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Untold Pizza History Stories: How Your Favorite Became an American Obsession. · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:00
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Hey Sylvia.
• 0:01
  Today we're talking pizza.
• 0:04
  Yum.
• 0:04
  I love pizza.
• 0:06
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: I wanna slice Ooh right now.
• 0:08
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: a slice and a coke.
• 0:09
  That was the big thing up north I don't know if they do that down south.
• 0:12
  Is that such a thing?
• 0:14
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Oh, well it is with me.
• 0:15
  That's all that matters, right?
• 0:17
  but you know, there's nothing more ubiquitous out there than pizza pie.
• 0:20
  The basics are flat crust, a sauce, usually tomato.
• 0:25
  But I like white pizza too, and cheese, because they're the same
• 0:28
  ingredients of a lot of Italian foods.
• 0:30
  But it's in kind of that layered, it's pickup
• 0:34
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: It's
• 0:34
  pickup style.
• 0:35
  right?
• 0:36
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Hey, what's your favorite?
• 0:37
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Oh, you know Bob calls it the toilet pizza,
• 0:41
  where everything's on it.
• 0:42
  It's gotta have the onions, the garlic, the
• 0:44
  mushrooms, the the peppers, the meat.
• 0:47
  It's got everything.
• 0:48
  There's more you can put on it, the better.
• 0:49
  It's kind of like a casserole on pizza dough.
• 0:52
  That's my favorite.
• 0:53
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: that sounds so good.
• 0:54
  Now I remember.
• 0:55
  in our poorer days, Bernie and I loved to get a Red Baron Pizza.
• 1:01
  We put 'em in the oven.
• 1:02
  It's a thin crust and I always like my cheese charred
• 1:05
  just a little bit, you know?
• 1:07
  So we would put on the, broiler.
• 1:08
  And you get that cheese just real crusty.
• 1:11
  Oh, it was good.
• 1:13
  that was our most favorite date night.
• 1:16
  I mean, that's how pitiful we were.
• 1:18
  We were both students,
• 1:19
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Now, did you drink ke too?
• 1:21
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: No, I didn't really acquire that habit
• 1:23
  till late in life, and boy did I ever acquire it with a vengeance.
• 1:27
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: But there's all sorts of interesting
• 1:29
  flavors now that are going on.
• 1:30
  Crab and mac and cheese and codfish.
• 1:33
  baked beans.
• 1:34
  Have you heard of baked beans on your pizza?
• 1:36
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Oh, absolutely.
• 1:37
  And we're gonna talk about that a little bit later.
• 1:39
  But just as a preview, I looked at Papa John's and some of the weirdest
• 1:43
  requests they've ever gotten, and I don't think this one's that
• 1:45
  weird crab, eh, mac and cheese?
• 1:47
  Yeah.
• 1:47
  Cold fish.
• 1:48
  Not fish, but
• 1:49
  Cold fish.
• 1:50
  Heinz.
• 1:51
  Not just any baked beans, but Heinz baked beans, peas, now That's interesting.
• 1:56
  Later on with a international pizza, tomato ketchup.
• 2:00
  You know, I don't think that's that
• 2:02
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: That's not tomato sauce.
• 2:03
  Yeah,
• 2:04
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 2:04
  But you know, it'll do in a pinch.
• 2:06
  Right.
• 2:06
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: I guess so.
• 2:07
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Oh, have some fun, Nancy,
• 2:09
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: I know I'm
• 2:10
  a, pizza purist.
• 2:11
  If it's gonna be pizza, you gotta have pizza sauce on it and
• 2:13
  We've made the mistake of, I've tried to make pizza at home.
• 2:16
  You know when you make the pizza crust and
• 2:18
  I learned that of, you can't make pizza crust with regular average flour.
• 2:24
  You have to use the double zero pizza flour.
• 2:26
  It makes a difference.
• 2:28
  you know why?
• 2:28
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Why
• 2:29
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Well, I learned this
• 2:31
  one just by pure accent.
• 2:33
  The regular, like all-purpose
• 2:35
  flour, it's all stretchy and it, bounces back.
• 2:38
  It squishes back.
• 2:39
  But the double zero flour you can get that, roll it out to get that nice
• 2:43
  thin crust and it stays out there.
• 2:46
  It stays out in the round shape or the square shape or whatever
• 2:48
  you wanna do it, it doesn't
• 2:50
  jump back to the ball.
• 2:52
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Oh, that's interesting.
• 2:53
  I wonder if it's gluten.
• 2:54
  is the
• 2:55
  double zero?
• 2:56
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Double zero is a, finer grind of the
• 2:58
  flower, so it's a real powdery,
• 3:00
  almost like a talcum powder kind of flower.
• 3:02
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Wow.
• 3:03
  I didn't know
• 3:04
  that.
• 3:04
  Thank you.
• 3:05
  But I usually just go ahead and, well, you know, there's also, rising up sort
• 3:09
  of these pizzerias, these boutique pizza places so we have several around, you
• 3:14
  know, some of them are even developed into chains, but they're not like.
• 3:17
  jet
• 3:18
  pizza or I
• 3:19
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: There's still family places.
• 3:20
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: uh, regional.
• 3:21
  Maybe not even family so much, but like Crust here is a part of
• 3:25
  a regional chain and parlor and, Grimaldi's, I love Grimaldi's, but
• 3:30
  those are all kind of sub-level pizzas.
• 3:32
  They're not the big.
• 3:33
  Domino's that are so popular But, anyway, What do you think were the
• 3:37
  beginnings of our pizza obsession anyway?
• 3:40
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Well, did you know that the earliest 20th century transcripts
• 3:44
  actually showed or noted, at least in the United States we're talking US
• 3:48
  pizza, that the attorneys had to explain.
• 3:52
  Pizza was, now you're an attorney, so you should understand that because
• 3:57
  nobody understood what a pizza was.
• 3:59
  It was so foreign in the United States.
• 4:01
  And I thought that was kind of interesting.
• 4:03
  But they had to prove it out and actually look at, you
• 4:05
  know, how do you flip the pizza
• 4:06
  pie?
• 4:07
  Let's took it, you know, a little pun here.
• 4:08
  That's what's going on.
• 4:09
  then it eventually became a mass market staple because it went from not
• 4:13
  knowing to all of a sudden now everybody knows it and it's in
• 4:17
  the grocery store on the frozen.
• 4:18
  I have never eaten a frozen pizza.
• 4:20
  I'm sorry.
• 4:20
  I thought, no, I won't do that.
• 4:22
  It's gotta be a real pizza.
• 4:23
  Not that frozen pizza, like you said,
• 4:26
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah, that Red Baron was pretty
• 4:27
  good.
• 4:28
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: But what's your earliest memory of pizza?
• 4:31
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: oh.
• 4:31
  We never ate pizza, ever.
• 4:34
  We never ate it.
• 4:35
  When I was a little girl, and I must have been around 10, when we
• 4:39
  went over to my father's sister's house they were watching, this is
• 4:42
  how far back that goes, gun smoke.
• 4:44
  They always watched gun smoke every Saturday night and we walked in
• 4:49
  and they had low and behold pizza.
• 4:52
  And I was like, oh, wow.
• 4:54
  I remember not liking it though because it was so different.
• 4:58
  didn't know.
• 4:58
  I mean, my parents, we cooked every meal at the house
• 5:02
  ever, and my aunt they got pizza, which is what you do for watching gun smoke, right.
• 5:06
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: well, my earliest memories of, well, first two things, my
• 5:09
  dad would not allow pizza in the house.
• 5:12
  Believe it or
• 5:13
  not, pizza was not real food.
• 5:16
  For some reason, pizza and Chinese food were not real food for my dad.
• 5:19
  yet as.
• 5:20
  They got older and they moved to Florida.
• 5:21
  He discovered pizza is the most amazing food.
• 5:24
  So
• 5:25
  go figure.
• 5:26
  He could probably hold it with his hands and that he liked that.
• 5:29
  But I remember there was a family room pizza parlor in Glen Head,
• 5:33
  New York, where I grew up on the
• 5:34
  island and this, Pizza, little tiny pizza restaurant, long narrow
• 5:39
  space next to the Glen Head post office with red.
• 5:43
  plastic banquet seats and the tables always seemed like they hit
• 5:47
  your chin and it always smelled like tomato sauce and garlic.
• 5:50
  And one of the girls that went to our school.
• 5:52
  And when you had birthday parties.
• 5:54
  You had the birthday party at the pizza parlor, and I always thought it was so
• 5:58
  cool that she could, actually walk out from the kitchen into the restaurant,
• 6:03
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: cool.
• 6:04
  Yeah.
• 6:04
  Yeah.
• 6:05
  Hey, uh, related question.
• 6:06
  Wonder why we called them parlors.
• 6:08
  That's kind of interesting.
• 6:10
  but you know, pizza parlor was something, you just knew what that meant.
• 6:14
  It meant like small diner version of a restaurant and small usually
• 6:19
  and when you describe that and
• 6:21
  said it was a pizza.
• 6:22
  it's home style.
• 6:23
  I don't know if that literally parlor started out as being
• 6:26
  your living space in your home.
• 6:28
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: right.
• 6:28
  Where they laid out the dead people.
• 6:30
  So pizza
• 6:30
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 6:31
  dead people,
• 6:31
  and pizza.
• 6:32
  Yeah, Well, let's back up.
• 6:34
  Let's talk about Margarita
• 6:35
  Queen, Margarita of Italy.
• 6:37
  but the margarita pizza was named after her.
• 6:39
  It was invented in Naples, Italy in 1889, and it consists of fresh
• 6:43
  tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil, and olive oil that reflect
• 6:48
  the colors in the Italian flag.
• 6:50
  Now let me see, where was the green, red, white, and green?
• 6:54
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Well,
• 6:54
  basil,
• 6:55
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: hail, basil.
• 6:55
  Basil.
• 6:56
  Oh yeah.
• 6:56
  Okay.
• 6:56
  It was made for queen Margarita who liked the symbolism of patriotism, uh, of Italy.
• 7:02
  Very popular, and it was long considered the queen of pizza, but
• 7:06
  in the US pepperoni wins the day.
• 7:09
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: I wonder why.
• 7:11
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 7:12
  Yeah, I do.
• 7:12
  I'm a pepperoni girl, so
• 7:14
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: No, I, I totally agree with you.
• 7:15
  I do like pepperoni.
• 7:16
  Pepperoni.
• 7:17
  I like pepperoni better than I guess.
• 7:19
  Um, sausage on my pizza.
• 7:21
  Sausage just
• 7:21
  makes it too greasy.
• 7:22
  Yeah.
• 7:22
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: yeah, that's right.
• 7:23
  but you know, I made an interesting discovery the other day between bacon
• 7:26
  and sausage, which is the better for you
• 7:29
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Which is better for you?
• 7:30
  I'm gonna guess that sausage is better for you
• 7:33
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: No bacon.
• 7:34
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: really?
• 7:35
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 7:35
  Yeah.
• 7:36
  the fat.
• 7:36
  It's still fatty, but it's usually drier and it's not left on the
• 7:41
  residue of the bacon, whereas sausage, just as you said, it's a easier
• 7:45
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: That's interesting.
• 7:47
  so we got onto Italian pizza now.
• 7:49
  Originally I thought it was also for poor people, so I guess the
• 7:53
  queen made it a ladi da food.
• 7:55
  Is that correct?
• 7:56
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: I think they presented it to her,
• 7:58
  but did start as a street.
• 8:00
  Food, a food of the people because it was easy to eat.
• 8:03
  We've alluded to that, you know, and, and that's when it came over to America
• 8:07
  in the 19th and early 20th century.
• 8:09
  First in New York, and then, Chicago.
• 8:11
  And then you have, of course, Detroit as well.
• 8:14
  And, there you have it, it kinda fit into
• 8:16
  the laborers.
• 8:17
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: but you know, I actually heard or read
• 8:20
  that pizza started in Greece.
• 8:24
  So they used like a flatbread and they called it a pizza or pizza
• 8:29
  bread, right?
• 8:30
  Like P bread, and pita in ancient Greek means basically like a pizza.
• 8:36
  So I guess that's kind of, maybe it's not the direct and exact translation,
• 8:40
  but they put all sorts of stuff on it.
• 8:41
  So leave it to the Greeks and the Romans.
• 8:43
  'cause then the Romans did it.
• 8:44
  And it seems like all of our food goes back to the Greeks and the
• 8:47
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Mm-hmm.
• 8:48
  They like to eat.
• 8:49
  But you know, that's kind of interesting because pizza is a food like you'll
• 8:53
  see on restaurant, starter menus.
• 8:55
  You'll see flatbread.
• 8:57
  They don't call it pizza, in high end restaurants, but it's a flatbread
• 9:01
  with sauce and cheese on it.
• 9:04
  It's just kind of a fancied up pizza,
• 9:06
  and, yeah.
• 9:06
  But you know, I guess they don't want to, they don't wanna call it pizza because
• 9:09
  they're high-end or whatever, you know?
• 9:11
  But that's just interesting because it is so universal.
• 9:14
  That's why it was probably claimed to be reinvented and invented by
• 9:19
  different kinds of civilizations.
• 9:20
  but when it got to New York and places like that, it turned into what it was.
• 9:26
  Do you know about New York pizza?
• 9:27
  You're from up there.
• 9:28
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: I do know about New York
• 9:30
  Pizza.
• 9:30
  There is no better pizza than New York pizza.
• 9:33
  I have to tell you
• 9:34
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Well, Chicagoans, they're gonna disagree
• 9:36
  with you,
• 9:36
  but anyway.
• 9:37
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: it's a different style pizza.
• 9:38
  The Chicago is the deep dish pizza where it's really Dory.
• 9:42
  But New York pizza is that thin crust pizza, not crunchy, but the kind where
• 9:47
  you fold it in half and the tip just sort of flops down there's always a
• 9:52
  little piece of cheese that's stringing off there, and when you bite into it.
• 9:57
  Dollars to donuts.
• 9:58
  You burn that little piece of skin behind the
• 10:02
  back of your front teeth.
• 10:04
  And do you know what that's called?
• 10:06
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: No.
• 10:07
  What
• 10:07
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: That little spot is called the incisive
• 10:11
  Pap, otherwise known as the pizza palette So it has an official name,
• 10:18
  and it always takes about a week to fix, but it never fails.
• 10:23
  You want that piece, and that cheese is just a little too hot, and there's
• 10:27
  nothing worse than cold and gooey cheese.
• 10:30
  You got to eat it
• 10:30
  anyway.
• 10:31
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Oh, Do you ever eat cold pizza?
• 10:33
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: I do.
• 10:34
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: I love cold pizza in the morning.
• 10:38
  but anyway, isn't New York Pizza the kind you fold over too?
• 10:41
  'cause the
• 10:41
  laborers would grab
• 10:43
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: and you never, you never cut it with
• 10:44
  a fork and knife, God forbid.
• 10:46
  Oh, you're like, you're a heathen if you cut it with a fork and knife.
• 10:50
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 10:50
  You just pick it up and fold it up and go on.
• 10:53
  And that was to meet the needs of the laborers.
• 10:55
  Right.
• 10:56
  And then what about Chicago Deep Dish, which is my, I love Chicago Deep Dish.
• 11:01
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Well, I learned about Chicago Deep Dish with Pizzeria
• 11:04
  Uno in college, that was all of a sudden I've discovered gourmet food.
• 11:09
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: but yeah, they also catered to the
• 11:12
  working class in Chicago only.
• 11:15
  It was more that you could pick up one of those pieces.
• 11:17
  The sauce was on top to keep the cheese from burning, which I
• 11:20
  love burnt cheese.
• 11:21
  But anyway, And then they would take it home to their families.
• 11:23
  So they were more interested in feeding their families than
• 11:25
  getting a quick dinner in New York.
• 11:27
  So anyway, Chicago had to be different, right?
• 11:29
  And so that, was it.
• 11:30
  And you know, there's even like a Detroit pizza.
• 11:33
  And the Detroit pizza sounds a lot like Chicago, it's rectangle,
• 11:36
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: That's interesting.
• 11:37
  Okay.
• 11:37
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: And again, you know, given that Detroit is kind
• 11:40
  of a working class town, or at least I think of that like that, or at
• 11:43
  once, once with the auto industry.
• 11:46
  But anyways, isn't that kind of interesting?
• 11:48
  Those kind of styles,
• 11:50
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Have you ever heard of a Rhode Island Pizza?
• 11:52
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: No.
• 11:52
  What's a Rhode Island pizza?
• 11:53
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Well, I just recently learned about this.
• 11:56
  Apparently a Rhode Island pizza are designed in these long strips, and skinny,
• 12:02
  and they cut them into small pieces they're also, you know, sometimes served
• 12:06
  with red sauce on them, but typically cheese and a lot of garlic and some oil,
• 12:12
  not a lot of sauce on it, they're cutting to these little squares.
• 12:16
  And served, before meal.
• 12:17
  And they're called also red strips.
• 12:19
  And I thought, Hmm, that's not pizza.
• 12:22
  That's a red cracker
• 12:24
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah, but, that reminds me of a kind of a
• 12:26
  genre of pizza called Tavern Pizza.
• 12:28
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: tavern pizza.
• 12:29
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Tavern pizza is, are the little tiny pieces
• 12:32
  that you can eat easily.
• 12:34
  You know, you're sitting around, you're drinking beers with your friends, and
• 12:37
  you can pick up just little tiny pieces,
• 12:39
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Sort of like a tapas,
• 12:40
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: like a donatos pizza if you've ever had that.
• 12:43
  They're just little tiny squares, and they're so good.
• 12:46
  It's like a small Coke.
• 12:47
  They're just really good.
• 12:49
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: I don't get the thing of small coke.
• 12:50
  Just give it to me in a large
• 12:51
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: No small is so good.
• 12:54
  A concentrated flavor right in tiny little squares
• 12:57
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: So let's take a quick break because I wanna
• 12:59
  get back to when the first official pizzeria opened in the United States.
• 13:04
  That was known of, and we'll be right back.
• 13:08
  So Sylvia, we're talking about the very first pizzeria, za Pizzeria, right?
• 13:15
  It's just too much.
• 13:16
  But anyway, do you know when the first officially, they call it licensed
• 13:21
  pizzeria, opened in the United States?
• 13:23
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: no.
• 13:24
  Regale me.
• 13:25
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Well, apparently there's a bit of a firestorm about
• 13:29
  this one with a 1905 with Janero, I think Giro Lombardi, or in the
• 13:35
  late 1890s with Felipo Maloney.
• 13:40
  Well.
• 13:40
  Here's the story.
• 13:41
  Apparently it was Felipo Maloney who started the first pizzeria because if it
• 13:47
  was Janero, he would've only been maybe 18 years old, starting and running a
• 13:52
  restaurant in New York back in that day.
• 13:54
  Probably not.
• 13:55
  To heard of, but they say the first founder, 'cause they've got,
• 13:59
  advertisements of Felipo Maloney who did the first Pizzeria, and that was
• 14:03
  supposedly on Bleecker Street in the village and it was called John's.
• 14:07
  Now a question, why would Felipo named a restaurant that sold
• 14:11
  pizza called, call it John's.
• 14:13
  This is my theory.
• 14:14
  My theory is that maybe the Italian immigrants were not as well accepted,
• 14:20
  like the Irish and everybody else, In New York, even Stow did a lot of them.
• 14:24
  But in order to make it more acceptable and one in the area, I'm gonna guess he
• 14:27
  took a rarely sort of generic name and
• 14:30
  just called it, Hey Johnny,
• 14:32
  right?
• 14:33
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 14:34
  or the mafia or something, I don't
• 14:35
  know.
• 14:36
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: whoever it was.
• 14:37
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 14:38
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: anyway.
• 14:38
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: okay, so popular, dish, because it's, well after all
• 14:41
  it's carbs, cheese, meat, and sauce.
• 14:43
  What's there not to like, but it's also such a cool thing.
• 14:46
  It's a, you know, what party I've been to with kids, didn't have pizza,
• 14:50
  or sporting events, tailgating, family gatherings, and this is an
• 14:55
  interesting thing, it's American pizza got introduced to the world.
• 14:58
  it was almost the reverse, as opposed to, you know, 'cause it became
• 15:02
  Americanized and everybody adopted it.
• 15:04
  And, Japan Mayo,
• 15:07
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: I don't think about putting mayonnaise on your
• 15:09
  pizza other than I know somebody
• 15:11
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: I.
• 15:11
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: to put mayonnaise on cold pizza in the morning,
• 15:14
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: No, I wouldn't do that.
• 15:14
  But the Japanese apparently put, it's like mayo is what a creamy sauce.
• 15:19
  Right?
• 15:19
  and they like to put creamy sauces on their American food.
• 15:23
  ' cause that's just what they do.
• 15:25
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: It's like people put ketchup on everything,
• 15:28
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: so, best Pizza, pays attention to the balance
• 15:31
  of saltiness, acidity of the tomato sauce, the fat, and the sweetness,
• 15:36
  and texture.
• 15:37
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Sweetness.
• 15:38
  I don't think about sweetness in pizza.
• 15:39
  Do you think there really is like a scientific nature as to the whole
• 15:42
  balance of how those three things work together as it relates to pizza?
• 15:46
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: I think it's just kind of what you,
• 15:48
  like, what style you like.
• 15:49
  I always, if I make a pizza or if I go to get a pizza, I'm gonna
• 15:53
  go to someplace that has what I think are premium ingredients, even
• 15:57
  after pay a little bit
• 15:58
  more.
• 15:59
  I just prefer it that way, but I mean, you know, you can go across
• 16:02
  the street and get a Donatos pizza.
• 16:03
  It's easy.
• 16:03
  Bernie loves them and, you know, it's okay.
• 16:06
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Do you think it
• 16:07
  makes a difference whether it's cooked in those old fashioned pizza ovens that have
• 16:11
  like the fire on top, the the gas fire
• 16:13
  ones, or if it's a wood stove one?
• 16:15
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Well I do think that one of, they call the,
• 16:18
  pizza ovens that cook it really fast.
• 16:20
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Oh, the ones the expensive ones
• 16:22
  That you can do at home, right.
• 16:23
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: You know, one of the things about the Detroit
• 16:25
  pizza, I, I meant to say this 'cause I I love this description, is
• 16:29
  they use these blue aluminum pans.
• 16:32
  Have you ever heard of that?
• 16:34
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: I never
• 16:34
  heard of
• 16:34
  this.
• 16:35
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: they came from the auto industry somehow, but they,
• 16:38
  are aluminum pans, but there's a veneer on them so that there are no stick.
• 16:43
  So they're a combination of a, cast iron and aluminum, and aluminum helps you
• 16:48
  control the temperature and the cast iron.
• 16:51
  keeps the heat,
• 16:52
  and it came out of the auto industry.
• 16:54
  And that gives a blue sheen.
• 16:56
  that's a truly Detroit pizza.
• 16:58
  It is cooked in those blue pans.
• 17:00
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Because I've seen the big circular aluminum pans
• 17:03
  that you get your pizza served on in like a pizza parlor type of thing.
• 17:07
  But I've never seen one that's blue, so
• 17:09
  I haven't eaten Detroit pizza.
• 17:11
  So, and the other thing too that's interesting about pizza, and I bet
• 17:15
  you don't know this, is that if you're making pizza dough from scratch.
• 17:19
  We had this debate the other day.
• 17:21
  Bob was saying, well, can you just put together pizza?
• 17:23
  It's like, no, I can't put together a pizza.
• 17:24
  It's gotta sit there for, you know, the dough.
• 17:26
  You have to make it and it's gotta sit for 24 to 48 hours.
• 17:29
  And he says, why?
• 17:30
  And I explained to him, and I double check this in research.
• 17:35
  The reason why is, well first because of the rising.
• 17:37
  So you need to get that airy so it, it's allowed to get thin and air, you get that
• 17:42
  lightness in, in the pizza dough, but it also adds a more tanginess to the flavor.
• 17:48
  So you don't have like a blah, it's just bread, but it gives you that
• 17:52
  sort of, I guess it's almost like a sourdough flavor, but it's not sourdough,
• 17:55
  So you can't have just plain bread pizza.
• 17:57
  It's gotta have a little Tang to
• 17:59
  it, which is kind of rather interesting.
• 18:01
  And then we've got the Pizza Wars.
• 18:03
  Pizza wars.
• 18:04
  I don't know if they're pizza wars anywhere else in the country
• 18:06
  other than New Haven, Connecticut.
• 18:09
  There is a big pizza war between New Haven Pizza, Sally's and Pepe's.
• 18:15
  and they like who was first and who's the best, and there's always a big
• 18:19
  thing, but we have some information.
• 18:21
  So there was some.
• 18:22
  Research that was done all in the area.
• 18:24
  The famous New Haven Battle, pizza Wars, New Haven Pizza was famed for the white
• 18:29
  clam sauce with garlic and olive oil.
• 18:30
  I still think that clams on pizza is weird.
• 18:33
  I'm sorry.
• 18:34
  Not a thing for me.
• 18:36
  I, just learned a number of years ago through my neighbor Jackie and, her dad,
• 18:40
  who s sadly passed away white clam pizza.
• 18:43
  Not white clam pizza, but white clam, spaghetti and or pasta and
• 18:47
  oh my God, nobody has been able to come up to what Dad, her dad's.
• 18:51
  Spaghetti was, And then Sally's Pizza, well, Sally's actually,
• 18:54
  they scored these pizza.
• 18:56
  Sally scored, got a 9.2 by Dave Porto.
• 18:59
  but Frank's Pizza.
• 19:00
  Or Pepe's Pizza only got an 8.5.
• 19:04
  So that was Frank Peppy And Frank apparently dates back to the
• 19:08
  1925, that's Pepe's Pizza, and, and Sally started it in 19 38.
• 19:12
  So somewhere around like.
• 19:14
  End of World War I, I guess beginning of, you know, just before World
• 19:18
  War II breaks out here in the States, it's rather fascinating.
• 19:21
  The pizza wars in New Haven.
• 19:23
  Very, very much hotly debated.
• 19:25
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: What's interesting to me is that.
• 19:27
  Restaurants like that stood the test of time.
• 19:29
  and then they become a thing and there's a lot of little ones that
• 19:33
  probably will never become the thing.
• 19:35
  But if you stay in business and persevere long enough, then you
• 19:39
  get in the middle of a pizza war and it actually helps everybody.
• 19:42
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: And the pizza places kind of like Old World Europe
• 19:45
  and you see them a lot in New York and well, you used to, at least in
• 19:49
  certain spaces, you're walking by and there's only room to stand up.
• 19:52
  It's a long, narrow place and you have all the pizzas lined up and
• 19:55
  you decide which one you want.
• 19:57
  You get your pizza, you get your soda, and that's it.
• 19:59
  And you walk out.
• 20:00
  I have never seen anything like that anywhere else in any other city.
• 20:04
  Not even Boston or Atlanta or any place else.
• 20:07
  It's the long narrow.
• 20:08
  You can get one body in there and one body out.
• 20:11
  You can walk in, straight, but you
• 20:12
  gotta walk out sideways in order to get out
• 20:15
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 20:15
  Now I, like the little tiny like Marco's.
• 20:17
  There's this tiny little restaurant in Vail, Colorado, and when we'd
• 20:21
  go there, we used to go to Marco's.
• 20:23
  Always had to have Marco's.
• 20:24
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: The Marcos chain
• 20:26
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: No, no, no, no, It was just a local little
• 20:28
  place, not part of a chain at
• 20:29
  all.
• 20:30
  And red checkered tablecloths.
• 20:32
  I
• 20:32
  mean, it just
• 20:33
  looked the
• 20:34
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: and it's gotta smell of garlic,
• 20:36
  but there is a Marcos
• 20:37
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: yeah, I'm aware of that.
• 20:39
  Yeah.
• 20:39
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Well, you don't say that with such like, disdain.
• 20:42
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: I've never eaten at Marco's and I know one of
• 20:45
  the owners and anyway, it's okay.
• 20:48
  just have
• 20:49
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Well, I, I went into a Marcos here because I
• 20:51
  had never been to a Marcos before.
• 20:52
  I'd never even heard of a Marcos till we started talking about this,
• 20:55
  and I went to the local Marcos chain and I started to ask about
• 21:00
  it, and the girl behind the counter got a little like.
• 21:02
  Why are you asking all these questions?
• 21:04
  And then I explained, you know, about our show and she's lovely and just opened
• 21:08
  up and said, oh, well, I'm one of the family owners and it's a family affair.
• 21:12
  they've got two chains here in Spring Hill on, on Brooksville, Florida.
• 21:16
  I asked why did they get a Marco's Pizza franchise versus
• 21:20
  a Domino's or something else?
• 21:22
  Well, first of all, price was one because you've got the franchise business,
• 21:26
  but she says it was more than that.
• 21:28
  It was interesting that the founders of Marco's Pizza really put family
• 21:34
  first into their restaurants and the owners, I thought that was just
• 21:39
  a lovely, she was so passionate.
• 21:40
  She was just a lovely story about how committed they were to the family
• 21:44
  owners and making sure they succeeded.
• 21:47
  But more than that, that family always stood first in the Marcos
• 21:51
  pizza, and I got that feeling.
• 21:53
  I didn't order a pizza.
• 21:54
  I ordered a sub because we didn't want a pizza that day.
• 21:57
  And It was very good.
• 21:59
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 21:59
  Yeah.
• 22:00
  I guess what I have found is there's so many good foods and every region,
• 22:04
  every town has some group of them, you know, and everybody kind of gravitates
• 22:10
  to one or the other that they love.
• 22:12
  here you've got almost overrun with pizza.
• 22:15
  Places as most centers are, and Lexington's a center.
• 22:19
  And you know, that's kind of interesting too, is some of them
• 22:22
  don't make it because there's just
• 22:24
  so
• 22:26
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: There aren't too many.
• 22:27
  That's, that I find fascinating.
• 22:29
  It's more beef.
• 22:30
  'cause I guess it's, you know, Florida's cattle, but, Pizza.
• 22:33
  Pizza.
• 22:34
  Pizza.
• 22:35
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: beef has gone expensive.
• 22:36
  Whoa.
• 22:37
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Yeah.
• 22:37
  Well, we make it.
• 22:38
  We make it at home.
• 22:39
  I don't, little Caesar's Pizza Hut.
• 22:41
  I don't, I don't tend to buy, because I'm such a, such a New York pizza snob.
• 22:46
  I tend not to buy pizza out
• 22:48
  at a
• 22:48
  restaurant.
• 22:49
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Yeah, no, I was talking about beef, how expensive
• 22:51
  beef.
• 22:52
  is.
• 22:52
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:53
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: top brands though are the, these are the big brands.
• 22:56
  These are the ones that you might say aren't family oriented.
• 23:00
  I don't know that they aren't.
• 23:01
  I don't know.
• 23:02
  Everybody starts probably with a family member, some.
• 23:05
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: I think so.
• 23:06
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: You know, I mean, almost everything, if you
• 23:08
  trace it back, along its lines, but Domino's Pizza Hut, Papa John's and
• 23:13
  Little Caesar's are probably the most famed ones, and the easiest to get to.
• 23:18
  and the ads look so delicious,
• 23:22
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: There's always a pizza battle, especially
• 23:23
  around Super Bowl time.
• 23:24
  You're gonna have it
• 23:25
  the pizza box, you always know who's had a party based on how many pizza
• 23:31
  boxes are sitting in their trash can.
• 23:33
  On collection
• 23:34
  day,
• 23:36
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: Um,
• 23:37
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: in the collection in the box.
• 23:39
  Can they drive as you walk
• 23:40
  by with the dogs or whatever?
• 23:42
  #68 Sylvia Pizza 2026: so you know, there's no greater heritage and
• 23:44
  tradition than that of immigrant families that came over here, established
• 23:48
  the pizza business, and then we sent it to the rest of the world.
• 23:51
  You know, with our versions.
• 23:52
  I bet you if you scratch the surface of someone in Malaysia or
• 23:55
  something, a New York pizza would be something they know something about,
• 23:59
  Or Chicago, Chicago's the other famed one.
• 24:01
  #68 - Nancy Pizza 2026: And like you said, pizza isn't just an
• 24:02
  American immigrant food story.
• 24:04
  It's a story that's revolved around, I'll call it the big pizza peel.
• 24:09
  It's appealing story.
• 24:11
  A ha ha ha.
• 24:12
  Alright, boo bad Nancy.
• 24:14
  Next.
• 24:15
  Wherever you are this week, may your crusty, crispy, may your cheese be just
• 24:20
  right and may you not burn your pizza palette because every meal has a story.
• 24:26
  Every story has a feast.
• 24:29
  We'll see you soon.
• 24:30
  Bye-bye.