Passion-4-Pizza Blog

Passion-4-Pizza joins the Social Networking universe!

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:50:55 GMT

Some of our visitors have discovered a major addition to Passion-4-Pizza: a Facebook fan page! There you'll find up-to-the-minute updates, featured pages, and interaction among our friends and fans - you know, Facebook! Come visit, and while you're there, don't forget to press the Like button at the top of the page! And speaking of interaction, a big change on the passion-4-pizza.com site: most of our pages now feature Comments! We know - it's about time.

Sam's Pizzeria, Northampton MA

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:44:02 GMT

When they gave out the 'funky' template for college town pizzerias, Sam's Pizzeria and Cafe was somewhere near the front of the line. How was the pizza? Find out here.

Portable Pizza Ovens - Joseph Pergolizzi and The Fire Within

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:31:15 GMT

Ever think about owning a PORTABLE wood-fired pizza oven? We visited Joseph Pergolizzi of <I>The Fire Within</I> who makes portable pizza ovens, sells them, and helps people start their own wood-fired pizza businesses (his next business-building workshop is coming up in February)! Read more about it here...

New Jersey Pizza - Trenton's Finest

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:31:46 GMT

The most famous New Jersey pizza is in Trenton, where they call it "tomato pie". DiLorenzo's, one of the most famous, will be closing their Trenton location on 1/15/12. Here is our review from 2010.

Our Biggest News Ever!

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 03:16:04 GMT

We weren't going public with this - yet. But since Peter Reinhart published our letter to subscribers on his Pizza Quest blog, we decided to share it with all of you!

Dear Friends,

You know that the two of us have been on a fascinating pizza journey since we started passion-4-pizza.com in 2008. Eating pizza in exotic (and not-very-exotic) locations, making and experimenting with our own pizza, getting to know pizza-makers and pizza lovers all over the place, and most importantly, studying both the craft and the business of pizza from the masters.

Well, we're doing a lot more than that.

We're in the early stages of the biggest project of our lives, the zenith of our passion for pizza. Lillian and Cary are going pro. We're going into business by opening Pizzeria Forno in the Hudson Valley region of New York - a vegetarian pizzeria in a country setting (serving both artisanal wood-fired pizza and the New York styles we’ve always loved) and Il Forno Mobile - taking our artisanal pizza to the people via a mobile wood-fired oven from The Fire Within!

You're among the first to know and we hope you'll want to share in this adventure.

We’re looking for financial partners. Our business plan is encouraging and we're offering a limited number of old and new friends, family members, and you our subscribers, the opportunity to invest in our passion, our skills and our dream as we build Pizzeria Forno and Il Forno Mobile. And we’re doing our best to make that investment affordable.

Want to know more about participating in (and profiting from) our dream-come-true? There's so much to tell, and we're so excited about this... send us an email at 2-of-us@passion-4-pizza.com and we'll get right back to you!

All the best,

Cary & Lillian

Don't know about us yet? Click the link below!

Pizza Palooza in ... southeastern Michigan?

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:27:29 GMT

We lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan for two years and loved living there - although our pizza experiences were not very good - until we discovered Tomatoes Apizza a New Haven-style coal-fired pizzeria 40 miles away, in Farmington Hills, MI. Well, we just found out that this past Sunday, Farmington Hills celebrated National Pizza month with their Pizza Palooza - 12 local pizzerias (6 of them chains) competing and providing the raison d'etre for the event. You can read about the event here. Although the "judges" went for Bella Vita, a place best known for 'broasted' chicken, and Hungry Howie's, a local chain, the People's Choice award went to our favorite Michigan pizzeria - Tomatoes Apizza! To read about our Michigan pizza experiences, visit the link below:

Il Dolce - Great Pizza in Orange County

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:06:04 GMT

Il Dolce in Costa Mesa serves some of the best pizza we've had anywhere. What makes it so good?

Chicken Tikka Delight

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 04:21:59 GMT

Here's a topping recipe from a pizzeria in Pakistan! Chicken Tikka is not just easy-to-cook but tastes fabulous on pizza. Chicken Tikka (chunks) are

Full Of Life Flatbread, Los Alamos, CA

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:14:29 GMT

Full Of Life Flatbread: Delicious wood-fired flatbread in California's Central Coast region. But is it pizza? Find out here!

The Paulie Gee Experience

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:09:16 GMT

No, it's not a band... but given Paulie's taste in music, if it was we'd want to hear it. Can you get to Brooklyn? Well, "Making Pizza with Paulie Gee" is a three-hour passionate pizza experience now available at 1000passions.com. You and a guest (or more) can share in the joy of making perfect pizza with Paulie Gee himself, as well as enjoying some of Paulie's signature pies (and his company) all at Paulie Gee's in Greenpoint, Brooklyn! The details are here at 1000passions.com You know we're big fans of Paulie Gee and his Greenpoint Pizza Joint. If you haven't read about Cary's experience working at Paulie Gee's you'll find it at the link below...

Caseys Pizza, Caseys General Store - Pizza Chain #5

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:34:38 GMT

Casey's General Store, featuring Caseys Pizza, is the 5th largest pizza chain in the U.S., with 1,638 stores in eleven states. It's also a gas station, and Lillian and Cary filled up - both ways - there!

Pizza Passion

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:34:04 GMT

Pizza Passion: Who we are. A beautiful Italian-American girl from Long Island met a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn and fell in love. With each other - they were both already in love with pizza.

Pizza Making Update

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:05:52 GMT

This past weekend was one of our most successful pizza making experiments to date! Keeping it simple, staying focused, and using a few 'special guest' products made a lot of difference. Read about it here!

Slice Out Hunger - June 9, 2011!

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 01:19:12 GMT

Tomorrow (or today, if you're reading this on Thursday) is the annual Slice Out Hunger event, sponsored by Scott's Pizza Tours and The New York Pizza Project, starting at 6:30 p.m. at Amity Hall, 80 West 3rd Street, NYC. All proceeds go to City Harvest. Slice Out Hunger is a wonderful opportunity for pizza enthusiasts to do some good while chowing down on some of New York City's best pizza! Here's how it works:

You show up.
You buy tickets for $1 each.
You exchange each ticket for either a slice, a soda, or a raffle ticket.
The money goes to feed the hungry.

The pizzas are donated by some of the finest pizzerias around town - several of which do not sell slices! We had a blast at last year's event, and we'll be joining Scott and friends again tomorrow night. To read about our day taking one of Scott's Pizza Tours, click this link! And for more information on Slice Out Hunger, click the link below:

Really Basic Pizza Sauce

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:11:39 GMT

We thought we'd get the ball rolling here ourselves by sharing our recipe for basic pizza sauce - which is incredibly simple. Make the sauce the day before

Your Pizza Recipes

Sun, 01 May 2011 21:25:13 GMT

The newest section on passion-4-pizza.com! A place to share your favorite pizza recipe and see what pizza recipes others have shared! Keep coming back - this section is going to grow fast!

Pizza In India, India Pizza

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 01:59:32 GMT

We spent the month of January in India, which is not a country famous for great pizza. What did WE find when we ate pizza in India? Read the story here!

The Portable Wood-Fired Pizza Business Building Workshop...

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:51:59 GMT

Okay, that title was a mouthful in itself! You may have already read about our visit last Autumn to The Fire Within where Joseph Pergolizzi and company create portable wood-fired pizza ovens and teach people how to build a successful business with them.

Well, we recently attended the “Getting Started in Your Own Wood Fired Oven Catering Business” workshop in Boulder!

We're still writing about our adventure, but if you're interested in starting your own mobile pizza business, sign up quick - the next workshop is scheduled for April 1-3, 2011. For more information, click the link below...

Queens Pizza - New Park Pizza

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 03:38:16 GMT

New Park Pizza in Howard Beach is classic Queens pizza, and Cary's favorite slice joint in New York. Right off the Belt Parkway and worth the trip from anywhere - we tell you about it here!

Peter Reinhart's New Site - Pizza Quest!

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:13:10 GMT

Our friend, teacher, master breadmaker and fellow pizza madman Peter Reinhart is launching his new website, PizzaQuest today! Chef Reinhart calls the site "A Journey of Self-Discovery Through Pizza" - Now there's a subtitle that speaks to us. The site features video webisodes chronicling Peter's pizza adventures, information, entertainment and more, and it looks like we're going to be spending significant time there! And if you haven't read about our personal Pizza Quest with Peter, please visit Our Lunch With Peter Reinhart!

What? You don't subscribe to our Newsletter?

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:24:51 GMT

Maybe you didn't know about Passion-4-Pizza's monthly free subscription-only newsletter! Every month, Passion-4-Pizza.com sends out a newsletter with subscriber-only content like: What's New on the Site, News From The World of Pizza, Pizza Facts, and the occasional surprise. This month, as our Holiday gift to our subscribers, we're offering our favorite pizza dough recipe! Subscribe now and we'll send you the link. Just click the permalink below to go to our homepage and scroll about halfway down the page to our subscription form. And don't worry - your e-mail address is totally secure. We promise to use it only to send you The Passion-4-Pizza.com Newsletter!

Personal Pizza Stories

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:58:46 GMT

Our visitors' stories of their favorite pizza memories. Newest: An update from Idaho home-pizzaiolo Randy Johnson, man on a pizza mission!

Scott's Pizza Tour

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 23:59:11 GMT

As part of our celebration of National Pizza Month, we went on Scott's Pizza Tour! Four pizzerias, delicious pizza, lots of pizza knowledge and lore, and Scott Wiener. Quite a day! Read about it here!

An Honorable Mention!

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 21:19:59 GMT

We discovered recently that the Culinary Arts College blog (a guide to culinary arts schools around the nation) listed us among the Top 24 Pizza Blogs! We're in some pretty strong company, and we're grateful for the mention.

How To Make Pizza Taught by Anthony Falco and Angelo Womack

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 01:43:38 GMT

As part of our never ending quest to learn how to make better pizza, Cary took a class with Anthony Falco and Angelo Womack of Roberta's at The Brooklyn Kitchen. Was it fun? Did he learn from these guys? Find out here!

Pizza Gift Ideas

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:45:51 GMT

We've completely revamped the Pizza Gift Ideas Page! Are you looking for a pizza-themed gift for the pizza-lover in your life? We've searched the web and here are dozens of the best items out there!

News from the International School of Pizza!

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:13:09 GMT

We just got an email from Tony Gemignani's International School of Pizza in San Francisco telling us about their latest expansion - two new ovens and two new certifications! Tony recently opened a new place, Tony's Coal-Fired Pizza and Slice House, next door to his Tony's Pizza Napoletana, which gives the school more space and more equipment. The school now offers authentic Old World New York and New Haven certifications with its new Wood Stone Coal Fire oven. They've also added a big new Roto Flex Gas/Electric oven. "When an operator fires an oven for the first time, you are usually scared to think when the oven will be seasoned enough to get the perfect bake. By the time we cooked our third in both of these ovens, it was as if these ovens had been in my restaurant for 50 years. That's how good our pizzas performed and all my partners and employees were blown away." says Tony. Congratulations, Tony - you know how much Cary enjoyed the Home Chef course at the School! And for those of you who don't know, click the link below for that story!

October is National Pizza Month! Celebrate Appropriately...

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:40:45 GMT

Since 1987, October has been National Pizza Month, and we urge all our readers to celebrate! Here are a few suggestions:

Make a pizza!
Order a pizza!
Go out for pizza!
Buy yourself (or someone who shares your love of pizza) something from our pizza gifts page!
Subscribe to the FREE passion-4-pizza newsletter (in the left margin of the Contact Us page at passion-4-pizza.com! Subscribing gives you:
- content only available in our newsletter
- news from the world of pizza
- pizza facts
- updates to the passion-4-pizza.com website
- access to all back-issues of the newsletter
- and more!
Eat pizza!

The Best California Pizza

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:45:13 GMT

California pizza - really! What once was a pizza wasteland is now home to some fantastic pies! We visited several great and near-great locations in California, and we'll give you the scoop here!

Pizzeria Ortica - Real Pizza in the O.C.!

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:03:13 GMT

Pizzeria Ortica in Costa Mesa, California serves wood-fired pizza made with a 300-year-old biga. Lil and Cary shared four pies there with the L.A. Pizza Maven. Did we love it? Read on.

The Fire Within - Portable Pizza Ovens and Workshops!

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 05:15:24 GMT

The folks at The Fire Within in Boulder, Colorado will be hosting The Ultimate Pie, a 2-day workshop featuring Peter Reinhart and 8 other top wood-fired oven chefs on October 16th and 17th! If you haven't read about our visit to The Fire Within, click here, or at the bottom of this item! The workshop looks like it will be a fantastic opportunity to learn wood-fired baking (especially pizzas) from masters of the craft. You already know we're big fans of Peter Reinhart, and joining him will be Jay Jerrier (canerosso to Slice readers) owner of Campania Pizza in Dallas, Texas, Grasiela Lopes, owner of Capricho Pizza Catering (and a reader of passion-4-pizza.com!) and other wood-fired professionals. Click here to register for the workshop. Joseph Pergolizzi, owner of The Fire Within, will also be hosting a Getting Started With Your Own Wood-Fired Oven Catering Business workshop in Boulder on October 23rd-24th. You can register for that event by clicking here. Learn more at www.firewithin.com

What IS a perfect pizza?

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:22:52 GMT

What is perfect pizza? Everyone loves pizza, and everyone has their own idea of pizza perfection. Here you'll find stories from our visitors of their favorite pizza experiences and pizzerias.

Pi Pizzeria in St. Louis

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:17:14 GMT

Remember when President Obama got pizza from Pi Pizzeria in St. Louis instead of a Chicago pizzeria and really made a fuss about it? We drove through St. Louis the other day and stopped for lunch at Pi's flagship location. Here's what we thought

Two Mighty Commendations!

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:28:03 GMT

In our last blog post, we told you that we'd been profiled in Slice, our other favorite pizza blog. Well, in the Comments section of that post, the following conversation took place between master pizzaiolo Paulie Gee, of whom we've written before, and Adam Kuban, the Slicemeister himself:

______________ I don't know how I never read the "About Us" section of your website. Love the photo. And the Italian/Jew combination. Just like my parents, but flipped. Give me a heads up next time you are in Greenpoint. I've been wanting to do a pie with post-oven smoked salmon, mascarpone and capers. I'll name it after you two. Any suggestions? - pauliegee --------- @pauliegee: The About Us section on Lillian and Cary's site is one of the cutest things in pizzadom! -Adam Kuban

_______ Of course, Cary wants that cream cheese and lox pizza and Lillian doesn't! And if you're among those who've never seen the "About Us" page on our site, visit the link below!

Long Island Pizza Places

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:42:27 GMT

Long Island is not just a suburb of New York City -- it's also home to some phenomenal pizza! We live here most of the time and we can tell you where to find the best Long Island pizza.

We've been profiled!

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:08:41 GMT

We felt honored and humbled when Adam Kuban of Slice (our second-favorite pizza blog) interviewed us for Slice's Pizza Obsessives Q&A feature! You can read the interview at the link below:

Pizza Hut, The Number One Pizza Chain

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:26:20 GMT

Pizza Hut is the biggest pizza chain in the world. How did it start? How has it grown so huge? What's the Pizza Hut story? We did the research for you.

Pizza Chains, National Pizza Chains

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:10:18 GMT

For better or worse, pizza chains supply most of America (and the world) with pizza. We explore the major national pizza chains: How did they get here? What's their story? Which is the 'best' and by what standard?

Pizza Places in the Northeast

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:24:02 GMT

You can find interesting and sometimes excellent pizza places outside New York City, throughout the Northeastern United States. See this page for both!

Cascarino's Pizza in Montgomery, NY

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:38:40 GMT

When we visited Cascarino's Brick Oven Pizza and Ristorante in Montgomery, NY, we had no idea that they have three locations in Queens - or that they make the pizza at Citi Field - we just thought we'd gotten lucky getting a decent slice up in the boonies!

How To Make Mozzarella

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:09:53 GMT

Cary learned how to make mozzarella at the Mozzarella Making class at Murray's Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village. Want to know what he learned? Find out here!

Just Came from the Slice Out Hunger Event!

Fri, 28 May 2010 03:52:33 GMT

We just returned from an event that combined fun, fundraising and pizza!

Scott Wiener of Scott's Pizza Tours organized Slice Out Hunger to benefit City Harvest, and it was an all-out success! In addition to getting some of the best pizzerias in NYC to donate pizzas, which were sold for $1 per slice at the event, Scott shared his collection of Pizza Boxes from Around the World with us. It was fun to see pizza boxes from many lands, and we found it interesting that some of the boxes were... ah... not pristine.

We ran into several members of the pizzerati: Brooks Jones of Me, Myself and Pie, Nick Sherman of Pizza Rules, who recently spent a month eating nothing but pizza (and smoothies), Jason of I Dream of Pizza, and Sean Taylor of 31 Days of Pizza.

The evening also featured a raffle of a large number of pizza-related items, and ... cookies baked by Scott's mom! Good cookies, mom!

Some of the participating pizzerias were Lombardi's, Joe's, John's of Bleecker Street, Pizza Suprema and others. Money was raised for a good cause, LOTS of pizza was eaten, and a good time was had by all!

We tried slices from a few places we still hadn't visited, and making allowance for time and distance from their oven, we liked Joe's (7 Carmine Street) the best. Now we have a fresh list of must-visits in Manhattan...

Nice work, Scott!

A Night At Paulie Gee's

Fri, 28 May 2010 02:18:02 GMT

Paul Giannone has gone from pizza aficionado to owner/pieman of Paulie Gee's in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. He was good enough to allow Cary to come in and work behind the counter, stretching dough and getting flour on his shoes! Here's the story -

Making Pizza - Not A Pizza Hero!

Thu, 13 May 2010 22:42:10 GMT

Cary wanted to experiment with making pizza differently. Lillian said, "Don't try to be a hero on your third attempt!" Here's what happened.

Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:41:39 GMT

Pizzeria Mozza was recommended to us by Peter Reinhart and Chris Bianco, so it was on our must-visit list. Was the pizza good enough to overcome the trendy nightclub atmosphere? Find out here!

Pizza Therapy makes the New York Times!

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 02:04:28 GMT

We got an email from Albert Grande, creator and webmaster of Pizza Therapy letting us know that a) the New York Times has a new Pizza topics page on their website, and b) Pizza Therapy is listed as one of their pizza resources! The New York Times page is a solid resource itself for NYT readers who love pizza; Pizza Therapy is, to our knowledge, the oldest pizza-dedicated website on the Internet; and Albert Grande is one of the most pizza-dedicated guys out there! Congratulations, Albert!

Tony Gemignani and the International School of Pizza

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:53:55 GMT

Cary improved his pizza skills by taking a home chef course with world champion pizzaiolo Tony Gemignani at his International School of Pizza! Read about the experience (and the pizzas) here!

Making Pizza

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:02:55 GMT

Making pizza could be some of the most fun you can have in the kitchen! We share our experiences, what we're learning, who we're learning from, and how to do it.

Antica Pizzeria

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:14:35 GMT

We visited Antica Pizzeria, the flagship of VPN America, and preserver of the True Neapolitan Pizza. Hard to believe it's in California! How was the pizza? You can find out here!

Just heard from Chris Bianco

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:57:18 GMT

Over the past week or so, the pizza-blog world has been hit with rumors of Chris Bianco's retirement. He's not retired. We were happily surprised to get a phone call from Chris a few minutes ago. He sounds upbeat and he assured us that he's still fully connected to Pizzeria Bianco. He told us that his brother continues to make the dough, and Chris is actively involved with the business on a daily basis. He's taking a break to deal with a health issue and, "get my head out of the oven" for awhile. His staff is doing as great a job as ever. Chris asked that we spread the word that he's taking care of himself and Pizzeria Bianco, and he's grateful for the good wishes and support of his customers, friends, and all of us in the "pizza community." Whew. Glad to hear you're okay, Chris, and that you're taking care of yourself. If you haven't read our interview, Twenty Minutes With Chris Bianco, use the permalink below.