Peter Reinhart is an author and educator dedicated to teaching the beauty and joy of bread. His TED Talk is legendary and his books cover a huge spectrum of bread baking including gluten free. Reinhart is a professor at Johnson & Wales University, currently working out of their Charlotte campus. When I read his book American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza back around 2006 it changed me. I adopted Peter’s concept of understanding through experience and have used it as my north star ever since. You can imagine my glee to have become friends with Peter years later!
I was honored to record an episode of Peter’s Pizza Quest Podcast back in October at the Pizza & Pasta Northeast trade show in Atlantic City. The episode features a conversation between Peter, John Gutekanst (Avalanche Pizza in Athens, OH), and me recorded immediately following my final round of pizza judging for the day. We talk about all aspects of the pizza world, including the ins and outs of the competition.
I told John and Peter about the idea of creating a certification program. As it stands, pizza judges each come in with their own score ranges and methodology but a singular system would do wonders to stabilize scored from panel to panel and year to year so competitors will truly be able to assess their work.
Check out our Pizza Quest podcast here. Peter and I will also be teaching together at Pizza University in Washington, D.C. in May 2024 so look for details about that class here.
