[Pizza Club News] ZOMG! We're Famous!

I was contacted a while back by one of the guys that was doing the Outside The Loop radio show on Loyola's WLUW (88.7) about being a part of his show one day. We could never figure out a time and I think we both sort of forgot about it. Recently, I was contacted by Mike Stephens (now the solo host) and we finally got together and had a conversation over some pizza at Coalfire, which we also reviewed shortly after it opened. Briefly, I think I like it much more now than I did at the time of our original review. As for the interview, Jennifer and I ended up participating. I don't think we say anything too insightful (or embarassing), but for people that don't know we exist it should be a nice introduction. It was fun and I want to thank Mike for trying to make us not sound like fools.

I hadn't heard of their show until they contacted me last year, but I listened to it to see what they talk it. It's pretty much a Chicago-centric audio blog. There is a lot of interesting stuff they talk about (Chicago Baconfest 2009, for one) and it's one of my two podcasts I download onto my iPhone. The other one is about video games (I have to keep my street cred). The show airs live Fridays at 6pm and you can listen to it on the radio or online. If you miss it, they offer the option to either stream or download the shows after the fact from their website. Check it out - they are also featuring some tips from the Parking Meter Geek on this show and he is a personal hero of mine.

If you listen to it, let me know how nasal and retarded I sound.

[Chicago Pizza Interview] Leo Spizzirri

Giordano's, probably the best known purveyor of stuffed pizza in the world, has been using largely the same recipe since it was started by the Boglio brothers in the mid-1970s. The man currently responsible for making sure Giordano's stays on top of its game is Leo Spizzirri, Executive Chef. I sat down with him recently at his office, which is Giordano's biggest location, on the corner of Rush and Superior. He filled me in on Giordano's, pizza history, and the World Pizza Champions.

The son of Italian immigrants, Leo grew up in the Chicago area. He learned how to make pizza in teglia (an Italian precursor of stuffed pizza) from his family and he learned how good stuffed pizza is thanks to the Nancy's that was across the street from his house.

Largely self-trained as a chef, Spizzirri has studied pizza-making under some Italian masters, including classes at Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli (Google-translated version is here), where he studied under Grazzaino Bertuzzo.

A little over a year ago, he came to Giordano's as Executive Chef. He filled me in on some of what makes Giordano's pizza so good. The crust features high gluten flower and is allowed to rise for 3-5 days (4 being ideal) before it is made into pizza. The cheese, toppings and sauce are all fresh. Giordano's gets its whole milk mozzarella in large chunks and shreds it themselves, ensuring the cheese has the proper moisture when cooked. The toppings are all fresh, as are the tomatoes that are used to make the sauce.

A number of Giordano's restaurants are franchisees, but none of those are in the City of Chicago. And even the franchises are subject to oversight from Spizzirri, who cites consistency of product as one of the most important functions of his job.

Spizzirri has done so well at Giordano's that Tony Gemignani, one of the founders of the World Pizza Champions, invited him to join the team. That team is the winningest team at the annual World Pizza Championships in Salsomaggiore Terme in Parma, Italy. As Leo put it, they are the Yankees of the World Pizza Championships. This April, thanks to lobbying by Spizzirri and his teammates, stuffed pizza will be allowed in the pizza in teglia category. Many at the competition are unhappy at this development since it's not a traditional pizza style, and Spizzirri has no expectations of winning the category. But once they get a taste of his Chicago pies, who knows what will happen?

I did learn one shocking piece of information about Leo Spizzirri. Despite his upbringing and his job, Leo's favorite place to grab pizza is Chi-Town Pizza, a New York-style pizzeria that I thought was primarily there to serve partiers leaving Division Street bars. Actually, that may its primary purpose, but Spizzirri swears they have great pizza. Of course, the pizza he eats most often is Giordano's, which he says he eats three times a day for "quality control."

[Chicago Pizza Interview] Burt Katz

Burt Katz is an icon in the Chicago pizza world. He has owned four different pizzerias: Inferno (RIP), Gulliver's, Pequod's, and the eponymous Burt's Place. When the CPC invaded Burt's Place on July 23, 2008, I had a chance to briefly talk to the man himself.

Burt was not much on pontificating on the meaning of pizza or his place in the pizza world, and he was unwilling to give up any secrets at all.

His most famous contribution to pizzaology was the invention of the caramelized crust. I asked him what gave him the idea, and he shrugged and said something about kids not eating their crust and that their parents would eat the crust with the cheese. If that seems confusing, it is, since the parents ate the crusts without cheese as well. He did confirm that the cheese for caramelization goes on before the pizza is put in the oven, so I got that nugget.

He was even less forthcoming about the ingredients in his pies, answering my question about his sausage supplier with, "Why should I tell you that?" He did say that he goes to a market every morning to buy the vegetables he will cut himself and use on the day's pizzas. He also said he gets his sausage from a small butcher and that the sausage is expensive. When he found the butcher (which he had to do after his previous sausage supplier retired), he told him to make his best sausage and not worry about the price. Katz repeatedly emphasized that his goal was not to make as much money as possible.

That was actually a theme he repeated when discussing what he pays for ingredients, how much he charges for pizza, and why there is only one Burt's place. Both Burt and his wife Sharon told me separately that they have had numerous offers from investors who wanted to franchise Burt's, but he stressed that he makes enough money and that he didn't want to have to worry about monitoring the quality of other peoples' work.

Burt offers fewer toppings than most people and responded to my question about it by rhetorically asking how many toppings people need. He also said that he's told regular customers who ask for different toppings that if they bring the toppings in, he'll put them on a pizza. He even stores jars of artichoke hearts for one customer and puts them on his pizzas.

As for eating pizzas, Burt says he almost never does; not his own and not anybody else's. Sharon eats Burt's pies a couple of times a week, and that's the only pizza she eats.