The Pizza Show: From Deep Dish to Thin Crust

best articles that is his inspiration Kate Upton is his inspiration while he works I say your aspiration yes, nice to Keith here and then you have the video of Pope Francis yes, hey, a little conference, inspiration never hurts, right, I have never Been to Chicago, but heard about the

pizza

. I'm from Brooklyn, so this style is clearly different than the style I grew up with, but I'm open to trying any

thin

g. I thought Kaga was a one note

pizza

town, it was

deep

dish

or no

thin

g, but I quickly learned otherwise, I said this pizza game is perfect, if you want a crash course on the history of Chicago and

deep

dish

pizza , you should go see Tim Samuelson, it's great pizza culture that's for sure and as you can see I have a lot of research.

I have to, I have to, okay, we talked about talking, let's go eat it and here's the original owner of the pizzeria. The real thing came out of the same place where it was invented in 1943. Pizza lesson. You can see the conical shape of the bark. The

crust

is. at the bottom but you see that line right there oh yeah that's solid mozzarella and then it's piled on top of that sausage and then you have the tomato sauce on top it's made backwards it's beautiful mmm even though they're happening many things, the proportions are good. you still taste the sausage, you taste the cheese, you taste the

crust

, it tastes like a pretty basic tomato sauce, without too much added, it's just solid and I guess that goes with the whole theme, right, she was kind of basic and no-nonsense.

Butler Stone art, how you put it together in Brooklyn, on Long Island, where I grew up. Pizza was a big thing and there was always this competition between New York and Chicago when it came to pizza, and you know the very different styles that exist. This pizza means to the city, it's actually become one of the big symbols of the city, so when you mention Chicago it's something that people think about and there's an interesting aspect, almost a Midwestern aspect, what kind of of abundant food the Midwest will be in five months. of the year like a cold city, yeah, you know, so you need something to fill you up, something to keep you warm.

I mean, this pizza couldn't have been invented in California bingo and it's different. I grew up in Chicago. I've been here my whole life, there was always an energy about it. Chicago was a city where almost everyone came from somewhere else. Chicago is a city that came out of nowhere, so there were no established traditions about how not to do anything, etc. that gives the idea that you can improvise this type of food not only when creating it, but you will also find people who will have no problem trying something new, so it is a true Chicago story if you are going to tell the history of pizza from Chicago the creator of the King is Rick Ricardo and Rick Ricardo in 1943 opened a bar there and tried to find an interest to think of a type of bar food that combines with drinks, Pizzeria Uno is a descendant of that original pizzeria if it is the Crown Prince of pizza royalty, which is Malnati's, so I mean the pizzas at Malnati's laga.

Lou Melon's dad worked with his father Rudy in the early days at Luna's pizzeria, grew up in the pizzeria and eventually opened his own Lou's place. Malnati's in Lincoln Wood now with over 40 locations, it's hard not to stumble upon a Lou Malnati's despite its growth. Malnati's is still family owned and operated by Lou's son, Marc, so let's talk about pizza for a while and then I'll make some if you're willing, if you're willing, then I'm willing, well I'm from New York and it's really not my first time in Chicago, so you need instructions on what the depth of Chicago is. deep dish pizza, well Chicago deep dish pizza is different than New York pizza or other pizzas because it's Chicago, it's a different kind of city, this is a city where you want a complete meal on a plate and that it's what deep dish pizza is it's about you don't want me to say anything about how bad New York Pizza is.

I mean, we could talk about New York Pizza. If you start saying that, then I will attack you with some things. I hope you have something thick. skin, you know, this range wants, it doesn't want to be abused, it doesn't want to be petted too much because it will come out light and flaky, so now we'll take it, we'll just kind it. about the job i want you to work it to the end when you came into the business i started when i was 15 but i work full time i just finished university 22 so yes, you are a pizza maker for life this has been your only job, it is, I'm unemployed, yes, and now only yours, your fingers would pick it up, but don't break it, only rookies make holes in it, you're not going to make any rookie mistakes, today is Amateur Night.

This is Wisconsin mozzarella, why do you think I use the cheese as a base? Because the cheese will act as a sealant on the bottom so that all the fat from the sausage doesn't seep out and form a crust on the bottom. soaked, I think that's true and the other reason is that it will be much easier for us to apply the sausage to the pizza with a flat and resistant basic cheese. What were the first days? Inauguration day was in 1971 in Lincolnwood, Illinois. 15 and I had invited a group of friends to come over and just help us out in case we were busy.

Before the doors opened there were people lining up on the sidewalk around the corner, it was like Disney World was opening. Wow and it stayed. so for months you see the size of these two Marian slump if they are broken by hand at all they are just we are going to break them a little bit how good is that they are really delicious uh you taste the sugar just coming out of them yeah let's give it a little nice layer, let's go in, ready baby, let's do it here we go and we'll check back in about 25 minutes, take it out, okay, look at that.

It looks great, yeah, a little over the top, at least among this, it's too much to ask a New Yorker to eat it with a knife and fork, you know, I'm Sicilian, so I come from a place where we could, it's intense, you know? We make sauce on top This is not that far from my universe You know it's beautiful So I really thought we could agree We can agree Instead of rolling We hug on the edge Well it's toast , salut, salut, Chicago and a deep dish. They go hand in hand, but there is another style that is just as popular with locals.

Chicago is a thin crust city and if you were to ask any old timer regular that came here what kind of pizza Chicago is, big thin crust, Steve the lynskey. aka the Hungry Dog, he's a Chicago food personality who just ranked 76th on pizzeria, he was the bane of my existence for one summer, so I saw one of these typical online roundups of the 7 most popular pizzas of Chicago right now and I don't agree with most of them. I'm going to make a round of pizza or call Pizza Quest. It sounds great on paper. I need pizzas for two months.

That's all I'm going to eat. You know, my family thought it was crazy. He brought home pizzas every night. I'm here, you have to try this one and I just wanted to have a complete and definitive guide to Chicago pizza once and for all. No one had ever made it, which was amazing for him, so coming to Chicago I really thought it was going to be deep dish, so I'm excited to try all these different styles of pizza. Well, kudos to you for getting out of downtown because everyone comes to Chicago and spends all their time within a six-block radius and eats. deep dish and stuff and then you go out into real Chicago neighborhoods like you have and you see real pizza, which is tavern style, with a thin, crispy crust, cut into squares, this is a very Chicago thing and it started in the working class neighborhoods and it's like a finger.

The food was okay, it was meant to be at the bar so you drank it and you could pick it up and eat it quickly, so what's your number one? Choose the tavern style. Well, this is Vito Nicks and he's even a true legend of Chicago tavern style. It's always on the top ten list of anyone who's made pizza in Chicago here for over 70 years. Rose is still in the kitchen almost every day. We're talking right now. Thank you so much. That sausage is beautiful. oregano, yeah, looking at these bubbles, it's and go ahead, give me a hat.

I like the extremes. I like the crunch at the end. Yes, there was a lot of flavor each if you just had enough cheese, very nice thin crust, but it's very crunchy. and it really holds up to the toppings wait, it holds up to the toppings it doesn't overwhelm it I can't stop eating it right now well I'm hungry but it's really good I haven't eaten that much since my mission so here I am, that video attached. I mean, you're going to call the pot hunters to roll the tables. I can not either. I have to try, yeah, you can't, it's okay. that was Hamas I like that man I like this kitchen that was great that was great so what are we going to get with this one?

You need an apron and a half, okay, now I'll

show

you apron 101, everyone gets this from me, okay. I wrote it once you folded it a second time, okay, and then you roll it twice. Wow, and the key here is that you take all the strings and tuck them underneath so it's nice and neat. Wow, that was the most detailed apron setup I've ever seen. They this is the way I do mine, they do it differently, but I like to do it this way. Well, Grandpa had a Tamron on the west side in 1920 and then the piece he started when my dad came back from World War II.

Why then, oh God? My father had told my grandmother, you know, when telling her about this piece, she had been making a different, thicker rectangle, just like you're used to with Sicilian pizza, so she decided to make it thin and groan, the drum does not ensure it. small uniform pieces make the crotch, you have to push it in, make it feel like almost breaking it, so it's Daisy. I mean, I've been here since the Vulcans. I've been working on this for over sixty years first, when you were the first. I started making pizzas when I was very young.

I started cooking with my grandmother. She was like five or six years old, so you do a lot because I do a lot. I supervise that everything is done correctly. I'll come into the kitchen if you need help, does it make any difference? Well, you have to be, yes, that's what you do, so you started with a little bit of cheese and in the end you end up with a little bit of shoes and on top or bacon, okay, give it a generous amount, a little more than that, come in right there, in the center, right here, yeah, hit it on the counter and that tells them you're going to throw a board.

Oh, what's your day to day? As I come down here, I start cooking. what time do you usually get up well today I started at three so I went down I made bread pudding I read that I'll start things like that oh here you're going to give yourself a hug so then you have to start the day right oh yeah, I'll be boring or whatever whatever needs to be done, so I mainly make the pizza dough. I make the dough a lot, this is the dole poopy, oh wow, and it's already been hit, so all the time go back and hit it every time.

A couple of hours, yes. Wow, the Volvo ice melters were made last night. Yes, close tight. This will disappear by the end of the night. We do it every day. I make my own wine, so when you're not making pizza and you're not making bread pudding. you're making your wine here it's the fattest there's a M that's a drink it, drink it, drink it, enjoy, we'll have fun tonight, guys, yam, guys, they did it all, uh, we did it all. Sicilian man, how useful, huh, a bread pudding was delicious. A little icing on the cake I'm glad you enjoy things a lot.

Chicago's South Side is associated with the Mall of Rafah neighborhood, a working-class North Side neighborhood. When they come in, you can instantly pick them up just as they look like deer in the night. That's a dairy, I mean, that's how it seems to me they come. I think they expect something different. I really think so because you're at the top of all the charts and everything, so they're hoping that maybe it's a really fancy place. I don't realize that this place is about family and character and that's exactly how it is, we have families here all the time and you'll see it.

I've seen three or four generations, maybe more feel at home and that's it. Really true, it is a wonderful thing. Steve also told me about another of his favorite pizzerias, Freddie's in Cicero, just eight miles out of town, this place is run by Joe Quercia and when I walked in I felt right at home, all horns playing Sicilian cards. The things that happen in the stories of the Italian albums, I think JA is going to get along well. This all looks amazing. I mean, obviously, you make it all fresh every day, every day, every day and then we make our own brother, my breath, what do we have here? this is something that is Justine Barlow in Barlow, yeah that's my version like we do in the south, it turns into macaroni pie, okay and of course we put pieces in the neighborhood, we put a lot of people, your history came here to the United States and worked at Freddys, he waited all right.

They started there it was in 1968 well, I came here and from Naples and we lived in Cicero at that time I was about 13 years old somehow my dad asked me if he could have gone with them,who somehow got mugged on the way back we took a different path In the direction we got lost, then I saw there was a sign outside, this is Freddie's Italian Lemonade, so I said, "Oh my God, someone has to speak Italian here, they give us the right address", so I went in and asked the man for directions. messiah for the job I worked for five years and the police were for sale Oh I graduated high school and made some money so I was only 18 19 when I bought it this is my only job in this country.

I was a and you were also the head pizza maker back then, yeah I was making all the pizzas and I still make some even though we call it Sicilian style bakery style, yeah they look a lot like a New York style Sicilian pizza how many do you make different pizzas? This is one, then we have this one. Here, this is a round deep dish, oh yes, this is a fresh sausage. Wow, not pre-cooked, this is what I think of when I think of Chicago pizza. Yes, we should call this Chicago style. We use a fresh sausage on top.

Now this is for me. like a skill in itself the way he's breaking down sausages, you know, this is my kitty style, okay, okay, if I stretch it, oh, you know how to do it, it still feels good, it's got the dough proof on it which I really like because it adds fluffiness if you stretch it and let it wait like you know, even 10-15 minutes makes a lot of difference. The best thing is the simplicity, it will be the dough, the fresh mozzarella on the tomatoes, that's what makes everything so. it's my beetle, I do it well without leaving a layer on top, that's it, whatever, slice now alone or sure, okay, now you're speaking my language, try the calamari right on top of the cheese.

Can we convince you to open one of these in Brooklyn? Gemma, something about proper draft squid, no it's delicious, this is the best breakfast I've had all week. I would really love your place because it's not your traditional pizzeria. You could walk in and get something restaurant quality. dish or just eat a slice of a simple slice of pizza, it's not easy, but you know when you enjoy making a dish and of course at the end of the week it's rewarding, why not? We have a great life. I have a great wife and a question. Although we met in 1978 I worked in a bank and I was very busy and I was a student I just wanted to go home and my mother turned the car around and said I'll go with those pizzas and we're going there so I came in here to order one pizza and then he started talking to me and the pizza was taking forever and I was getting a little upset so he said: do you have a boyfriend too?

If you don't have a boyfriend, I want your phone number. I said okay, here's my phone number, okay, please, my pizza. I really have to go. Joe called me a week later. I think I called him. John called, so I just said, look, I'm really busy, I don't really have time for anyone. Yeah, so no, let's go out, okay, we took her to the Playboy Club, we had something to eat, we danced a very interesting night, we also took dance classes three times a week, oh, we do cha-cha, rumba, tango, waltz, salsa , it's really interesting, quite nice. two three of us tried to bowl and then Joe leaned back and I pulled my shoulder with my animals oh no, I thought I was done working, you want to have some recreation, but you don't want to go home and sit around , so we thought about dancing, which is nice. one two three four five six seven eight nine butter ten eleven twelve Butterfield's most symmetrical butter design for the lady, okay guys, let it be your turn, insist I never did this before the first time, okay, that's the step out of the box, it's probably the boxing one for me. the eighth wonder of the world, let's say a step that becomes familiar throughout the entire dance, this is the step, I understood you, that's right, we should have my own house.

I'm really okay now, further back as you go, okay, that way, okay, I hope the signature right above I live I live on the side that's good I don't care I feel great right now I feel like I'm starting to put it down first a little stiff but hey Vito is pretty good brother first something else he's too fucked up the shoes you're wearing mm-hmm I have to go yeah I have kitchen clogs in Felis you just feel Wow grab it grab it yeah now that shoe is part of my foot, you are walking on an object, right? be like two, two by four, you're walking on two sides, just lose them, put on my socks if you want, okay, why not, why not, no friend, Krista boxer, walk, yeah, your ankles will call me where Wherever you go, your ankles will call me good. much better, we can push your hips down by pushing them and dip you on the way from your waist to the middle, that's it, hey, they are not used to this post, come on, give me a left hand.

I maintain the strength that you have right hand touch me but it's okay now walk me with the Box step veteran of your day, just go down to the ballroom and do the cha-cha-cha. There's a guy in Chicago who's as legendary as his pizza. Bert Katz, go and see how nice his posture is. better and everything has been eating too much peace is starting to slouch sit up straight like I told you these are my little friends she no where is your hair today what the hell Burton his wife Sharon opened Bert's House in the 1980s after five decades in the pizza game Bert is hanging up his hat I didn't get a chance to try the bird pizza but it didn't really matter spending a few hours with Bert it was better than any pizza I could imagine it's all packed I love the outside of the dining room.

There was no wrought iron on the table, aluminum, no joke, although they don't like us, you better believe it, ah, why do you go to see a movie every year, the guy with the scraper with a brush to cry out loud and paint them to hell with that noise, look at the sign. so perfect that people used to tell me for years you must be Italian because you make good pizza. I got so tired of hearing it that they made up this sign that says "Jew, make the best pizza." There is no one like Bert Katz.

It's like this place is almost like a true expression of your problem, yes, I would say that to a certain extent I buy all these little things that you see around here because I like it, the store seems so warm to the people as if they were in the house of someone, yeah, there's nothing pretentious, no bullshit, I mean, honest, irresponsible for three different pizzerias in Chicago, yeah, basically, yeah, I read about a place called Gulliver's that I started at and that's where you started developing your style , yes, more, more, after Gulliver's, then they opened Pequod's and We've been here 24 years in this store What is a Burt Katz pizza?

How would you describe it? You're asking Burke. That is not fair. Cheers to the common terminology of Chicago pizza pan pizza. This thing weighs almost 2 inches and is slimmer. probably about half that size, the product I've been making all these years is a matter of balance, the crust is dark and nice and from sort of crispy to caramelized, you can see the air pockets in an adult, so which is a Very light texture all the years you've been operating here in Chicago Do you consider yourself a pizza legend because a lot of people give names to things?

I don't look at that one, come on, I'm a pizza. manufacturer, I mean, that's it. I'm looking at my clients. I want to keep them happy. I want to do what's right for them. People laugh at pizza when I'm awake. You know what you do well and let me tell you, you build a Following you for years and years and years, when I meet guys like you, I'm a young pizza guy and it makes me feel amazing, if I could be half the guy you make sure you're more of happy, it makes you smarter to go out.

While you can, there are two sides to a coin that works, just remember that it really worked well. Three. I'm very pleased that we had a very good run and I despise it. I found my niche. It seems like the American dream to me. or the American nightmare economy, you know, dreams, nightmares, night hallucinations, I don't remember. Oh, lots of faith, it's all perspective, it's all perspectives, let me tell you, after meeting so many wonderful people here, it's hard to believe this is my first trip to Chicago. From deep dish to tavern style, there are no hard and fast rules here when it comes to pizza, there is only one constant, the great people, these people are truly the salt of the earth.