The Pizza Bible: The World's Favorite Pizza Styles, from Neapolitan, Deep-Dish, Wood-Fired, Sicilian, Calzones and Focaccia to New York, New Haven, Detroit, and More - Hardcover

Gemignani, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1607746050 ISBN 13: 9781607746058

Publisher: Ten Speed Press, 2014

Synopsis

A comprehensive guide to making pizza, covering nine different regional styles--including Neapolitan, Roman, Chicago, and Californian--from 12-time world Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani.
 
Everyone loves pizza! From fluffy Sicilian pan pizza to classic Neapolitan margherita with authentic charred edges, and from Chicago deep-dish to cracker-thin, the pizza spectrum is wide and wonderful, with something to suit every mood and occasion. And with so many fabulous types of pie, why commit to just one style? The Pizza Bible is a complete master class in making delicious, perfect, pizzeria-style pizza at home, with more than seventy-five recipes covering every style you know and love, as well as those you’ve yet to fall in love with. Pizzaiolo and twelve-time world pizza champion Tony Gemignani shares all his insider secrets for making amazing pizza in home kitchens.

With The Pizza Bible, you’ll learn the ins and outs of starters, making dough, assembly, toppings, and baking, how to rig your home oven to make pizza like the pros, and all the tips and tricks that elevate home pizza-making into a craft.

About this title

About the Author

TONY GEMIGNANI is the chef and owner of seven restaurants: Tony's Pizza Napoletana, Capo's, and Tony's Coal-Fired Pizza in San Francisco, Pizza Rock in Sacramento and Las Vegas, Tony's of North Beach and Slice House by Tony Gemignani in Rohnert Park. He's also the co-owner of the International School of Pizza in San Francisco. Gemignani has been making pizza for over 20 years and holds an impressive set of awards.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

RESPECT THE CRAFT

Pizza is simple. It’s dough, tomato, cheese, and toppings. But as someone who has devoted more than half of my life to it, I can tell you that, like all really great, really simple things, pizza is infinite. I’m still learning, still refining, still trying to make it even better every single day. And what I can tell you for sure is that pizza doesn’t come down to just recipes or formulas. It’s a craft. 

That one word—that’s why I wanted to write this book. There are hundreds of pizza books, blogs, and websites filled with thousands of recipes out there. Do we really need another one? I thought about this a lot, and here’s where I ended up: when I teach home cooks and certify chefs and pizzaiolos, it’s less about recipes and more about inspiring people to master the craft of pizza—the techniques, the reasons to choose one ingredient over another, the art of “reading” the dough as you mix, shape, top, and bake it. 

Anyone can hand you a pizza recipe, and if that recipe is halfway decent, chances are you can make yourself a perfectly good pizza for dinner tonight in your own kitchen with no special equipment and not much preparation. But that’s not where I want to take you.

I want to get you all the way to five-star, killer-pizzeria-quality pizza. I want you to master any style you love—whether it’s Chicago deep-dish or cracker-thin, a big, fluffy Sicilian pan pizza or a classic Neapolitan margherita with that authentic char blistering the edges—right in your own kitchen with whatever oven you’ve got. 

Is that really possible? Can you actually do all that without a real pizza oven? That’s the question I get asked most often. Believe it or not, you can. It’s not your oven. It’s the ingredients and the techniques you use, and I’m going to give you every piece of ingredient and technique advice you’ll need to succeed. 

But if you truly want to get all the way to rocking restaurant-style pizza at home, there’s one thing I’m going to ask you to commit to. It’s the motto that runs across the front of my menu, and the three words etched on the door of my restaurants. Hey, I even had it tattooed right onto my hands. Respect the craft.

Craft is the difference between good and great. It takes a few extra steps, the right equipment, a little more time, and a fair amount of practice. But if you’re up for it, the payoff is golden. 

So I’m going to start by asking you to try something a little unusual for a cookbook. I want you to read all the way through page 19 before you try a single recipe. And then I’m inviting you to take a Master Class where we make your first pizza together—and maybe even take that class a few more times before you graduate to trying all the great stuff in the rest of the book and eventually coming up with your own variations and improvisations. 

That’s what I mean by respecting the craft and getting a handle on the whys and hows behind it. It might sound a little back-to-schooly. But trust me, it’ll be fun. And you get to eat the final exam.

Want more information and inspiration? Check out my blog at ThePizzaBible.com.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1607746050
• ISBN 13: 9781607746058
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320