PODCAST · society
Pizza Quest
by Heritage Radio Network
Join the conversation! Pizza Quest is certainly about pizza, but it’s so much more! It’s an engaging celebration of artisanship in all its shapes and forms. Award winning author Peter Reinhart interviews many of the greatest pizza makers in the world, as well as growers, cheese makers, millers, and food producers of all kinds who all who have one thing in common: an unquenchable drive to experience and express the highest level of excellence in their work, and to share it with their friends, family, and customers. Peter explores the varying journeys that led them to achieve prominence in their fields, and also offers listeners demonstrations of their craft, whether making their signature pizzas, or taking us on an in-depth tasting tour of their olive oil, tomatoes, cheeses, and toppings. As Peter is fond of saying, “It’s more about the quest than the pizza, and the quest never ends.”
Episodes
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The Quest for the Best Rock Band Singers of All Time
Welcome Back to Pizza Quest! This conversation is bound to tick off some folks, and everyone's entitled to his or her own opinion, but our music Yoda, Peter Scott Ruben, is definitely not shy about his Mt. Rushmore of top rock band singers. During his last visit we did the same for solo singers,...
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Team Rose Bread: The Little Cottage Bakery That Could
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! The cottage bakery movement is a global phenomenon and we have here, in my hometown of Charlotte, NC, a shining example of a rising star of this movement. Doug and Kaitlin Rose, along with their "team" of four kids (ages 9-16), are cranking out amazing 100% sourdough...
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Two Chefs and Marketing Guru Walk Into a Bar....
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! This episode is a case study on how to create and bring a new product to market. The product is called Pizza Freak, and the team members behind it are Brad Daniels, Brad Kilgore, and Matt McKenney or, as I like to call them, two chefs and a marketing guru. What you…
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Slicehaus is Taking on the Mecca of Pizza - Agostino Cangiano and Tatiana Revox
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Somehow, New York City never has too many great pizzerias, and they all seem to push their competitors to keep raising the bar. In the midst of one of the most competitive marketplaces on earth, a new player better have some game if he or she wants to thrive…
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A Sourdough Retrospective by Sarah Owens
Ten years ago, Sarah Owens decided to parlay her success as a successful cottage baker and curator of roses at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, and write a book, "Sourdough: Recipes for Rustic Fermented Breads, Sweets, Savories, and More." The book went on to win a coveted James Beard Award and...
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Tasting The Mt. Rushmore of Cheeses, with Mark Todd, The Cheese Dude
Mark Todd, aka "The Cheese Dude" returns to take us on the ultimate cheese tasting to die for -- or, more accurately, a "Before You Die" tour. Mark has previously guided us through the pasta filata category (aka, mozzarella-like "pulled" cheeses), the cheddar category, the world of hard aged...
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The Return of Meathead
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! The artist known as Meathead is back, hard on the heels of his newest book, The Meathead Method: A BBQ Hall of Famer's Secrets and Science on BBQ, Grilling, and Outdoor Cooking with 114 Recipes. His website and newsletter, AmazingRibs.com, is followed by millions of...
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An Upcoming Pizza Documentary and a Potential Vampire Movie? - Blaine And Honey Parker
Welcome back to Pizza Quest. You may remember Blaine Parker from an earlier episode, awhile back, in which we discussed his book and website, Free the Pizza, which is a humorous, step by step manual for how to make restaurant quality pizzas in a home oven. Well, Blaine is back, along with his...
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From Meat Packing to Bread Making - Steven Katz And Donna Webber
Welcome back to Pizza Quest, Rye bread, the way we remember it -- at least those of who grew up near Jewish bakeries and delis -- has never really gone away but it does, at times, seem like an endangered species. Steven Katz, a Washington DC attorney and policy consultant, who also happens to be…
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Bird Pizzeria - The Original Creators of the Viral Kale Caesar Salad
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Charlotte, NC is starting to generate more and more national buzz as a culinary destination city. Top Chef is in pre-production here in preparation for its next season, with Charlotte as the host city, and some of the local chefs and restaurants are getting…
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Pizza Yodis - The Legendary Leo Spizzirri Has Entered the Chat
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Every now and then we are fortunate to welcome back the legendary John Arena, who I refer to as the Yoda of Pizza. Often, Brian Spangler of Portland's Apizza Scholl's, also joins us and we refer to the two of them as The Pizza Yodi's. It's one of our most popular…
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Local Grains, Artisan Breads: An Interview with Ellen King of Hewn Bakery
Welcome back to Pizza Quest for another new season of conversations with very interesting people. Ellen King, whose bakery in Evanston, Illinois, Hewn, has become legendary for its beautifully crafted breads and pastries using regionally specific flour and local grains. Ellen explains the vision...
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Garrett McPerry of Tommy & Atticus
Garrett McPerry fell down the sourdough rabbit hole about eight years ago, started selling loaves at his local farmers market and, fueled by the public's enthusiastic response, just kept drilling deeper until, two years ago, when he and his wife Lauren opened a brick and mortar bakery cafe called...
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Howard Brownstein, Expert in Turnaround and Crisis Management
For the past 65 years I have been in an ongoing dialogue with my childhood friend, Howard (aka Howie) Brownstein. Howie used to work as a delivery driver for Mama's Pizzeria, which many of you know as the place I revere as cheesesteak heaven. When he couldn't work his shifts he would ask me to…
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Randy Clemens, Co-Founder of Las Bandurrias Food Forest and Homestead
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! When I first met Randy Clemens he was a seventeen-year old guy looking for a purpose in life, something to sink his teeth into, and volunteering to be my assistant for a bread class I was teaching at Sur la Table in Los Angeles. Fast forward 23 years and join me as I...
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Paulie Gee and "Mrs. Gee" Talk about their new book, "Pizza From the Heart"
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! One of the most beloved couples in all of pizzadom have just released their first book, Pizza From the Heart, and it's a beauty, loaded with wonderful recipes, anecdotes, banter, and the whole backstory on the creation of the legendary Paulie Gee's Pizza. Paul and…
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Teach a Man to Bake… with Kyle Ahlgren of Central Milling
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Kyle Ahlgren returns with some great news regarding the online baking courses he has created for Central Milling's Artisan Baking Center. He's also offering a special discount code for any Pizza Quest viewers and listeners (and your friends). In our conversation, Kyle...
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Chef Cathy Whims of Nostrana
Six-Time James Beard Finalist, Cathy Whims, of Portland's Nostrana, on her new book. Welcome back to Pizza Quest! This week we welcome six-time James Beard Award finalist, Chef Cathy Whims, owner of Portland's beloved restaurant, Nostrana. which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. I first...
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KID, Manhattan's New Slice Cafe, with Chefs Ian Coogan and Max Blackman-Gentile
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! NYC is a treacherous place to open a new pizzeria. The competition is fierce and public is vocal and not always diplomatic. But the lure of reaching for holy grail of pizza is hard to resist, and now Chef Ian Coogan, formerly of Eleven Madison Park and the Jean George...
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Peter Scott Ruben and the Greatest Performer of All Time
My long-time friend, Peter Scott Ruben, is the best guitar player I know, having personally watched him jam with some of the great rock and blues musicians of the seventies (Joe Perry in his pre-Aerosmith days and Kim Simmonds of The Savoy Brown Blues Band are two who immediately come to mind…
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Elizabeth Brasch of Mellow Mushroom
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Elizabeth Brasch is committed to delivering what she calls, "a higher order of pizza," at Mellow Mushroom, where she serves as VP of Marketing and Menu Innovation. As anyone who has been to any Mellow Mushroom location knows, the notion of a pizzadelic experience is…
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Robo Pizzaiolo: The Future of Pizza with Nipun Sharma
Welcome Back to Pizza Quest! As you know, our usual focus is on the celebration of artisanship in pizza and anywhere else we find it. But what if the next generation of "artisan" pizza makers are robots? Or is this a non sequitur? Hey, before you shoot the messenger, listen to this revelatory...
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Chef Jeff Scheer and Chef Chris of Restaurant Marlow
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! There's something special happening in Pukalani, on the island of Maui, where Chef Jeff Scheer and his wife Kaili (along with their trusted friend and restaurant anchor, Chef Chris), are drawing big crowds and James Beard Award attention at their non-touristy…
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Return of the Pizza Yodis
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! It's been a while since we've caught up with our two most recurring and popular guests, pizza legends John Arena (Metro Pizza in Las Vegas) and Brian Spangler (Apizza Scholl's, Portland, OR). Not only have they both been there and done it all, but they are also…
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Peter Meets the Pizza Pod Party Posse
Welcome back to Pizza Quest, Our guests this week are the co-hosts of the popular Pizza Pod Party Podcast, Arthur Bovino and Alfred Schulz. They recently completed their first season of 52 episodes with a star-studded roster of guests including Mo Rocca, Andrew Zimmern, Tony Dukoupil, Guy Raz…
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The Art of Manliness with Brett McKay
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! In this episode, we welcome Brett McKay, the founder of the immensely popular website/newsletter/podcast, The Art of Manliness. For the past fifteen+ years Brett, along with his wife Kate, have been on their own quest to explore every aspect of what it means to be a…
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Talking Cider with HRN's Jimmy Carbone!
Welcome Back to Pizza Quest! This week we welcome fellow podcaster Jimmy Carbone, host of HRN's Beer Sessions podcast. Jimmy has been hosting his "convivial ale salon" on HRN (Heritage Radio Network) from the network's earliest days, beginning about 15 years ago. Peter recently was a guest of...
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All About Stinky Cheese with Mark Todd, "The Cheese Dude"
Welcome back to Pizza Quest. Mark Todd is a recurring guest here on Pizza Quest because, one, I love cheese (every kind!), and two, he's so interesting and makes cheese interesting too as he demystifies this magical, fermented, "spoiled" solid milk so that we can enjoy it in all it's mighty…
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We the Pizza: Slangin' Pies and Saving Lives in Philadelphia with guests Muhammad Abdul-Hadi and Michael Carter
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Muhammad Abdul-Hadi's and Michael Carter's new book, "We the Pizza," just came out this week. They join us from their restaurant, Down North Pizza, in Philadelphia's Strawberry Hill neighborhood, to tell us all about it. The subtitle of the book, "Slangin' Pies and...
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Joel Kostman: From Locksmith to Wordsmith
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! Joel Kostman supported his family for over 30 years as a New York City locksmith, but that was just his day job. By night, he was (and still is) a serious writer who channeled his locksmithing adventures into a semi-autobiographical fictional cult classic story...
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How U Doin?: Building a Better Future with Pizza
Welcome back to Pizza Quest! In this episode, we are joined by Eddie Fischer (no, not the famous singer and husband of Debbie Reynolds and father of Carrie Fisher), but the OTHER Eddie Fischer, a Jersey guy, the founder of How U Doin?, a new boys and girls club about to launch near Dallas, Texas....
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A Quest To Make Gourmet Dishes Accessible
Welcome back to Pizza Quest 2025, for a new season with lots of new and exciting guests! We kick off the new season with Chef David Nayfeld, chef and owner of a hot new restaurant in the shadow of San Francisco's dynamic sports complex in an area called Thrift City (the restaurant is located on...
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Dr. Marc B. Cooper
Once again, the operative word for this episode is Quest, as we welcome author, mentor, and game changer, Dr. Marc B. Cooper. Marc's mission and personal quest is to restore a sense of meaning and purpose for those of us who fall into the "senior citizen" bracket (but, really, it's a timeless...
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David Amadio: Author of "Rug Man"
As most of you know by now, for us it's as much about the Quest as it is about the Pizza, and this week's guest, author David Amadio, takes us on a deep dive into the quest of his father, Jerry Amadio, a master carpet installer and rug expert, who is just as dedicated to his own craft as any...
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Pizza Quest Goes Pasta Questing with Fatto a Mano's Marco Pacelli
Marco Pacelli is doing something wonderful in Redondo Beach, California at his pasta shop, Fatto a Mano. After a lifetime of working for Michelin-level fine dining restaurants, he and his wife Arlene decided to open a small pasta and Roman-style pizza shop showcasing the foods inspired by Marco's...
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Chef Tandy Wilson of Nashville's Legendary City House
Chef Tandy Wilson is an important player in the Nashville culinary renaissance. Hear how this classically trained chef paid his dues and then returned to his roots to create a signature style all his own (while winning a James Beard Award in the process), in this latest episode of Pizza Quest....
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Chef Fiore Tedesco
Chef Fiore Tedesco was born completely deaf and couldn't hear anything until he was five years old, when his hearing was miraculously recovered through a risky series of operations. He made up for lost time after that, retraining himself to not only hear, speak, and expand his vocabulary, but to...
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Marisol and Rory Doyle of Leña Pizza and Bagels
Pizza and bagels in the Mississippi Delta might have once been considered a non sequitur, but Marisol and Rory Doyle have put the small town of Cleveland, Mississippi on the global pizza map, thanks to a recent NY Times article featuring their destination wood-fired pizzas. What started as a...
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Leo Spizzirri Returns
On today's episode we welcome back to one of our long-time favorites, pizza master Leo Spizzirri. When we first featured Leo on Pizza Quest about seven years ago we introduced him as the "Greatest guy you never knew," but a lot has changed since then. His ever-present short reels on Instagram…
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The Rottenkid: Brigit Binns
Brigit Binns first appeared on Pizza Quest a few years ago when we filmed some cooking segments with her and her husband, actor Casey Biggs, at the Forno Bravo Wood-Fired Oven Expo in Salinas, California in 2017. Brigit and Casey have also been operating a wonderful retreat and event center in...
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Alyssa and Andrew Wilen of Alyssa's Kitchen
In this episode we step away from pizza for a moment and focus on culinary teaching for the everyday person. I first met Chef Alyssa Gorelick about 15 years ago when she was at the helm of a very innovative vegetarian restaurant called Fern. She was young and single and super talented. Fast…
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Audrey Kelly: Pan Pizza Champion
We are in the midst of American greatness on the International pizza stage. First, we recently had Caputo Cup champion Siler Chapman on with us. Now, his compatriot and fellow member of the US Pizza Champions team, Audrey Kelly, is here to tell us about her own championship gold medal in the pan...
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World Champion Siler Chapman Tells Us How He Did It
Siler Chapman, owner of King of Fire Pizza in Charlotte, NC, was already a world champion long before he went to Naples this year. Nevertheless, he earned the title back when he was a 20-something kid obsessed with acrobatic dough tossing and showmanship as part of the US Pizza Champions Team.…
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Another Pizza Quest Golden Oldie: Tinkering With Your Dough
Welcome back to Pizza Quest with Peter Reinhart. We wrap up our summer season of Golden Oldies with a special replay of our panel session at the Atlantic City Pizza and Pasta Expo Northeast, recorded October, 2022. The episode is entitled “Tinkering With Your Dough.” Peter and guest panelist and...
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Another Pizza Quest Golden Oldie: The Ooni Pizza Project
Back in September we aired this show with guest Scott Deley. Here's what we said back then: There is no question that Ooni Ovens have taken the world by storm, even eclipsing their worthy competitor RoccBox, which had a nice head start. How have they done it? Fortunately, Scott Deley, who just...
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A Pizza Quest Golden Oldie: Instant Sourdough Starter
Peter’s guests this week are Noel Brohner of Slow Rise Pizza, who has appeared on the show in the past, along with his colleague, molecular biologist James Gaffney. They have been working, along with a few other microbe geniuses, to create a powdered wild yeast sourdough starter that can be used...
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A Pizza Quest Golden Oldie: Bourbon 101
In our never-ending celebration of artisanship wherever we find it, this week’s episode turns our lens onto one of the truly great American crafts, distilled whiskey, most notably, bourbon. On the show to explain it all is Peter’s long-time friend, culinary educator, and award-winning author…
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A Pizza Quest Golden Oldie: BBQ and Grill Master Steven Raichlen
In this episode, Steven Raichlen shares with us his long journey from Reed College, to writing for an underground newspaper in Boston, to landing in south Florida where he has since authored 32 books and won numerous James Beard Awards — all driven by his global quest in search of every known...
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Another Golden Oldie: Meathead Goldwyn
This week we celebrate the one-year anniversary of our conversation with the renowned expert on everything grilled, smoked, and cooked with or over fire, Meathead Goldwyn. Grilling season is still in full swing, so these evergreen tips and tricks from the master will serve as either new or...
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A Pizza Quest Golden Oldie: Bagels with the Yodi's
As we review and repost some of the most popular shows of the past year, the bagel theme is still the hot nationwide trend. In this episode, our beloved pizza Yodi's, John Arena and Brian Spangler, return to explore their latest obsession. They are joined by the "Bagel Whisperer," (or maybe,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Join the conversation! Pizza Quest is certainly about pizza, but it’s so much more! It’s an engaging celebration of artisanship in all its shapes and forms. Award winning author Peter Reinhart interviews many of the greatest pizza makers in the world, as well as growers, cheese makers, millers, and food producers of all kinds who all who have one thing in common: an unquenchable drive to experience and express the highest level of excellence in their work, and to share it with their friends, family, and customers. Peter explores the varying journeys that led them to achieve prominence in their fields, and also offers listeners demonstrations of their craft, whether making their signature pizzas, or taking us on an in-depth tasting tour of their olive oil, tomatoes, cheeses, and toppings. As Peter is fond of saying, “It’s more about the quest than the pizza, and the quest never ends.”
HOSTED BY
Heritage Radio Network
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Pizza Quest have?
Pizza Quest currently has 177 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Pizza Quest about?
Join the conversation! Pizza Quest is certainly about pizza, but it’s so much more! It’s an engaging celebration of artisanship in all its shapes and forms. Award winning author Peter Reinhart interviews many of the greatest pizza makers in the world, as well as growers, cheese makers, millers, and...
How often does Pizza Quest release new episodes?
Pizza Quest publishes regularly with 177 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Pizza Quest?
You can listen to Pizza Quest on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Pizza Quest?
Pizza Quest is created and hosted by Heritage Radio Network.
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