Pizza City with Steve Dolinsky

Leo Spizzirri is the driving force behind only the second North American branch of the famed Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli. This pizza school has a location in San Francisco, but Spizzirri now has an accredited program about 45 min. west of downtown Chicago. He talks about how he got into the business, fell in love with Italy's regional styles, then convinced Italian authorities to let him open a scho...

Steve talks with Chicago native Jared Leonard about his latest pizzeria - Grabowski's - located in the RiNo District of Denver. Leonard is bringing the pizza of his childhood (that means tavern-style, thin, square-cut pizzas) to his newly adopted home.

Steve talks with Adam Sweet, an Arkansas native who ended up in Indiana. His first King Dough started on the campus of Indiana University, but he more recently opened in Indianapolis, directly across the street from Smoking Goose Meatery, a world-class producer of cured and smoked meats, and the collaboration has been a delicious one.

Steve travels to New Haven, CT, home to Yale, as well as some of the most revered pizza joints in the country. He meets up with Colin Caplan, the author of "Pizza in New Haven" and Owner of Taste of New Haven Tours. Steve (and a few lucky contest winners) learn about the city's unique pizza history, then taste the legendary pies at Frank Pepe's, Sally's and Modern.

Steve talks with Marc Malnati, the President of Lou Malnati's, Chicago's most prolific deep-dish purveyor. Opened in 1971 by his late father, they just opened a new store beneath Michigan Avenue this month; the company sells nearly six million pizzas a year, and are known as one of the original sources of authentic deep-dish in Chicago.

Steve talks with Steven Dilley, the owner of Bufalina and Bufalina Due in Austin, Texas. Dilley's parents are Italian and Taiwanese, so he has a unique perspective on food; his experience in the financial world in New York City, combined with some traveling and research in Naples, led to Bufalina in 2013 in East Austin. He talks about the city's pizza scene, and why he didn't bother trying to atta...

Steve talks to Chris Bianco - of Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix - about his new collaboration with Tartine Bakery's Chad Robertson and Elizabeth Prueitt, in The Manufactory in downtown L.A. He's focusing on flatbreads, rather than the wood-fired pies he's known for, but the scale of the operation is mighty impressive.

This week, Steve talks to Chef Michael Schwartz, the owner of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink in Miami and Cleveland, and Genuine Pizza in Miami. Schwartz's new book, "Genuine Pizza: Better Pizza at Home" just came out, and Schwartz was in Chicago recently, doing a takeover of one of the ovens at Pacific Standard Time. He talks about some of the must-have tools for home pizza-making, but also discu...

Steve talks with Robert Garvey, an engineer-turned-playwright-turned-pizzaiolo who grew up in Queens with a slice-a-day habit. Moving to Chicago in 1993, he started tinkering with dough recipes and spent the next decade or so, tweaking his recipe until he got it right. He recently re-opened his namesake pizzeria in Chicago after being closed for nearly a year, and his memorable pies are better tha...

Steve talks with Justin De Leon, a former professional photographer who has married his love of photography with his passion for pizza at Apollonia's in L.A. Having grown up with heavy pizza in Monterey Park, he has spent years developing his Sicilian squares which have enormous interior crumb and impossibly high cheese fricos around the lacy edges. The fact he knows how to photograph them makes t...

Steve talks to Anthony Falco, one of the founders of Roberta's, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, who, over the past three years, has become a pizzaiolo for-hire. He's set up new pizzerias all over the world, and continues to create new, artisan options for some pizza shops in the U.S. as well. They met at Upside Pizza, in Midtown Manhattan, one of Falco's recent clients.

Dan Richer is serious about his pizza. Time, temp and a laser-focused intensity about the quality of his ingredients all combine to make his artisan pies something to behold (and devour). Razza not only has a 3-star review from the New York Times, but was just named the best pizza in North America by the 50 Top Pizza group, based in Italy. Steve talks to Richer about his method and approach to mak...

Steve talks with Frank Tuttolomondo, owner of Mama's Too! on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Frank's family has owned Mama's Pizza nearby for nearly 60 years, but his approach to pizza-making is far different. He experiments with hydration levels, baking technique and fermentation, but also offers a more artisan approach to Sicilian and classic wedges (baked in gas ovens).

Steve sits down with Rich Aronson, the 2nd generation owner of My Pi, which his father Larry opened in 1971. Rich talks about how they were the first deep-dish outside of Illinois, then shrank back to just one location. His father's meticulousness - he was a 3rd generation baker - led to all sorts of tweaks on the original Uno's recipe. To this day, it's one of Steve's favorite versions of deep-di...

Steve sits down with Mark Iacono, owner/founder of Lucali, one of New York City's most revered pizza joints. Iacono designed his Carroll Gardens restaurant to resemble a pizzeria from the 1940s. Everything may look old, but it's all new. His handmade, wood-fired oven is the star attraction - more curved than domed - and some of Brooklyn's most majestic pies emerge from its stone deck.

Steve talks with Gina Pianetto, the 3rd generation owner of Pat's Pizza in Chicago. The pizza the late film critic Roger Ebert dubbed his favorite, is still going strong, some 70 years after Nicholas "Pat" Pianetto started the joint in 1950. Known for their cracker-thin crust, which takes about six days to make, Steve argues this is the style of pizza most Chicagoans actually eat, rather than deep...

Steve travels to Montreal in the middle of winter, to taste one of the city's best pies at Pizzeria Gema. Chef/Owner Michele Forgione and his Pizzaiolo are making a true Canadian artisan style pizza, by making all of the toppings themselves and letting their dough ferment for at least 48 hours.

Steve talks with Ann Kim, the owner of Pizzeria Lola, Hello Pizza and Young Joni, all in Minneapolis. Kim attended Columbia University in New York, studied law for a year, wanted to become an actress, but realized her true calling was in the culinary world. She opened Lola eight years ago, focusing on wood-burning, artisan pies. More recently, she’s added Hello Pizza, an homage to NYC-style slices...

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, a...

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 Nashvi...

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 top...

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, bu...

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 lov...

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...

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 Neapolita...