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Editorial Review Product Description
Pizza is the single most popular food in the world, and wherever you go in America you can always find it. In fact, we consume 33 billion dollars worth of pizza annually from the 63,873 pizzerias in America. That's a lot of slices.
This year's pizza centennial is a milestone laid claim to by Lombardi's Pizza, which opened its doors in New York in 1905. Celebrating this anniversary is Ed Levine's Pizza: A Slice of Heaven: The Ultimate Pizza Guide and Companion, in which Levine and some of America's best writers and cartoonists set out to answer every cosmic question involving this beloved food: Is Chicago pizza really more of a casserole? What makes New York pizza so good? Is the pizza in New Haven better than anything found in Naples? Is the best pizzeria in the world found in Phoenix, Arizona? What and where is the Pizza Belt? How good can homemade pizza be? Is there an American pizza aesthetic? How does one go about judging pizza? Is there such a thing as a good frozen pizza?
All these questions and more will be answered by Levine and Calvin Trillin, Ruth Reichl, Roy Blount, Jr., Arthur Schwartz, Mario Batali, Jeffrey Steingarten, and Eric Asimov, among others, who tackle the profound questions and never-ending debates that invariably arise whenever the subject of pizza is brought up in polite company. ... Read more Customer Reviews (14) 
Most excellent pizza book
Levine wrote and compiled a great book!I've probably read this 6 times... i just pick it up at night before nodding off and read a chapter or two.At first I was kinda thrown by the layout but there are great pizza stories and excellent critiques.I make my own pizza in a 730 degree oven in the kitchen with two stones so I can really relate to what he writes about.I've got about 6 of these types of books and Ed's is right at the top.If you like this you should also read American Pie by Peter Reinhart.
Decent book (i guess)
Good book all around. Although my favorite part was the comparing of chicago-style pizza to a casserolem which is very true (but it's not neccisarily a bad thing).
for all you venting chicago-ites (or whatever) who wrote in the previous reviews saying that casserole comparison was utter blasphemy, consider this exerpt from wikipedia, the world's largest free encylopedia:
"The Chicago-style pizza varies from the traditional pizza in that it shares more in common with a casserole such as lasagna than with a hearth cake type dish."
don't believe me? go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Style_Pizza
anyways....3 stars for good effort although some of the pizza places he mentioned were'nt all that great.
Flat and Unoriginal
If you're a New York-o-phite and think if it's not in NYC (or at least imitates something in NYC) then it's not great, this book is for you.But if you're looking for a read that might open up new doors of thought, or new areas to try, i.e. if you're looking to learn something, then look elsewhere.
One of the other reviewers had it right: how can you completely dismiss a style that millions adore, because it doesn't fit in to your pizza ideology - pizzology?Even if you don't agree, at least recognize that maybe the millions out there who think differently are not wrong simply because they do think differently then you.How egotistical is this!?!
You'll be done with this book in 20 minutes.It was clearly manufactured by New York publishing to be a quick sell (the publisher specializes in trade publications).Here's my support:
"Author" Ed Levine is a contributor to The New York Times, and is the author of New York Eats and New York Eats (More).But he only actually authors capsule reviews.According to Amazon's own words, "New York gets the most attention with reviews from all five boroughs, Westchester and Long Island (an eating trip to Italy merits just 10 pages)."So he eats a few slices on lay-overs and vacations, and calls this the "Ultimate Guide?"
He doesn't otherwise write, but compiles other works, or as the review says, "raids the stables of the New York Times and Condé Nast on the East Coast, and culls from various Pacific coast journalists in the West."He includes a piece he wrote previously, titled, "The State of the Slice."
He then attempts to legitimize all of this by including artsy dining-themed (not even pizza-themed) b/w photos (not, of course, taken by him).
Add a little controversy by saying Chicago pizza isn't really pizza during an interview, and you're selling books!!!
GIMMICKS
In all this debate as to what is pizza and what constitutes good pizza, let me suggest that pizza purists recognizethat their pizza establishment does not employ gimicks to sell their product; just plain pizza.
Let me mention a place that NEVER served by the slice; NEVER had a special or coupon; NEVER offered delivery; DOES NOT serve anything except pizza - no salads; no pasta; no calzones; HAS only a limited number of toppings; and customers must stand in the cold or rain for an hour to get into the place, and then another 1/2 hour for their pie.
More is not better.I know of a place that serves pizza with toppings that make it about 3" high - nah!I heard of a place that advertises "Mexican pizza" which is nothing more than a tortilla with tomato sauce on it.Although the Chicago Cassarole dish can be tasty, it is still debatable as to whether it (or the Mexican pizza) can be justifiably called "pizza."
Excellent Pizza Travelogue. Dated Material.
`Pizza, A Slice of Heaven' by New York Times culinary journalist, Ed Levine and a proverbial cast of thousands is a digest of many different opinions about pizza making around the country and around the world. The cover states that the author includes contributions from Nora Ephron, Mario Batali, and Calvin Trillin, but the `and many others' includes many heavyweights in the world of writing about food in general and pizza in particular, including Jeffrey Steingarten, Ruth Reichl, Robb Walsh, and Peter Reinhart.
There have probably been many more books recently on pizza, but the only one really worthy of consideration to my knowledge is Peter Reinhart's recent `American Pie' which takes a much less democratic and much more analytical and rational and professional approach to the search for the greatest pizza. It is immensely satisfying that these two very different books came up with the identical conclusion that the very best American pizza is Chris Bianco at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Arizona. Bianco was easy to pick, as he is the only pizzaiolo to have been awarded a best regional chef award by the James Beard Foundation.
For those of us who do not live within easy driving distance of Pizzeria Bianco, all is not lost. Things are especially good for those of us who live in Levine's `Pizza Corridor' stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C., the landing sites for the great wave of immigrants from southern Italy in the latter half of the 19th century. Particularly good are pizzas available in famous shops in New Haven, Connecticut, New York City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and, to a lesser extent, in Baltimore and Washington.
Levine's book is collected from two or three kinds of articles, depending on how you want to slice them. The most common type of article is the informal survey of pizzeria's in various parts of the country and the world. Many, but not all of these are written by Levine. Others are written by correspondents who report on the state of pizza affairs in lesser pizza hot spots, such as the report from Charlotte by baking teacher Reinhart and the report from Argentina by Tex-Mex expert, Robb Walsh. The non-survey articles can be divided into introductory pieces written by Levine to lay out the land for the survey articles and background articles, many of which are reprints from other authors' collections.
The very best thing about the survey articles is that they give knowledgeable ratings for both whole pies and slices from a very large number of famous and almost famous pizzerias. This means that if you are a serious pizza lover, you can travel to many major cities in the United States and have on hand a reference to several good pizzerias, especially in the northeast corridor. The only drawback about these ratings is that they are not all done by the same people. Some ratings appear in articles by contributors such as Nora Ephron who is not a culinary professional. I will grant that she is a gifted amateur in pizza circles, but there is no guarantee she will evaluate things in exactly the same way as Mr. Levine. Thus, it is important to read the narrative evaluations and not go by just the number of icons given to rating the slices or pies.
The use of so many different contributors means that there is a fair amount of overlap from one article to the next. Levine edited well enough so that this overlap is not annoying, but it is there none the less.
One item which raised my opinion of Mr. Levine's judgment in food matters was his criticism of a Consumer Reports evaluation of frozen pizzas. He not only disagreed with their specific recommendation, but he questioned their overall competance in evaluating food products. I am certain they are honest. I am not certain they pick the right criteria on which to judge things.
In addition to the survey of great independent pizzerias around the country, Mr. Levine also evaluates the great pizza chains and frozen pizza products. There are no big surprises here, as Mr. Levine's opinion of almost all the chains is pretty dismal. While I have probably less than one thousandth of Mr. Levine's experience in evaluating pizza, I have a hunch that pizzas from major chain outlets may show a lot more variability than he may indicate. I am certain that on average, it is simply not as good as the very best you can find, but it may, on average, be as good or better than what you get from an undistinguished local pizzeria. It's the old Howard Johnson rule. It may not be the best, but in unfamiliar cities, you know what to expect from them.
Two pizza icons which get a tepid reaction from Mr. Levine are Chicago style deep dish pizza and California pizza. Levine goes so far as to say that deep dish pizza is really a casserole rather than a pizza. His take on Wolfgang Puck and Alice Waters is relatively gentile, but also tends to treat them as a footnote to the great classic Neapolitan / American pizza standard.
If you are really interested in a serious discussion of what makes a great pizza, and how to make it yourself, then get Reinhart's `American Pie'. If you simply enjoy reading about pizza and want to know where the very best can be found, get this book. Just don't follow any advice found in Jeffrey Steingarten's tongue in cheek essay on how to achieve a very hot pizza baking environment.
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