The United States of Pizza

Reviews:

“Priebe and Jacob’s book is worth a look if only for its regional tour of American pizza styles. And if you’ve never made your own pizza, the ideas for unusual toppings (Buffalo Chicken, Spring Lamb Sausage, Shrimp Scampi, Deep-Dish Reuben with Zucchini Pickle Relish) are intriguing . . . My favorite was the shamelessly good Baked Egg and Eggplant Pizza from Dolce Vita in Houston.” – The New York Times Book Review

“Dough-making techniques. Baking tools. Recipes for dozens of picture-perfect pies. Sounds like a lot of pizza cookbooks, right? What separates this one from the pack: Each pizza is plucked from a restaurant in the U.S., with a paragraph telling its story — at once satisfying our innate love for familiarity (“I’ve been to Beau Jo’s in Denver!”) and discovery (say, a renowned pizza place in the middle of a tiny ranching town in Wyoming). The authors also pull particularly interesting recipes, with chapters on sourdough pizzas, corn flour pizzas and more.” – Marissa Conrad, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Herald

“Chef Craig Priebe has a pizza passion. He’s won pizza competitions. He ran an award-winning pizza restaurant. This isn’t even his first pizza book (his and Dianne Jacobs’ grilled-pizza book came out in 2008). This one is a celebration of a country whose pizza is as wildly diverse as its population — white clam pizza from New Haven, deep dish pizza from Chicago, crab pizza from Baltimore, and so on. They’re inspired by restaurants all over the country, but each recipe is Priebe’s own interpretation — which means they’re consistent, and they work.” – Susan T. Chang, NPR Best Books 2015

“The country’s best regional recipes, in one keepsake collection.” -Real Simple magazine

“With his second cookbook, Priebe takes on the role of pizza enthusiast, storyteller, and food historian, capturing the oral histories from the owners of famed pizzerias across the country and packaging them with his own recipes inspired by those experiences. He seamlessly weaves his easy-going appetite for storytelling with sophisticated cooking techniques broken down for the average cook. –TheDailyMeal.com

“…filled with creative regional takes on everyone’s favorite savory (and sometimes sweet) pie. You’ll discover pizza styles you’ve never heard of (like Pierogi Pizza, a cheesy mashed potato pie served at Jigsy’s Old Forge Pizza in Enola, Pennsylvania) along with the stories behind each.” –Edible Feast

“This is a happy book . . . With The United States of Pizza in your kitchen, you are prepared for dozens of pizza nights of delight . . . Don’t feel overwhelmed by all of these ideas. Just take it one slice at a time.” –CookingByTheBook.com

“No pizza stone goes unturned here – rather than a painstaking paean to the classic style, [The United States of Pizza] celebrates the freewheeling Americanness of pizza, reflecting the personalities of their makers and origins.”–Paste Magazine

“Where other pizza cookbooks would come from a single cook or innovator, this gathers the creations of chefs from across the country and also adds notes on how the authors discovered their fare. Where other pizza cookbooks would assume some basic pizza-making knowledge or provide these directions using text, The United States of Pizza uses color step-by-step photos to visually explore different techniques . . . The result is a deliciously diverse creation that assumes little prior experience making pizza dough or toppings, and requires only an interest in innovative productions to prove an exciting addition to any cook’s collection.” – California Bookwatch

Interviews

Read A Slice of Americana: An Interview with Craig Priebe of The United States of Pizza on The Daily Meal, and America’s Weird Regional Pizzas on cooking.com.

About the Book

Watch this video about The United States of Pizza that shows its gorgeous interior designed by Toni Tajima and photographed by Jeff Kauck.

Chef Craig Priebe scoured promising pizzerias around the USA to discover the tastiest pies for our pizza cookbook. Smoked ham and cheddar? Roasted cauliflower and salsa verde? These toppings would be blasphemous in Naples, but in America anything goes—anything that tastes delicious, that is. His findings are collected here—stellar examples representing every style of pizza. What makes this collection of prize recipes especially fun is that each one has its own personality reflecting its local influences. From Seattle’s Serious Pie comes pizza with white bean puree, asparagus, and Parmesan; from Los Angeles’s Mozza, squash blossoms with burrata. The legendary Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix offers up a pie with red onion, rosemary, and Arizona pistachios, while Louisiana Pizza Kitchen brings us one with crawfish étouffé.

Also included are blueprints for every type of dough (from Sicilian and sourdough to New York and gluten-free), a range of adaptable base sauces, an introduction covering tools and techniques, and an address book for all the pizzerias featured. The United States of Pizza shows that the country is not so much a melting pot, but instead a giant pie bubbling over with a fabulously diverse array of creative flavor combinations.

My job as co-author was to write the book proposal, test the chef’s recipes, write the overall content, and interface with the publisher.