Monday, September 5, 2011

A Part Of Pizza Heaven

By Dunkan Bakshmidt


With no question, Ed Levine knows his pizza. He39;s an author, food critic and full time pizza fanatic. Levine just can39;t get enough pizza.

Levine takes his pizza seriously. He consumed over 1,000 slices in 12 months, in 20 states and 1 or 2 states. The results of this journey, Pizza A Slice of Heaven, is a volume devoted to America's favourite food.

He reviews all kind of pizza and pizzerias. He tries the amazing as well as the lackluster. He starts his quest at the source of all pizza, Naples, Italy. He samples pizza from the East to the West Coast and many places between. His focus is on pizza so notable that his heart pounds just pondering it. Levine has developed his very own rubric for rating pizza. He notes the criterion is the fuel source, the stove, the crust, the mozzarella, the sauce and the balance.

This book is more than a commentary on great pizza. Inside these pages are adventurous stories stuffed with pizza obsession, passion, heartbreak, and enlightenment. You may even uncover a treatment for the frightful Pizza Burn. Pizza Burn happens when sealing hot cheese meets the insecure roof of your mouth. He also may include a pizza recipe for the home cook. Ed Levine has done his homework.

Levine makes sense enough to enlist the aid of such luminaries as Cooks Mario Batali and Peter Reinhart (American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza), Nora Ehron, Jeffery Stiengarten and many others. These writers add much sundry flavour to the diverse tastes in the book. In some ways this book is a cooperative effort full of Pizza anecdotes and reviews nonetheless, Levine pulls it altogether in the final analysis.

Levine is very straight forward about his pizza picks. He might be a New Yorker, and his selections have a Manhattan spin. He feels (as many Folks Living In New York feel), New York is the center of the pizza universe. He isn39;t a pizza elitist, however.

He nods his head to the famous New Sanctuary, Connecticut Pizza; Pepe's, and Sally's Apizza. He does recognise Wooster Street in New Sanctuary, as being a stronghold of some of the best pizza in America. He searches NY, Boston, Chicago, The Mid West, The South, The Southwest, and The West Coast. He even touches on South American Pizza. He is taking a stab at Bar Pizza, Frozen Pizza, Chain Pizza and Internet Pizza (pizzatherapy.com, an internet site based in Hawaii, is referenced). Red Ink Pizza

Levine rates Hawaii pizza, by enrolling the assistance of Joan Namkoony and John Heckathorn from Honolulu Mag. As a factor of their research, they ordered fourteen pizzas from Kahala to Mapunupuna and brought them back to their office for a pizza party. After a blind-test-side-by-side comparison, one pizza came out on top: Antonio's Big Apple Pizzeria. Owners (and cousins) Anthony Romano and Joe Tramantano are transplanted from Connecticut keeping up the thin crust pizza practice here in Hawaii.

I would recommend Pizza: A Piece of Heaven! Without hesitation or reservation. This is a wonderful book for anybody that ever enjoyed a pizza. Levine doesn39;t sugar coat any of his reviews or suggestions. The book is totally dogmatic and therein lies it's charm.




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