Posted by Pizzablogger, January 25th, 2012 Note: This interview session I did with Craig first appeared on the Slice, the nation’s leading pizza website. Craig is a contributor to pizzablogger.org
 You'd be happy too having one of these in your garage! (Photographs: Craig Lindberg) The sound and vibration through the seat feels good—you’ve just had some aftermarket parts for your sports car installed, dialed everything in and buffed the car to a high shine. The car breathes with new-found muscle as you point it towards the road and head over to your friend’s house. Upon arriving you give a beep, gun the gas for a second, and yell for your buddy to come outside.
Suddenly you hear the creak and scrape of your friend’s garage door as it separates from the concrete floor. As the garage door opens, the elegant lines and beauty of a Ferrari 599GTB Fiorano is revealed sitting inside of the garage. You know your girl is a beauty in her own right, but you can only look into the garage, stunned. Holy. Shit.
Continue reading Home Pizza Heroes: Craig Lindberg & His Neapolitan Garage (Extended) »
Posted by Pizzablogger, January 23rd, 2012 Note: This interview session I did with Chau first appeared on the Slice, the nation’s leading pizza website. Chau is a contributor to pizzablogger.org
 On guard, do you think your Wu-Tang sword can defeat me? (Photographs: Chau Tran) “Bringing kung foolery to pizza making” is one of his sayings, but make no joke about it, Chau “Jackie” Tran is dead serious when it comes to homemade pies. Within a relatively short period of time, Tran has honed his skills, deepened his knowledge of the pizza work-flow, has become a core member of the pizzamaking.com forums, and is now an all-around pizza-making monster. The Albuquerque, New Mexico, resident is proof positive that lots of research and time spent with hands gooped up from dough adds up to some pretty kick-ass-looking and, I bet, -tasting, pizzas.
It’s one thing to scour a variety of pizza recipes from books and the web to discover the one which best mimics the vision of an ideal pizza. It’s quite another to learn about and constantly experiment with the different variables involved in the baking process so that you can better understand how to formulate your own work-flow and end up with a pizza that closely resembles the pies that haunt you late at night, when the pizza demons are on the prowl. With Chau’s pizzas looking this good now, I can only imagine where they will be as time progresses.
 NY-Neapolitan style pizza influenced by Totonno's Coney Island You’ve been making pizza at home for a relatively short period of time, right? How long?
I recall making crappy pizza as a kid here and there. I also made a lot of French bread pizza in college to get by, LOL. I’ve been seriously making pizza at home for about a year and a half.
Continue reading Home Pizza Heroes: Chau Tran, The Balanced Approach to Pizzamaking »
Posted by Pizzablogger, January 20th, 2012 While eating pizza out of town at yet another place billing itself as a “gourmet” pizzeria and yet again being disappointed, I’ve come to the conclusion that a pizzeria self-promoting such a thing is bullocks, or at least close to it.
The facts still remain:
1. Not a single one of the great pizzas I have eaten came from a place which advertised themselves as “gourmet”.
2. I have never been served a memorable pizza at a joint billing themselves as serving ”gourmet” pizza or as being a “gourmet pizzeria”.
 typical look of many "gourmet" pizzas Many people have posited to me that I am a fan of gourmet pizzas because of the seemingly upscale or strange topping combinations I may order in pizzerias I like. It’s all really a matter of your pizza perspective, but this is not the case. In fact, many of the newer pizzerias with wood-fired, coal-fired or other high heat ovens are not “gourmet” or “upscale” at all. If anything, they are decidedly throwback, more old-school pizzerias that realize respect and attention must first be given to the dough or you don’t have a good pizza–at all. Their use of higher quality toppings merely represents their respect for ingredients and a desire to compliment the crust underneath just like old-school pizzerias have been doing for generations.
Most of the gourmet places I have bumped into utilize the wrong kind of oven (often conveyor ovens), cook their pizzas for too long and throw goofy, unbalanced combinations of toppings on top of a bunky crust. That ain’t gourmet folks, that’s just baloney.
There are surely exceptions to this rule and I’m not saying every single one makes crappy pizza, but the pizza hairs on the back of your neck should snap to attention whenever you run across a joint slinging the “gourmet” label. There’s simply no need for the constant advertising hype and gimmicks. Just make great pizza and shut the ‘eff up already!
Posted by Pizzablogger, January 17th, 2012 I’m very excited to welcome Bill_SFNM as a contributor to this website. The Santa Fe, New Mexico resident has spent decades baking pizzas and chasing that elusive perfect pie. Bill’s passion for food of all types is contagious…from foraging porcini mushrooms in the woods in his area to cooking delicious foods in the Earthstone wood burning oven in his outdoor kitchen and capturing it all with beautiful photos and video footage, Bill is about as deep a well spring of insight as you are likely to find. Like a true aficionado, Bill would tell you he still hasn’t gotten it down pat yet — but such is the madness of pizza and, in particular, naturally leavened doughs.
 bill's superb craftsmanship Bill’s pizza journey started during a rainstorm while he was living in Panama some 45 years ago. Ducking under an awning to escape the drenching, Bill stumbled upon Pizzeria Napoli and was snared by the allure of wood fired, Neapolitan pizza. His journey continues and you can learn some more from the conversation Bill and I had for a Pizza Obsessives article which was posted on Slice. Bill has an open invitation here–so pizza, bread or other topics are all fair game! Welcome aboard Bill.
Posted by Bill_SFNM, January 16th, 2012 
Is the crust a delivery vehicle for toppings? Or is the crust the star of the show with toppings playing supporting roles — contributing to the entire experience, but never upstaging the headliner? I lean towards the latter, spending most of my time and energy on the crust. The toppings are usually an afterthought.
But there are some toppings that play so well with the crust that I do put in the effort. One of the best examples is the pizza we made today. Sauteed porcini-infused baby bellas blended with Carmelina tomatoes. Fresh mozzarella and a perfect piece of pork belly — marinated and slow roasted until tender. Cut into thin strips so the fat crisps and oozes unctuous juices in the intense heat of the wood fired oven.
Posted by Pizzablogger, January 13th, 2012 For full disclosure’s sake, one of the primary reasons I shut down this site in the summer of 2011 is the possibility that I may be involved in selling pizza to the public in Baltimore in some capacity. Nothing is certain, but I do have a couple of irons in the fire. I felt uncomfortable in how people would view my often critical eye when writing about other pizzerias in Baltimore if they knew I might be involved in the same business.
But, the fact of the matter is that most pizza joints are the same now as they have been for decades — they by and large suck. Not just in Baltimore, but even in venerated pizza cities like New York City. Sure, compared to many other areas, New York has a lot of very good to great pizzerias, but when looking at the sheer number of pizzerias in New York City (around 2,000) the percentage of pizzerias in New York that are actually worth visiting is less than 5%.
 home made marinara pizza Continue reading Disclosure »
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