Pizza City with Steve Dolinsky

On this week’s show, Steve talks with Franco Stanzione, owner of Stanzione 87 in Miami. Franco takes an Old World approach to Neapolitan pizza-making, and goes a few steps further, making his own mozzarella in-house, and fermenting his dough up to 72 hours. The results are instantly noticeable. The only problem: a giant mega-mall nearby that practically obliterates the tiny shop on street level, and a general lack of understanding by locals, as to what true Neapolitan should look and taste like.

Steve talks with Matthew Hyland, the chef/owner of three unique pizzerias in New York: Pizza Loves Emily, Emmy Squared and Violet. Hyland met his wife in college, in Rhode Island, and their mutual love of pizza has turned into a successful series of businesses. At Pizza Loves Emily in Brooklyn, they focus on wood-fired artisan pies; at Emmy Squared (with locations in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Nashville) it’s all about Detroit-inspired square pies with caramelized cheese borders. Their latest project – Violet – honors the Providence, RI tradition of grilled pizza, which started at Al Forno. We’ll talk about the various doughs they’re using, the differing ovens and cook times, and of course the wide range of toppings employed.

Steve travels to Seattle to talk with former Chicagoan Dave Lichterman, a computer science engineer who worked for Amazon for about eight years before deciding to pursue his lifelong passion of pizza making. Dave has two businesses – Windy City Pie and Breezy Town Pizza – where he and his staff experiment with homemade giardiniera, cooked pineapple, sausage ground in-house and candied bacon as toppings, while also using all-natural sourdough starters and other artisan techniques to create their deep, pan pizzas.

In this episode, Steve talks with Wes Pikula, the VP of Operations at Buddy’s, a Detroit institution, where “Detroit style” pizza was born in 1946. Pikula has been with the company since 1975; it has spawned dozens of imitators across the country. The rectangular pie - made in a deep pan the original cooks found via the local auto industry – picks up flavor from not only the well-seasoned pans, but also from the higher fat brick cheese and assertive pepperoni that are embedded into the dough the day before baking. Just two racing stripes of tomato sauce are draped across the top right before baking in a conveyor oven. The result is a softer middle with a crispy, cheesy edge and undercarriage.

Steve talks with Justin Bazdarich, the owner/founder of Speedy Romeo, with two locations in New York City. Justin is originally from Kansas, but his father was from St. Louis, so all of those visits to Imo’s over the years led to an appreciation of Provel cheese. Even though he has worked for chefs like Jean-Georges Vongerichten, opening several of his restaurants all over the world, he always loved pizza. When he opened his own place about seven years ago, he committed to making an artisan pie, which meant at least two days of fermentation, making all of his mozzarella in-house, grinding his sausage and pickling his chilies. His wood-burning oven creates Instagram-worthy corniciones with textbook leopard-spotting, but he hasn’t forgotten his Midwestern roots. One of his best-loved pies is a “St. Louie” with Provel, Italian sausage, pepperoni and pickled chilies.

Steve stays home in Chicago to talk to the man behind his favorite deep-dish pizza: Rich Labriola. Labriola grew up in the South suburbs, and his father, Danny, ran a pizza joint (thin, tavern-style only). Rich got into the baking business and in 1993, opened Labriola Baking, an artisan commercial bakery, which at one point sold bread to many of Chicago’s best restaurants. He sold the business in 2008, launching a suburban restaurant called Labriola Café and Neapolitan Pizza. But the draw of the city (and deep-dish) was too much, and so in 2013, he launched Labriola Ristorante just off of Michigan Avenue – the heart of the tourist zone. Labriola re-engineered the traditional Chicago deep-dish in a number of ways – adding more corn flour and oil, using imported Pecorino Romano and adding complexity to both his bulk sausage and sauce, by integrating Calabrian chiles to the sausage while using three types of tomatoes, including a mirepoix, for the sauce. His caramelized cheese “frico” or crust, along the perimeter, is reminiscent of Pequod’s and Burt’s – two beloved brands from the Chicago suburbs.

Steve travels to Los Angeles to talk with Daniele Uditi, the Pizzaiolo at Pizzana, in Brentwood. Uditi comes from a small, Italian village, where he first learned how to bake with his “auntie” but later, came to America and worked at various restaurants, before settling on his own style of pizza – a kind of artisan-meets-Neapolitan, with a slightly lower oven temperature than traditional Neapolitans, that results in a slightly longer baking time. A chance meeting with actor Chris O’Donnell (and a series of pizza parties at his home for friends and colleagues) led to a partnership with both the O’Donnells and the owners of Sprinkles Cupcakes. They eventually opened Pizzana in Brentwood. The late L.A. Times critic Jonathan Gold was a huge fan of the pizzas, and a glowing review led to even more success. The partners are now in the process of opening a second location on Robertson Boulevard.

Coming January 4th, a new podcast from Steve Dolinsky, the author of "Pizza City USA" and Co-founder of Pizza City USA Tours. Shows run every other Friday, and will feature some of the greatest pizza makers in the world.