bagel poet laureate of our time, Philip Korshak , for a delightful conversation of show-and-tell as we celebrate the emerging bagel renaissance across the land. More and more pizza operators are getting into bagels, as we've discussed on recent shows, and both John and Brian have,...
Jan 07, 2024•58 min•Ep. 39
This episode was recorded at the Northeast Pizza and Pasta Expo in Atlantic with two of the giants in the pizza world, Roberto Caporuscio of the acclaimed Kesté Pizza Napoletana in Greenwich Village, and Massimiliano Saieva , the master teacher of the ASR PIZZALAB , who has been featured on Pizza Quest in the past as well as in Peter's book, Pizza Quest. Learn all about how they are raising the bar by educating pizza makers across the world with their pizza schools, and pick up some tips about h...
Dec 31, 2023•41 min•Ep. 38
Yes, bagels are back, with a vengeance! Wonderful shops are bobbing up all over the country, in much the same way as their "kissing cousin" the donut shop. The bagel cycle is fairly predictable, as bagels never really go out of fashion, but the trend often spikes every ten years or so, rejuvenating itself as bakers find more creative ways to make or market them. "Schmears" are sometimes part of the secret sauce of the bagel business, but other factors, such advanced fermentation methods, or the ...
Dec 17, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 37
Will Grant seemingly burst on the scene about 8 years ago as an "overnight success" after winning the Caputo Cup Championship in NYC for his White Sourdough Pizza with Gorgonzola Creme Sauce. For 25 years prior to that, he had simply been a well-kept secret in the Pacific Northwest at his now destination pizzeria, That's A Some Pizza on Bainbridge Island. His 120-year old sourdough starter is even registered in the International Sourdough Library in St. Vith, Belgium, and Will is now a certified...
Dec 10, 2023•30 min•Ep. 36
This week Peter talks with Blaine Parker , the creator and host of the website " Free the Pizza ," a site devoted to the unending quest of making pizza in a home oven as good as those from a pizzeria. Can it be done? Blaine says yes, and has written an entire book showing readers how, as well as posting humorous essays regularly on his site to chronicle his journey at freethepizza.com. He also started a Pizza Prousti thread , inspired by Marcel Proust's famous book, " Remembrance of Things Past ...
Dec 03, 2023•54 min•Ep. 35
Two of the most creative forces in the ever-growing pizza community join Peter this week in a conversation recorded at the Pizza and Pasta Northeast Expo in Atlantic City, NJ. Both are monthly contributors to Pizza Today Magazine , and are regular presenters at both Pizza Expo's. At Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio, John Gutekanst continually brings together his early background in white tablecloth fine dining into his current world of pizza, expanding the boundaries of what we narrowly think of ...
Nov 26, 2023•43 min•Ep. 34
Francesco Marra is the co-founder of Marra Forni , and also the founder of Pizza University (in Maryland, near Washington DC), where some of the most famous pizza makers in the world teach hands-on classes for both professional and home pizza enthusiasts. In this episode, Francesco tells us of his journey from food service marketing, to creating world class ovens, and now to education, all in the service of advancing the quality and growth of pizza. Click here for the video versions of Pizza Que...
Nov 19, 2023•40 min•Ep. 33
Ed Zimmerman is a name not many people outside the pizza and food service industry know (though those of us in the pizza world all know him), but all of us, whether inside or outside of the profession, are impacted by the creative work he does. His company, The Food Connector , organizes the annual Real California Pizza Contest , on behalf of their client, The California Milk Advisory Board (the CMAB). This has turned into a major event for professional pizza makers, with serious prize money, an...
Nov 12, 2023•51 min•Ep. 32
Peter welcomes Oron Franco , co-creator (along with his wife Riki ) of Prime-6 . If you watch Shark Tank, where the Franco's landed a major "Shark," (Keven O'Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful), you already know that this is not ordinary charcoal and fire logs, but is made from 100% hardwood sawdust that has been compressed into logs without the addition of any binders. As you will learn during this conversation, the burning properties of this product change the whole equation of wood-fired cooking -- bur...
Nov 05, 2023•41 min•Ep. 31
Most culinary savants are familiar with Chef Wylie Dufresne , who, at his groundbreaking Manhattan restaurant, WD 50, brought modernist molecular gastronomy in the style and spirit of Heston Blumenthal, Grant Achatz, and Ferran Adria to NYC about 10 years ago. Since then, like so many other great fine dining chefs, Wylie has fallen under the spell of pizza and is now expressing his creative genius at Park Avenue's Stretch Pizza . Hear all about Wylie's journey, from his Rhode Island origins, to ...
Oct 29, 2023•48 min•Ep. 30
Korshak Bagels , nestled in the heart of Philadelphia's historic Italian Market Neighborhood, was like the mouse that roared. Producing only 1,000 hand-shaped sourdough bagels a day, Philip Korshak 's love-child of a Bagelry garnered national press during its brief two-year run, and elicited deep mourning and lines two blocks long during its final week, even when folks were warned they could buy only two bagels per person. Was it Korshak's Instagram poetry posts, the original shmears and curated...
Oct 22, 2023•42 min•Ep. 29
On this episode, Peter talks with Kyle Ahlgren, the producer/director of the Artisan Baking Center (ABC) . A year ago, Peter and Kyle collaborated at the Artisan Baking Center, the educational component of Central Milling in Petaluma, CA. The two recorded a video pizza course based on Peter's most recent book, Pizza Quest . Kyle and his team chose four of the featured pizzas from the book, along with Peter's dough and sauce recipes, and created a dynamic, seven-part pizza course that is availabl...
Oct 15, 2023•51 min•Ep. 28
Ajith Dharmawardhana (aka Ajith Dharma) is the owner of Fire Within , the leading manufacturer of mobile wood-fired oven rigs. In this episode, Ajith describes how Fire Within trains the growing number of oven owners at their Wood-Fired University to achieve maximum success by providing detailed business plans, strategies, and training on the many uses of their mobile ovens. Learn all about this uniquely American success story right here on this week's episode of Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart....
Oct 08, 2023•19 min•Ep. 27
Jason Rosenthal started making pizzas in his apartment for a few lucky locals as a way to maintain his sanity and explore his creativity while exiting a job he didn't love. Soon, he started doing successful pop-ups, then he found a couple of kindred pizza-obsessed spirits, and lo and behold, they teamed up to open Brick+Dough in Montclair, NJ, where the locals are going mad for their inventive, neo-traditional wood-fired pizzas. Based on the buzz, their restaurant seems destined for Razza status...
Oct 01, 2023•33 min•Ep. 26
Los Alamitos, California is not known as a pizza haven. That is about to change thanks to Landon Pietrini of Pietrini Pizza Napoletana . Landon is now an international pizza star, having placed 5th at the recent World Championships, and is putting his town on the map. Pietrini's is no longer a local roadside secret, as the Pietrini family has staked out their own slice of the Orange County dream not too far, actually, from Disneyland. Big crowds are now lining up for Landon's wood-fired beauties...
Sep 24, 2023•34 min•Ep. 25
Chef Roy Elam learned how to cook in the cornfields along the borderland between St. Louis and Illinois, and then paid his culinary dues with some of the country's finest natural foods chefs. But when he decided to open a plant-based restaurant of his own, dedicated to his mom, Donna Jean , Southern California was the logical place to do it. First in San Diego (2017) and, more recently in LA, Donna Jean is drawing big, happy crowds at both locations with its all natural, super inventive vegan cu...
Sep 17, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 24
Two internationally known pizza stars are part of the ever-growing cadre of pizza makers putting Texas on the global map. Nicole Bean , award-winning pizzaiola and president of Houston's Pizaro's Pizza , and three-time World Pizza Champion Derek Sanchez , co-founder of Mia Marco's Pizza in Selma (just outside of San Antonio), join Peter to discuss the state of pizza in Texas, and entertain the notion of what a Texas-style pizza would and should be. Click here for the video versions of Pizza Ques...
Sep 10, 2023•46 min•Ep. 23
Welcome Back to Pizza Quest! There is no question that Ooni Ovens have taken the world by storm, even eclipsing their worthy competitor RoccBox, which had a nice head start. How have they done it? Fortunately, Scott Deley , who just published a book called The Ooni Pizza Project , joins the show to tell us all about it . The book is loaded with inspiring recipes created by Scott (but inspired by his many pizza heroes), who has been on his own personal pizza quest for quite a while. He is now an ...
Sep 03, 2023•59 min•Ep. 22
On this week's episode of Pizza Quest, Peter talks with Peyton Smith of Mission Pizza in Winston-Salem, NC. Peyton found his calling, his life's mission if you will, when he fell in love with real Neapolitan pizza in Italy and decided to bring the experience home to the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After nearly ten years, Mission Pizza Napoletana has become a pilgrimage point for pizza freaks near and far, and has been recognized as having one of the best pizzas in the country. Note: O...
Aug 27, 2023•40 min•Ep. 21
This episode features a conversation with Chef John Ash, who for the past 40 years has been known in Sonoma and Napa as the Godfather of Wine Country Cuisine. His restaurant, John Ash & Company , helped to define what became known as California Cuisine back in the 1980's and 1990's. John, along with chefs like Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, Joyce Goldstein, and Michael McCarty, changed the way people cooked and ate across the entire country. Chef Ash has also written a number of award winning...
Aug 20, 2023•50 min•Ep. 20
Chefs Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow , the creative minds behind San Francisco's award-winning Flour + Water , join Peter to discuss their newest restaurant, Flour + Water Pizzeria . Located in the heart of the city's North Beach neighborhood (aka Little Italy), Flour + Water Pizzeria will switch the focus from the Neapolitan style that earned them their legendary status in SF's Mission District, towards a Neo-Neapolitan New York Style. Why the change? Tune in to find out all about it. Click...
Aug 13, 2023•32 min•Ep. 19
On this episode of Pizza Quest, we catch up with the biggest rock star in the pizza universe, multi-world pizza champion Tony Gemignani . Tony is the owner of T ony's Pizza Napoletana and Pizza Rock , along with many other restaurants, bakeries, pizza schools, and even a new bagel shop in San Francisco called Dago Bagel . He tells us about his biggest project ever, the launch of dozens of Slice Shops by Tony Gemignani franchises across the country. Despite all that, the main focus of today's con...
Aug 06, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 18
Lars and Cristina Smith must be doing something right. Their restaurant, State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria , is killing it in Los Altos, California, just south of San Francisco. Lars is also competing on the USA Pizza Champions Team and is a fast-rising star in the American pizza community. They are joined in this episode by Lars' former mentor and previous Pizza Quest guest, Leah Scurto , who is having similar success on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge at her popular restaurant, ...
Jul 30, 2023•39 min•Ep. 17
On this episode of Pizza Quest we take a tangential detour away from pizza (as we often do in our ever-expanding celebration of artisanship wherever we find it) with one of our longtime, favorite guests, Meathead Goldwyn . Meathead (yes, that's his name, the origins of which he explains in this conversation), is the creator and host of the hugely popular website, AmazingRibs.com , where for many years he has provided an encyclopedia's worth of free knowledge on everything related to cooking over...
Jul 23, 2023•53 min•Ep. 16
Join Peter as he meets with three of the leading voices in the USA pizza movement: Laura Meyer , Stephanie Swane , and Alexandra Mortati . As more and more women take the helm of their pizza businesses, they encounter similar but also different challenges than their male counterparts, and bring new creativity to the craft. You will hear all about it on this week's enlightening episode of Pizza Quest. Click here for the video versions of Pizza Quest . If you count on HRN content, become a monthly...
Jul 16, 2023•37 min•Ep. 15
Chef Ryan Hardy has been killing it in the Lower East Side of New York City with his wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas and other fire-cooked menu items at Pasquale Jones . And now, a few yards away, he has opened a hot new Sicilian-themed cafe called Bar Pasquale , where sfincione-style pan pizzas reign. Ryan describes his vision for both places and shows us the difference between these two classic styles of pizza. His description of Pasquale Jones' Clam Pizza will be enough to make you want to head ...
Jul 09, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 14
