[Meet the Members] Kate

Screen Name: kate-d.

Real Name: Kate

Came out of the Oven: Steel City aka City of Champions

Favorite toppings: Pepperoni and garlic

First Pizza Club Meeting: Barraco's

Favorite Deep Dish Pizza: OMG can't decide: Burt's/Delisi's/Malnati's and Louisa's when the crust is not soggy

Favorite Stuffed Pizza: Barraco's (spinach and ricotta, yum)

Favorite Thin Crust Pizza: Pat's Pizza

Favorite Pizza outside of Chicago: Uncle Tucker's wood-fired pizza in Cumberland, Maryland (RIP)

Had Pizza in the Motherland? Yes. Most of the pizza I have had in the North was fairly forgettable, but I have savored every bite I have had of Vera Pizza Napolitano. I love the simple elegance of the fresh ingredients, though as oft noted on this site, the sparseness of the rare garlic clove or basil leaf leaves me feeling a bit shorted. Yet as much as I can appreciate the merits of Naples's offerings in that narrow pizza category, there is no question that I prefer the diverse pizza offerings of Chicago.

Personal Pizza Statement: Growing up in Pittsburgh, I was always aware that, while my hometown excelled at such things as football, perpetual road construction, and making the air smell like ketchup, there was a good chance other cities were better at making pizza. Sure, we knew how to put french fries and coleslaw in a sandwich, but the lackluster thin crust pizza joints that abounded left me dreaming of something bigger. When I left to start college in a small town outside Gary, Indiana called Chicago, the scales fell from my eyes. I learned that the Uno's franchise in the mall had not been representative of Chicago's famous deep dish pizza, and I learned that Chicago's pizza makers also know a thing or two about thin crust. I have had a lot of great pizza in a lot of great towns, and enjoyed many a delectable late night slice during my time in New York, but Chicago owns my pizza heart. Chicago has it all: deep dish, stuffed, thin crust, bar pizza, wood-fired pizza, coal-fired pizza, you name it. So in addition to regularly enjoying delicious slices, I am also here to help catalogue Chicago's pizza offerings as a service to our readers. In other words, I eat at Waldo Cooney's so you don't have to. Cheers!