American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza [Hardcover]

Peter Reinhart (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 4, 2003

On the subject of pizza, there is never a shortage of opinions. Allegiances run from the general (Chicago versus New York style, Neapolitan versus Roman) to the particular (Pepe's versus Sally's, Gino's East versus Pizzeria Uno), and new interpretations ever extend the pizza frontier.In AMERICAN PIE, master bread baker Peter Reinhart follows the trail from Italy to the States, capturing the stories behind the greatest artisanal pizzas of the Old World and the New. Beginning his journey in Genoa, Reinhart scours the countryside in search of the fabled focaccia col formaggio. He next heads to Rome to sample the famed seven-foot-long pizza al taglio, and then to Naples for the archetypal pizza napoletana. Back in America, the hunt resumes in the unlikely locale of Phoenix, Arizona, where Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco has convinced many that his pie sets the new standard in the country. The pizza mecca of New Haven, grilled pizza in Providence, the deep-dish pies of Chicago, California-style pizza in San Francisco and Los Angeles—these are just a few of the tasty attractions on Reinhart's epic tour. Returning to the kitchen, Reinhart gives a master class on pizza-making techniques and provides more than 60 recipes for doughs, sauces and toppings, and the pizzas that bring them all together. His insatiable curiosity and gift for storytelling make AMERICAN PIE essential reading for those who aspire to make great pizza at home, as well as for anyone who enjoys the thrill of the hunt.

A fascinating look into the great pizzas and pizzerias of Italy and America.

Peter Reinhart's last book, THE BREAD BAKER'S APPRENTICE, was named Cookbook of the Year by both the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. 

Reviews“Peter Reinhart has taken a deep look into pizza, one of the best and simplest of foods, embracing all its variety. He probes American pizza especially, but he has tasted the original in Naples and visited elsewhere in Italy to learn about variations and relatives. He tells vivid stories, and his recipes and techniques are thorough and practical. A splendid book.”—Edward Behr, editor, The Art of Eating“I doubt whether anyone else could be as passionate as Peter Reinhart about pizzas or have made such extensive and exciting journeys in pursuing them. He has collected great anecdotes and wonderfully detailed recipes in the course of his intercontinental hunt.”—Alan Davidson, author of The Oxford Companion to Food“We all know that Peter Reinhart is a great baker and teacher, but now that he's fallen in love with pizza, we can see he's also a great tour guide as he takes us to the best pizzerias in Italy and America. Secrets are divulged, expert tips provided, and stories told. Much more than a collection of recipes, this is a book that is as fun to read as it is to bake from.”—Carol Field, author of The Italian Baker

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Baking bread is mysterious enough. But creating truly great pizza--the transformation of next to nothing into something extraordinary--is downright alchemical. It is for no small reason that there are distinct words in Italian for those disciples of these mystic arts who bake pizza and focaccia, pizzaiolo and focacciaiolo. Peter Reinhart, he who gave us Brother Juniper's Bread Book and the multi-award winning The Bread Baker's Apprentice, takes the reader of American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza right into the heart of the matter.

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

From the Publisher

A fascinating look into the great pizzas and pizzerias of Italy and America.

Includes in-depth pizza-making techniques; more than 40 classic pizza recipes; and an engaging narrative of Reinhart’s pizza hunts with such food luminaries as Rick Bayless, Jeffrey Steingarten, and Joanne Weir.

Peter Reinhart’s last book, THE BREAD BAKER’S APPRENTICE, was named Cookbook of the Year by both the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press; Later prt. edition (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580084222
• ISBN-13: 978-1580084222
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Pizza
  • #44 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > Essays

More About the Author

PETER REINHART is widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading authorities on bread. He is the author of six books on bread baking, including the 2008 James Beard Award-winning WHOLE GRAIN BREADS; the 2002 James Beard and IACP Cookbook of the Year, THE BREAD BAKER'S APPRENTICE; and the 1999 James Beard Award-winning CRUST AND CRUMB. He is a full-time baking instructor at Johnson and Wales University and the owner of Pie Town restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

320 of 325 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A passion for pizza December 4, 2003

By Matthew K. Morgan TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book, having never seen it before, because of my appreciation for author Peter Reinhart's other excellent works, as well as a desire to make good pizza of my own. I have Bread Baker's Apprentice and Crust & Crumb, and because these books are specifically about bread, I assumed that American Pie would be all about the crust. This was a gross misconception on my part; this book is much more than a tome on pizza crust.

The book has two sections. The first is a fascinating account of all Reinhart went through to find what he regards as the perfect pizza. This includes details of a trip to Italy as well as places within the United States where he found excellent pizza on his pilgrimage. The second, larger section deals with the recipes (formulas) he has created, and this section is broken down further into three sections -- dough, toppings and sauces, and finally complete pizzas.

Do yourself a favor -- do not skip the first section and plow right into the recipes and formulas. While you may be more interested in getting down to business, you learn a tremendous amount about what the author regards as a great pizza, and more importantly, you learn just how serious the author was when he set out to find what he calls the perfect pizza. As is typical of his other works, Reinhart writes with unwavering passion, pouring everything he's got into the writing. Finally, many of the pizzas he mentions in the first section are recreated in recipe form in the second section, and it's really fasinating to recreate one of the pies in your own kitchen.

The dough section is a collection of approximately a dozen excellent formulas for crust. Each recipe sticks to Reinhart's trademark method -- slow rise, usually an overnight rising. I have not tried all of these, but those that I have tried have not disappointed. I'm getting rid of my old crust recipe.

The toppings and sauces section contains two recipes for nice sauces, neither of which I have attempted yet but will. Where it gets interesting is his "Specialty Toppings" section -- there are things there that I would never dream of putting on a pizza, such as pureed butternut squash, as well as tried and true items such as sauteed mushrooms and garlic oil. While some of these will not appeal to everyone, there is something interesting bound to tempt everyone.

Included is a brief breakdown of baking scenarios and how to deal with them -- home oven/no stone, convection oven and stone, etc. He covers all the bases.

Finally, the actual complete pizza forulas he gives reflect his quest to find a pizza that meets his unwavering standards. Many of the recipes are clearly a result of his trip to Italy, such as Pizza Vesuvio, and others are accounted in his domestic travels. Again, I have not tried them all (and with eggplant as an ingredient in some of these, it's doubtful I ever will), but those I have tried are so far and away better than what I made before.

All this said, an underlying thought I had was that the search for the "perfect pizza" was Reinhart's search. He was going for what *he* considers a perfect pizza, and that could very well be different than that of many of his readers. He seems to prefer a thinner, crisp crust that is mildly charred, with a good crunch and a finely tuned sauce and toppings combination. If you prefer a thick, chewy crust, you may feel like he is "off the mark" in his search. It is important to remember this when working your way through this book and finding your own "perfect pizza".

If you like pizza and want to make pizza of your own that is just flat-out outstanding, this book will serve you exceptionally well. Even if you don't find what you would consider "perfect pizza" here, you'll find something that's a great foundation.

128 of 133 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Only Pizza Book the Home Baker Will Probably Need March 22, 2005

By John H. Henderson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

My search for making good pizza at home began with THE ART OF MAKING PIZZA by Dominick DeAngelis. I gave the book a good review, but since reading Reinhart's AMERICAN PIE, I have to say, unless you just don't have the extra money for this book, skip THE ART and get AMERICAN PIE. You may find that AMERICAN PIE is the only pizza book you need.

Comparisons against THE ART are difficult for me to avoid. DeAngelis basically instructs on making one style of pizza - what Reinhart would call a New York style or Americana. Reinhart teaches you to make Napoletana pizza, New York style pizza, Americana pizza, Roman style (thin crust) pizza, grilled pizza (Yes! It's what it sounds like!), Chicago deep dish pizza and a few breads that you may not consider pizza at all, like pita, carta di musica and focaccia. DeAngelis INSISTS that you need to use high-gluten flour (good luck finding it locally) and complains of the inadequacy of the home oven. Reinhart uses (mostly) available ingredients and writes the book knowing that it's going to be used within the limitations of a home kitchen.

But until recently, I've had problems with the recipes. I've tried the Napoletana crust, the Americana crust, the focaccia, the carta di musica, and the prebaked crusts. Despite following his recipes (nearly) to a "T," the dough just did not act as described in the book. It was not as elastic as described, and could tear apart from its own weight. Despite this, if I could get the dough formed into a crust at all, the results were still pretty good! There are two pages on "Ten Tips for Making Pizza Dough." These may be the two most valuable pages in the book, and should be expanded and not relegated to the reduced type size. The recipes call for "instant yeast." I've never found anything in the store called "instant yeast." The ten tips include substitutions for active dry, which I could find everywhere. I tried the following these instructions with no improvement. I had to research "instant yeast." With help from Alton Brown's I'M JUST HERE FOR MORE FOOD and other sources, I discovered that the stuff in the store called "yeast for bread machines" was in fact, instant yeast. Reinhart should discuss this more. Differences in yeasts may seem common knowledge for someone as himself, who is, by all accounts, one of the nation's leading experts on baking, but can confuse the home baker to whom the book is directed.

I finally discovered my problem, again, with help from Alton Brown while watching his bread episode of GOOD EATS where he used the same Kitchenaid mixer as I and momentarily ran the mixer to high to spread the dough when it wrapped around the dough hook. I was dutifully following Reinhart's instructions to knead on medium-low, and my Kitchenaid Artisan really needs medium, if not a bit more to knead. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that I tried to half the recipes (most make a half dozen 12" crusts) and the dough just spun around on the hook for a ride, not kneading at all. Once I corrected this other day, I got the most incredible New York style pizza out of my very oven that would compete with any I've ever had from a pizzeria. Oh - and be warned, depending on the size of your garlic cloves, you might find his sauces to be pretty garlicky.

Of the many doughs, my wife actually liked the prebaked freezer crusts the best. I don't think Reinhart intended this and offers the recipe as an alternative to the popular par-baked crusts in the supermarket. They are great to have on hand when you want a pizza, but could not plan ahead to defrost a dough before you left for work in the morning.

The first third of the book is the author's travels around the world studying the art and types of pizza. He waxes quite philosophical. I expected that this wouldn't appeal to me, but it ended up drawing me in, and I stayed up late finishing the section. He dispels some popular myths. Pizza is NOT traditionally made by spinning it in the air, and it was not invented in America.

My brother's copy of AMERICAN PIE also had the artsy, rough-cut pages, so we think that's normal.

Again, this is the only book on pizza you'll probably ever need. My only suggestions are to add more "diagnostics" should you have problems. Although I usually eschew the idea that a cookbook need glitzy color photos, a few black and white showing, for example, what a focaccia is supposed to look like, would be very helpful. (Some of us have lived sheltered lives!) I am still trying to find my personal holy grail, though: the Pizza Hut thin crust!

I'm looking forward to getting Reinhart's BREAD BAKER'S APPRENTICE. If it's as good as AMERICAN PIE, it will serve as several Christmas gifts this year.

82 of 88 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A search for Pizza Perfection, and how you may achieve it December 23, 2003

By B. Marold HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

I'm sure there are other books devoted to the pizza, but this is the one which all true foodies will want. For starters, it's written by Peter Reinhart, a major American authority and writer on bread baking. Then, there are connections in the story to culinary luminaries such as Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, Rick Bayless, Paul Bertolli, and David Rosengarten.

The first half of the book is a quest to find the best American pizza, after an incident in Reinhart's home town of Philadelphia when he has a pie from a fondly remembered local restaurant, and it simply does not come up to his fond memories of the pizza of days gone by. As one would expect, the quest begins by a visit to sample the pizzas of Italy in Genoa, Florence, Rome, and Naples, the legendary home of the pizza archetype.

Upon returning home, the author and his wife visit famous pizza locations in New York City, New Haven, San Francisco, Los Angles, Chicago, and Phoenix. In case the Food Network has not caught onto this fact yet, some of the very best pizza is made at Pizzeria Bianco by Chris Bianco, a James Beard Best Chef of the Southwest award winner.

The author is not so gauche as to make a pronouncement on the best pizza in the country, but comes to the conclusion that a local `best' is the conjunction of a perception of what the best pizza should be and a very good pizzaioli who can produce a pie to meet those expectations. One of the most difficult problems for maintaining a good pizza in the U.S. is keeping a dedicated pizzaioli at work at that position and not to treat the job as just another station for a chef to master and move on. Even food meccas like Chez Panisse have problems keeping up the quality of their crusts in the face of staff rotation.

The second half of the book is dedicated to recipes and techniques for making pizzas at home. Given the great variety of wood, coal, gas, and electric ovens used to make pizza commercially, it's hard to imagine that with a reasonable amount of dilligence, people cannot get very good results from their home ovens. The biggest difficulty is that the typical home oven cannot manage more than about 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Reinhardt offers three methods to improve your chances with a home oven, both with and without the convection oven.

As Reinhart is a recognized expert on bread baking, I find no basis for my questioning his recommendations. And, since many of his colleagues believe the crust is five times more important for the quality of the pizza than all the toppings put together, I have to believe Rienhart's advice will be a golden addition to your pizza skills.

If there is any question in your mind up to now, be aware that this book deals only with the real deal. There are no short cuts here. The recipes part has chapters on:

The Family of Doughs including Napoletana, Roman, New York, Chicago, Sardinian, and Focaccia dough
Sauces, including tomato, pesto, and specialty sauces

Pizzas, including Mapoletana, neo-Neapolitan, Roman, Grilled, Sardinian, and Pita.

The classic American pizza represented primarily by New York City is a neo-Neapolitan pizza, but people in Chicagoland live and die by their deep dish pizzas. This is the source of Reinhardt's conclusion that one's perception of the best is affected greatly by what you grew up with.

If you don't like chatty books and you just want the recipes, this may not be the best book for you, but if you want the history, the general techniques, plus an excellent presentation of all the classic recipes, this is the book for you, especially at the very reasonable list price for a very well composed hardcover book.

Highly recommended.