Pizza doesn’t have to simply be a recreational eating experience. Yes friends, it can be educational too! If you are looking to improve upon your pizza knowledge, both veteran and new, there are a great number of places you can turn to. Here are a few we personally enjoy and constantly turn to. If you enjoy any of these resources, please support them with either visits to their websites or by purchasing their books.
Slice | Serious Eats
For the active web user, look no further for your daily pizza meanderings than the premier pizza site on the web, Slice. Writers, pie-makers, and fans alike can join together to showcase recipes, pizzeria reviews, and even share their own pies in a feature called My Pie Monday. Not only a great daily diversion, Slice’s contributors and frequent commenters are a fantastic resource, as well as a source of inspiration and community for any true pie enthusiast.
Scott’s Pizza Tours
An inspiration for any pie fan, Scott Wiener take pizza knowledge and enthusiasm to the next level. Scott is a writer, tour guide, and historian who runs Scott’s Pizza Tours, a walking/bus tour of New York City’s most interesting pizzerias. You can check out Scott’s frequent contributions in PMQ’s Pizza Magazine, Pizza Today Magazine, Slice, PizzaMarketplace.com, as well as his site’s blog.
Chicago Pizza Club
Anyone living-in or visiting the Windy City should thank the Chicago Pizza Club. Not only are they going to provide you with a vast encyclopedia of pie shops, but they’ll include reviews, history and photos into the mix. These fun-loving pizza fans are a phenomenal resource when looking for a new venue to try out, or just to compare notes on your last conquest.
American Pie by Peter Reinhart
My first venture into learning more about pizza brought me to my local public library. It was there that I rented a book that changed my life. Peter Reinhart is a writer, baker, and teacher that has a particular passion for pizza. Peter’s book takes readers through a small pizza tour through the US and Italy, exploring styles of pie and the bakers behind them. The book has a great personal narrative and includes many recipes that provide a firm starting point for the home baker.
Pizza by Rosario Buonassisi
Rosario Buonassisi’s book is full of information on pizza’s place in society, beverage pairings and recipes. The most interesting part of the book lies in its history of the slice. A very digestible read, the book provides great visual elements to assist the text.
The Bread Builders by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott
If you’ve ever been to a fantastic wood-fired pizzeria and wanted to know more about the oven, this is clearly the book for you. A deep resource of oven information, the book expands on the life of bakers, bread science, and more. A must read for any dough geek!