American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza
by Peter Reinhart

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Book Reviews of American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza

Book Review: Second-best is still pretty awesome
Summary: 4 Stars

Summary of American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza

Beginning his journey in Genoa, Reinhart scours the Italian countryside in search of the fabled focaccia col formaggio di Recco. After a stop in Florence for pizza vesuvio, with its black truffles and molten cheese, Peter heads to Rome to sample the famed seven-foot-long pizza bianca, and then Naples for the archetypal pizza napoletana. Back in America, the hunt for authentic pizza begins in the unlikely locale of Phoenix, Arizona, where Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco has convinced many that his pie is the best in the country. Sardinian pizza in Dallas; the pizza epicenter of New Haven; grilled pizza in Providence; the deep-dish pies of Chicago; Yugoslavian pogacha in Bellevue, Washington-these are just a few of the stops on Reinhart's epic tour.

Reinhart then returns to the kitchen, where he gives a master class on pizza-making techniques and provides his interpretations of the most memorable pizzas from his journey. His insatiable curiosity-and appetite-and gift for storytelling make this a must-have book for the avid cook, as well as a great read for the armchair pizzaiolo.

Reinhart begins his inquiry into pizza with his baseline palate memory for what a great pizza should be. As a teenager he had worked in a pizzeria, Mama's, and instinctively knew this pie to be the best. Returning as an adult years later, he discovered otherwise. Had he changed, or had the pizza changed? Both, it happened, were true.

So what is the nature of perfection, and where do you go to find it? In the case of Peter Reinhart, this journey includes travels through Italy and across the US. This is Part One of the book, called The Hunt. It's not the most enlivening travel writing, which would have helped elevate the insights into the nature of great pizza and the people who make it happen. But it's only a third of the entire package. The best is yet to come. In Part Two: The Recipes, Reinhart comes entirely into his own. Here is the master at work. Chapters include "The Family of Doughs", "Sauces and Specialty Toppings," and "The Pizzas." Reinhart gives you the building blocks, no matter what your kitchen, tools, and oven might be like. And then he unfolds the roadmap--pizzas from the strictly classical to the strictly whimsical.

Work diligently with American Pie and in time you will be able to call yourself, without hesitation or rising color, pizzaiolo and focacciaiolo. --Schuyler Ingle

Pizza Books

• Subjects > Cooking, Food & Wine > Baking > Pizza
• Gastronomy > Essays
• Travel > Europe > Italy > General