posted July 27, 2005 03:35 PM            

If only Bo Bice had cut down on the ribs. Carrie Underwood, who beat out Bice to win the "American Idol" crown in May, was voted the "World's Sexiest Vegetarian" in PETA's annual online poll. She shares the honor with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.

More than 13,000 votes were cast in the contest run by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights group announced Tuesday.

Underwood, a 22-year-old Oklahoma native, wore a "V for Vegetarian" T-shirt on the Fox show. Martin, 28, and his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, made headlines when they gave their 1-year-old daughter, Apple, a vegan birthday cake.

Underwood and Martin beat out other famous veggie lovers including David Duchovny, Reese Witherspoon, Avril Lavigne, Joaquin Phoenix and Prince.

Last year, Andre 3000 of OutKast and Alicia Silverstone won the "sexiest vegetarian" title. Other previous winners include Tobey Maguire, Lauren Bush and Shania Twain.

___

posted July 27, 2005 04:49 PM            

By Jon Bonné
MSNBC

Forget red and blue states. A far greater divide threatens to split our country, a deep ideological rift rooted in beliefs so strong and so personal they might drive a man to arms.

I speak, of course, of pizza, and the endless war between thin-crusters and thick-crusters.

Before I proceed, let me proudly wave the thin-crust flag. I was raised in New York, where traditional pizza roots run deep. Many of my spare hours are still spent dreaming of New Haven, where you're a partisan of either Frank Pepe's or Sally's — though reasonable ecumenists have learned to appreciate both.

So if you're a deep-dish person, you probably want to click away before you read another word (to this defense of the Chicago pie, for instance). Because I firmly side with Ed Levine, who holds that deep dish is at best a “mighty tasty casserole” — sharing little in common with the true Neapolitan, or Neapolitan-American, form of this most infallible food.

Should you think that Levine, author of "Pizza: A Slice of Heaven" (Universe, $24.95), has it out for the Second City, know that he heaps ample praise on Chicago's other pizza style, the thin-crusted joys that emerge from ovens at South Side joints like Vito & Nick's. And he has equal derision for frou-frou chefs anywhere who pound dough cracker-thin and serve up pies as firm as a Frisbee.

"There's no art to that, and there's no art to making Chicago-style deep dish pizza, either. It's like a brown-and-serve roll on steroids," Levine says.

You've probably deduced that Levine also hails from New York, which he crowns “the king of pizza cities.” While New Yorkers have a solid claim to pizza fame, Levine's book is dedicated to uncovering true pizza joys all across the land.

He gives extensive credit to New Haven's famed pizzas, like those from Pepe's and Sally's, perhaps the only pies to make a true-blooded New Yorker acknowledge the existence of other ZIP codes. He heaps praise upon Chris Bianco of Phoenix's Pizzeria Bianco, who not only seeks perfection in dough but makes his own mozzarella. He and a handful of foodie pals offer recommendations from Memphis (Coletta's Restaurant) to San Francisco (A16). He even downs a few slices in Buenos Aires.

His point: Great pizza can exist anywhere pizzaioli (pizza makers) are fully, personally committed to perfection.

Or as Peter Reinhart, author of “American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza” (Ten Speed Press, 2003) puts it: “The pizza becomes the vehicle through which the pizza maker and the pizza eater connect in a soulful manner.”

Dough reigns supreme
We can all bicker endlessly about the right toppings, but here's the thing: What or breaks makes a pizza is the dough. And most American pizza is hopelessly mediocre because the dough is just plain lousy.

In a half-decade on the West Coast, this is a sad truth that has tortured my Big Apple soul.

Pizza is first and foremost about being a great baker, which is why master bakers like Reinhart have been drawn to the humble pie. Terrific dough as difficult and elusive as a perfect loaf of sourdough.

But if great bread is a slow, deliberate process, pizza is baking on steroids: hours of preparation, yet just a few minutes of oven time to nail perfection.

Even among thin-crust aficionados, the perfect thickness and firmness can vary (tastes differ; Naples and Rome have spent decades dissing each other's pies) but the structure of great dough should be the structure of great bread: light, pliant, with irregular holes.

"That is 99 percent of the pizza," says Brian Spangler of Apizza Scholls in Portland, Ore., one of the West Coast's rising artisanal-pizza stars. "The toppings, in my opinion, are the easiest part of making pizza."

The crust — the whole crust — should be crisp outside, with a tender interior. The cornicione, or lip (which too many people call “crust,” and inexcusably allow kids to leave on their plates) should be puffy, slightly misshapen, with the occasional bubble inside. The bottom should have the occasional charred spot — a sign that the oven was adequately hot.

Fast and hot
Stuck in my pizza blues, I decided to put my pizza-tossing hands where my mouth was and make my own dough — essential if I was going to have any cred at all in the pizza bragging wars.

Without building a wood-fired pizza oven, I needed to find a way to cook pizza fast and hot. Household ovens max out around 550 degrees F, far short of the needed 600-800 degrees. I finally settled on my trusty Weber gas grill, which puts out 36,000 BTU, enough to create an internal temperature well above 600 degrees.

I initially dropped the pizza directly on the grill — a technique, Reinhart notes, that has gained its own acclaim after being perfected by Al Forno in Providence, R.I. Grilled pizza works remarkably well, though you need to coat the dough with olive oil and the result is bit like a large, tomato-covered pita. (It's not coincidental that Levine likens great pizza crust to Armenian lavash bread.)

Next I dropped a basic 1/2-inch pizza stone atop the grill, but my dough was still prone to tearing and distorting. Pizza can be asymmetrical, but the perfect pizza can only be so ugly.

Frustrated, I turned to Carla Leonardi, whose Cafe Lago enjoys renown among Seattle pizza cogniscenti. Leonardi and her husband Jordi Viladas turn up to 60 pizzas a night out of their applewood-fired oven.

Like most dedicated pizzaioli, she views great pizza less in terms of ratios and measures than as the product of a skilled baker's intuition. Humidity, heat, lackluster yeast and dozens of other factors can conspire to ruin dough on any given night.

All you can do is surrender to the whims of the pizza gods and hope you occasionally find the right match of texture and toppings, cooked for precisely long enough and not a moment more. “You're always trying to balance for the ideal,” she says.

Bianco, whose pizza Reinhart considers the best in the nation, concedes that perhaps six out of every 200 pies he makes on a typical night are perfect.

“I know on any given day that pizza will kick my ass,” he says. “That whole ‘pizza master’ bull---- is ridiculous. There's no figuring it out. The moment you think you've got it figured out, forget it."

The pizza cops
The quest for pizza nirvana can take on curious forms. An controversial Italian group known as Verace Pizza Napoletana was formed in 1984 (with an American branch founded in 1998) to mandate certain pizza-making standards: no pie diameter larger than 30 cm, no rolling pins used to punch down dough. At least 10 pizzerias in the United States are members, paying an annual fee and pledging to follow the rules, though none of the renowned New York or New Haven joints are VPN members.

VPN's standards are rigid, which has dissuaded many devoted pizzaioli from adopting them. Even in Naples, some pizzerias scoff at the concept of officially sanctioned pizza.

VPN, for example, requires a wood-fired oven at a minimum temperature of 750 degrees F. A good benchmark, certainly, but some legendary pizzerias (Pepe's, for one) insist on coal ovens; others (DiFara's in Brooklyn and Nick's Pizza in Queens) dare to use gas ovens.

The real trick is getting the right heat in the right spots. Leonardi's oven, built by Wood Stone Corp. of Bellingham, Wash., can provide a hearth temperature of 520 degrees F and a searing internal temperature of 800 degrees or more. (“They used to make crematoriums,” she says.) Spangler's brick oven produces a dome temperature up to 750 degrees. Bianco prefers slightly lower temperatures. All can produce a pizza in under four minutes, slightly longer than the 90-second standard in Naples.

'Pizza cognition theory'
Perfection is great, but Levine isn't an absolutist. He hesitates to dis anyone's favorite pie, since even a bad pizza is still better than many foods. (Unless it's one of those cardboardy chain pizzas, for which he has no mercy. He finds Pizza Hut's stuffed pie “unspeakably awful.”)

Why the sensitivity? Levine endorses what his pizza-loving pal Sam Sifton of the New York Times calls “pizza cognition theory” — that the first pies we eat become our lifelong template for pizza perfection. If you were raised on Chicago pizza, or New Jersey tomato pies, that becomes your idée fixe.

“If you try to disabuse somebody of the notion that the pizza they grew up with is somehow lacking,” Levine astutely notes, “They'll cut you off at the knees.”

Most pizza perfectionists embrace a sort of pizza terroir — the notion that any pizza should authentically represent its own roots. New York pizza should stand for New York, Chicago pizza should wear Chicago pride, and Naples' own virtues should be enjoyed on home turf, not copied by well-meaning pizza hounds on these shores.

“There's two kinds of perfect pizza,” says Reinhart, “the paradigmatically perfect pizza ... and then there's what I call contextually perfect pizza: a pizza or pizzeria that's perfect because of a time and place in your life. Every once in a while, the two come together.”

In other words, the great pizzas of the world can be perfect — or just amazingly good. I'll take either.

posted July 27, 2005 04:50 PM            

By Jon Bonné
MSNBC

I don't consider this a perfect pizza recipe. There isn't one perfect pizza, and there isn't one perfect pizza recipe.

It's not simply a matter of differing tastes. Decent pizza, sure, you could teach a robot to make it. But if great pizza is an art form, it requires an artist who senses every nuance, every potential pitfall.

“People just really have to find their own thing and burn their fingers with all the elements and the variables that make that day different from the next,” says Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Ariz. “There's definitely a science to it but it's almost like a farmboy science. I put it in, I don't know what the hell it does, but it works.”

So let's consider this more a set of guidelines, with help from people who know a lot more about pizza than me. It's also a progress report of my personal pizza quest.

Even if it takes you a while to find your pizza groove, keep in mind the words of pizza expert Peter Reinhart: “Pizza dough is a very inexpensive hobby to have.”

It's just the toppings that cost you.

The dough

Makes three pizzas, approximately 12 in. in diameter. Note: This dough requires at least two hours advance preparation.

As with all baking, the real trick with pizza is to break out a scale and determine the proper hydration rate (water to flour, by weight) for dough. Most pizza is made with a hydration rate around 65 percent (6.5 lbs. water to 10 lbs. flour) though Brian Spangler of Apizza Scholls goes up to 74 percent. I use about 70 percent here.

Flour: Some bakers demand Italian “00” flour, finely milled with a lower extraction rate (less wheat germ) and a low protein content. But Bianco, who brings in flour from San Francisco, believes freshness and proper storage are most crucial. Spangler prefers flours used in artisanal baking: unbleached and unbromated (lacking maturing agents that ease kneading), with a lower protein content (about 11.5 percent) than many all-purpose flours. Leonardi uses bleached Mondako flour, from Pendleton, Ore., with 12 percent protein.

My best results came from King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour, with a protein content of 11.7 percent.

Less protein can make dough more delicate, so don't overknead it. While some dough recipes allow you to use an electric mixer, and some pizzaioli tolerate them, I found hand-mixed dough more pliable.

Yeast: Note that I call for less than a standard packet. Many home pizza recipes use too much yeast, perhaps because more yeast helps dough proof (rise) more quickly. But Bianco notes some pizzerias in Naples take four days to proof dough. A long rise helps develop acids and flavor in the dough, says Spangler, who proofs for 20 hours. Reinhart suggests proofing dough overnight in the refrigerator.

Ingredients
12 oz. unbleached, unbromated flour* (about 2 1/2 cups, by volume), plus at least 1 cup more
4.2 oz. lukewarm water* (almost exactly 1/2 cup, by volume)
4.2 oz. cold water* (almost exactly 1/2 cup, by volume)
1 tsp. active dry yeast
1/4 tsp. sugar or 3-4 drops molasses
1 tsp. kosher salt
At least 3 tsp. olive oil

*Please note: The flour and water amounts are listed by weight.

1) Make sure the lukewarm water is at the right temperature (ideally 110 degrees F). Measure it into a cup. Stir in the sugar or molasses, as you prefer.

2) Sprinkle yeast over the top of the lukewarm water and stir thoroughly. Within 5-10 minutes, a foamy layer should form on top of the water as the yeast is activated.

3) Meantime, get out two mixing bowls. Pour the flour into one bowl, mix in the salt, then divide the mixture evenly between the two bowls.

4) Pour the water-yeast mixture into one of the bowls as you stir with a wooden spoon. Pour in about one teaspoon of olive oil (more if you prefer) and continue to stir. Once a dough begins to form, gradually add the flour from the other bowl and the cold water, as you continue to stir. The dough should be sticky and slightly rough. You may need to scrape flour off the side of the bowl until it all forms one lumpy, uniform mass.

5) Heavily flour a flat surface with the remaining flour. Pour the dough from the bowl onto the surface and knead for about 2 minutes with the palm of your hand, turning and folding it repeatedly, adding more flour to the surface if necessary. If the dough sticks, peel it carefully or use a pastry scraper to loosen it.

6) As soon as the dough is pliant and smooth, form it into a round, slightly flat ball — or, if you're following Reinhart's approach, form it into a long cylinder and cut it into three equal pieces. Then form those into balls.

7) Take about 1 tsp. of olive oil and coat a bowl. (Three small bowls, if you've cut the dough already.) Place the dough into the bowl(s) and cover with plastic wrap. Alternately, you can borrow an ingenious method from food writer Jeffrey Steingarten and place one piece of dough in a measuring cup, with the rest in a bowl. Cover both.

8) Place the dough in a stable, room-temperature spot in your kitchen. It will need to rise until it at least doubles in volume, at least 90 minutes. (If you're following Reinhart, place the bowls in the refrigerator overnight.) Steingarten's measuring-cup method will help you gauge when it has doubled. If you aren't planning to make your pizzas immediately after the dough proofs, you may want to refrigerate it.

Making the pizzas

Tools
Gas grill
1/2-inch thick pizza stone
Wooden pizza peel
Heavy wooden rolling pin, preferably a one-piece unit

What you put on your pizza is up to you. I'm partial to the traditional margherita, but you can use aged mozzarella, grated cheeses like fresh Parmesan and good quality cooked or cured sausages.

The key is good quality ingredients, as fresh as possible, and enough heat to cook both the dough and the ingredients so they finish at the same time.

Some folks claim success in a typical household oven, but those usually max out at 550 degrees F, not quite hot enough to cook pizza in about five minutes. Instead I rely on my gas grill (a Weber Genesis), which can create an internal temperature well over 600 degrees, and a pizza stone, available at restaurant-supply stores for about $40.

Before you go further with this: Some grills may not be up to the task; heating them this hot probably isn't a warranty-covered method. If you're not sure about your own grill, stop now and go buy a slice at the local pizzeria.

1) Make sure the grill is on a perfectly flat surface. Heat it about 30 minutes before you're ready to cook, and place the stone on about halfway through, This allows allowing the inside of the grill to heat up before the stone.

2) The goal is to put the maximum amount of heat into the inside dome of the grill, while not overheating the stone. Your grill settings may vary, but I've found the best results setting my front and rear burners at about 75 percent, and my center burner on low. You don't need to go as far as Steingarten in using a thermometer ray gun to pinpoint temperature, but you'll want a grill thermometer, which should read at least 575-600 degrees F (off the scale of many grill thermometers).

It's time to make pizza.

Ingredients: Pizza margherita
Pizza dough (from above)
Tomato sauce (see below)
1 ball fior di latte (fresh mozzarella), well drained and sliced thin
3 sprigs fresh basil
Plenty of all-purpose flour

1) If you've refrigerated your dough, take it out at least two hours before cooking. If you haven't cut it yet, divide into three equal sections.

2) Spread a generous amount of flour on a flat working surface. Also place the peel nearby and lightly flour it. Place one round piece of dough in the center, sprinkle a bit more flour on top, and begin pressing your fingers around the sides of the dough until you form a dome in the middle and thinner sides, like a flying saucer.

3) Some people look down on rolling pins; I find them completely acceptable, since you haven't stressed the dough with an electric mixer. Flour the pin well and roll the dough flat, then turn it 90 degrees and repeat. If you plan to toss the pizza (step 5), continue until you have a round disc about eight inches wide. Otherwise keep rolling until you have a disc about 11-12 inches, the width of the pizza peel.

4) Taking the far edge of the dough with your hands, grab and softly pinch around the entire edge of the pizza, pulling the dough to form a circle and moving the dough (not your hands) as you pinch it. This helps form the cornicione, or lip, of the pizza. Take out the pizza peel and dust lightly with flour — just enough to help the dough move smoothly across it.

5) If you're feeling brave, toss the dough a couple times. Done properly, this can help evenly stretch the dough. Ball your fists as you grab the pizza dough from underneath and lay it across your knuckles. With a single wrist snap, spin the dough as you push it forcefully into the air. It should land back on your fists. Repeat until it's about 11-12 inches wide.

6) Place the dough on the center of the peel. With a spoon, spread a thin layer of sauce, then add the cheese or other toppings. You can also wait to add cheese until after the pizza has cooked.

7) Take the peel to the grill. Place it directly on the stone at a 45-degree offset. With a quick jerk and flick of the wrist, shuffle the pizza onto the stone. (A complicated motion, but as with all things pizza, it gets far easier after a few tries.) Whatever you do, do not let the toppings spill onto the stone.

8) Close the grill and set a timer for between 90 seconds and 2 minutes, depending on how much heat your grill puts out. After that time, use the peel to peek under the bottom of the pizza, and turn the pie about 90 degrees. Set the timer again and repeat. You may need to repeat several times, though the grill should be hot enough to cook your pizza within 4-6 minutes, depending on toppings (more toppings, more time). When the bottom has numerous char spots, and the toppings appear fully cooked, use the peel to carefully remove the pizza from the grill.

9) Serve the pizza on a metal tray or wax paper. Cut with a pizza wheel or scissors.

Tomato sauce

Unlike pasta sauces, pizza sauce shouldn't be cooked — the oven will cook it for you. Neapolitan purists often go on about San Marzano tomatoes, and they are quite good, but most quality canned tomatoes should do. I'm partial to Muir Glen organic tomatoes from California.

1 can peeled tomatoes, either whole peeled or diced
1 tsp. dried oregano (or 1 dried branch)
Salt and pepper to taste

If you use whole tomatoes, drain them and remove the cores before you use them.

posted July 30, 2005 03:00 PM            

Broadley Vineyards (the recent pinot is excellent)

McCrea Cellars (Rhone inspired wines - especially his Syrah Bourshey Grande Cote Vineyard)

posted August 02, 2005 05:10 PM            

MSNBC

We've been thinking about pizza a lot lately.

Jon Bonné related his hunt for West Coast pizza to soothe his New York cravings. Gael Cooper proudly defended Chicago deep-dish style. We asked for your thoughts.

Our conclusion? You sure eat a lot of pizza.

From Boston to San Diego, we got recommendations for pizza slices and pies across the land, and lots of disagreement about the tops in Chicago. Or New Haven. Or anywhere.

East Coast options
"Grimaldi's Pizza under the Brooklyn Bridge. Superb, incomparable, perfection." -Annie, Brooklyn, N.Y.

"Fillippo's Pizzeria on Bloomfield Ave. in Newark, NJ circa 1967. This is the pizza I have dreamed of for the last 25 plus years. He made a semolina dough with the absolute perfect sauce and mozzarella I have ever tasted. I often wondered why no one else tried to use this type of dough. Too expensive I would guess." -Vito, Pompton Lakes N.J.

"There is a little bar and pizza joint called 'The Colony' in Stamford, CT. This place has been serving pizza to cops and firemen for over 40 years. They only make one size, but it's the best I have ever eaten. I haven't had a Colony pizza in over 20 years, and I can still taste it." -Sharon, Yankton, S.D.

"The best pizza is a Trenton, NJ tomato pie made at Delorenzo's on Hudson Street. Very thin crust, natural ingredients and a homemade sauce. Order sausage, mushrooms and garlic and have it cooked well done. Gary or Sam will make you a masterpiece. I have eaten pizza in NYC, New Haven, Chicago, and Philly, nothing compares with Delos." -Dave, Margate, N.J.

"The best pizza in the world is made in many varieties in Northeast PA. I have several favorites. Arcaro & Genells in Old Forge PA is emblematic of the "Old Forge" style imitated throughout NEPA. Both the red and white are spectacular. Very light crust with unique sauces, cheeses, and spices. Then there's Nardozzo's in Nanticoke, PA, with a sweet sauce that scintillates the taste buds. ... I have traveled throughout New York City searching for better (Grimaldi's in Brooklyn is very good), but haven't found it. Boston, my favorite American city, has none worth speaking about." -Bob, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Rocky Mountain pie
"If you're in Montana, there is a place that puts out wonderful pizza ... McKenzie River Pizza in Billings. For my last meal: their 10" thin crust pepperoni and black olive pizza." -Steven, Glasgow, Mt.

"I generally prefer NY style over Chicago, but here in Colorado we have our own style of pizza. At a place called Beau Jos Pizza they serve their own signature Colorado style pizza, called the Mountain Pie. As with any other great pizza place, the crust's the thing. It's a medium hand tossed crust with super thick soft rolled edges. These thick edges help hold in your choice of sauce and a mountain of toppings that can be piled on the pizza." -Marc, Denver, Colo.

Bicoastal options
"Two pizzas, equal in dignity, on opposite coasts where we lay our scene. In the Boston area, itself a mighty fine haven for Italian-Americans, there's Don Caruso's on Main Street in Melrose, which happens to be about one block from where I was born (talk about liking your first taste!) In Reno, where I reside now, you can warp to the other end of I-80 at Nu Yalk Pizza on Kietzke Lane. New York sports events via satellite, a Big Apple-talkin' bunch of guys runnin' the place, and the best pies west of the Appalachians make it a must-eat for tourist and local alike." -Dennis, Reno, Nev.

Midwest pride
"I've lived in the New Jersey/New York corridor, Texas, Florida, Kansas City, and traveled throughout the US. The best pizza I've found is in, of all places, Stillwater, Oklahoma at the Hideaway Pizza. Adjacent to Oklahoma State, it has the best pizza sauce I've experienced, a great compromise between thick and thin crust, and very high quality ingredients. They use a mixture of cheeses instead of just one." -S. Jones, Kansas City, Mo.

"Marions Pizza ... Dayton, Ohio. Best Pizza in America!! Have eaten pizza from New York to San Francisco. Ship several pizzas a year to Florida where former residents anxiously await them. Its a thin crust with real cheese, a homemade tomato sauce and great fixings." -T. Crowl, Dayton, Ohio

"I'm a middle of the road fan. Thin crust too thin and deep dish does nothing for me. The best pizza I've ever had is El Fredo's in Sioux City, Iowa -- it's the sauce that makes this pizza so memorable. It has a perfect amount of kick without overshadowing the crust or the toppings. Who knew Iowa had some of the best pizza I've ever tasted." -Amanda, Shawnee, Kan.

"You probably wouldn't expect to find great pizza in the middle of the country, but my absolute favorite pizza ever can be found at any of the four Papa Keno's locations in the Midwest. The original is in Lawrence, KS with newer locations in Denver, CO, Overland Park, KS and Kansas City, MO in the Westport bar district. It's a thin-style crust and they sell it by the slice ... by the HUGE slice. One slice fills a small serving tray." -Joe, Overland Park, Kan.

New Haven v. New Haven
"Your article rightly acknowledges Pepe's and Sally's as being New Haven standouts ... but don't forget about Modern Apizza. I lived in New Haven for a few years, and many there (including myself) believe Modern to be the king of pizza!" -B. Black, Philadelphia, Pa.

"The best New Haven apizza is actually found in neighboring West Haven at Zuppardi's. It's a dumpy little place in an unimpressive, out-of-the-way location; but just one straight-forward cheese pie from Zuppardi's will put Frank Pepe in his proper place -- #2." -Ed, Fair Oaks, Calif.

"Mushroom and bacon - Pepe's apizza - New Haven, Ct. - nothing better anywhere! I lived in Italy for a year and couldn't find a better pie (true, the styles are very different). I am spoiled living so close to such a great pizzeria ... and Libby's pastry shop next door is an added bonus!" -Erin, Branford, Ct.

"Sally's and Pepe's are both great, as is Modern Apizza on State Street in New Haven. But in my hometown, the Greeks have taken pizza and made it their own. I don't know if it's the spices they use or the cheese or what, but it's a unique taste. Totally different from Italian pizza, but equally yummy." -Debbie, Killingworth, Ct.

The Chicago wars continue
"Gino's East on Superior! I was born & lived in Chicago until I was 30. ... A friend from New Orleans, knowing I was going for a visit to Chicago, wanted a pizza from Gino's. So I obliged him, got the pizza to go. Put it in a freezer for the trip back. Slid the pizza in the middle of my folded suit bag. When I was going through security at Midway, the officer screening bags on the x-ray conveyor wanted to know what was in my suit bag. "Pizza," my reply. He said, "I knew that but what kind and where did you get it from?" It's the best of the best." -Mike, New Orleans, La.

"Lou Malnati's. We've all heard the speeches on Gino's East, and the tourists on Uno's. But if you want the true experience, its Lou Malnati's, in Lincoln Park just north of DePaul. That's the best there is." -Chris, Indianapolis, Ind.

"AURELIOS PIZZA! South suburbs of Chicago. The sauce is slightly sweet and the Super Six (sausage, pepperoni, ham, onion, mushroom, green pepper) is spectacular." -Megan, Seattle, Wash.

"I currently live in Chicago and one of the only things I don't like about an otherwise great city is that their pizza is mediocre at best. It is depressing some days." -Doug, Chicago, Ill.

"The best pizza I can ever remember eating was when I was in school, and living in Chicago. My dad would take us to pick it up, we would wait in the car. One night, I just counted the people going into the pizza place. I counted 100 people going in the front door. ... Home Run Inn, Chicago. Thin crust." -Elliott, Paoli, Ind.

St. Louis, or not?
"Fortel's Pizza Den ... The best. No doubt. I don't understand those losers in Chicago. If I wanted lasagna, I would order lasagna, not that crap they call pizza in the gassy city. New York? Please. That grease Frisbee? No. Fortel's Pizza Den. The absolute best." -Aaron, Allen, Tex.

"St. Louis pizza is a crust so thin it could be used as a Matzo. However, in the last 10 years we have been fortunate that our local chefs began making wood-fired oven pizza. Cardwell's at the Plaza makes one of the best in these parts!" -Mary, St. Louis, Mo.

"How about the pizza I *hate* the most? A transplanted East Coaster, I almost gagged when I had my first bite of St. Louis-style pizza, which is covered in a grey slime called provel cheese (cheddar, swiss and provolone), baked on a cracker-like crust and cut into ... (Lord save me) ... tiny squares." -Kelly, St. Louis, Mo.

And elsewhere ...
"I love thin pizza!!! The one that I love the most is called funghioni, it is plain white pizza with mozzarella, with medley of wild mushrooms ... then topped with [arugula] and shaved parmeggiano after it's been baked in the oven. ... This hot pizza place is called Enios in Padova, Italy, near the municipal airstrip, a local's favorite." -Maria, Padova, Italy

"Il Mediterraneo, on Nha Tho in Hanoi — the very best crust I've ever tasted." -Brian, Seattle, Wash.

posted August 08, 2005 05:19 PM            

By Joseph Contreras
Newsweek International

Aug. 15, 2005 issue - It is happy hour for Mexico's tequila industry, now on track to produce a record 210 million liters this year. Sales hit a new high in tequila's top export market, the United States, when tipplers consumed 8.5 million cases in 2004. Big distillers like Jose Cuervo and Tequila Sauza are benefiting from a glut of blue agave, the spiky plant with a sweet heart, from which the sugary juice for tequila is squeezed. But the good fortune of tequila makers is bad news for their main suppliers.

Like small farmers across Latin America, the 12,000 small agave growers in Mexico are an endangered lot. Prices have tumbled from a peak of $1.70 per kilo of blue agave hearts in 2002 to as little as 14 cents today. In the past three months, hundreds of agave growers have mounted blockades outside the gates of five distilleries, demanding higher prices. The crisis echoes the last glut, in the mid-1990s, when angry growers dumped agave hearts and cut production to protest low prices. But when prices recovered and then soared—by 300 percent in 2000—leading tequila makers began establishing their own farms to ensure a stable supply. Those distillery-owned plantations now grow 40 percent of all agave, and the new glut is likely to bring further consolidation. "Within seven years the number of small growers will have decreased by over 50 percent," says Salvador Gutierrez, a tequila-industry expert at the University of Guadalajara. "This is a new factor in the current crisis."

Similar small-farm shakeouts are underway across Latin America. In the Brazilian state of So Paulo, the reduction of government subsidies and the adoption of free-trade policies prompted the exodus of 200,000 farmers during the 1990s. More recently, the soybean boom in Argentina helped drive 150,000 farmers out of the countryside as major agribusiness companies snapped up land once devoted to the cultivation of rice, potatoes, maize and other staples. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994, an influx of cheap American maize has driven down prices in Mexico, costing an estimated 1.7 million jobs. By 2001, Mexico's Agriculture secretary, Javier Usabiaga, was warning that "a small farmer, no matter how productive, is not going to be able to make enough money to survive. In essence, he is going to have to find another job."

That search has far-reaching implications for both Mexico and the United States. The livelihood of about 50,000 families rests on the fortunes of the tequila industry, which ranks as the largest contributor to the annual gross domestic product of Jalisco state. It is among five states in Mexico that account for the majority of illegal immigrants entering the United States, and an agave-farm crisis could swell the flow. "The government and the industry know that if they don't heed our demands, our problems could get out of control," warns Francisco Guzman de la Torre, head of one of several agave-farmer lobbies formed after the 1990s crisis. "They want to make us disappear by decree, but as things get worse with each passing day the people are becoming more organized."

posted August 17, 2005 04:31 PM            

By Steve Hargreaves, CNN/Money staff writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The last thing you want when dropping $450 on dinner is a catfight to break out between the chef and the server.

But at many high-end restaurants, there's economic tension between the front of the house and the back.

Even if a literal fist fight is unlikely, the disparity is huge between what the kitchen staff earns and what waiters make.

Now, one New York eatery is taking steps in an attempt to close that gap, and it will take the discretionary tip out of the hands of the diner.

Effective September first, Per Se, one of the most highly rated Manhattan restaurants, is instituting a 20 percent service charge to all checks in lieu of a tip. The service charge will then be used by the restaurant to help pay all hourly employees -- kitchen staff, waiters, and busboys -- a flat hourly wage.

"Historically in restaurants, the service staff is awarded significantly higher wages than cooks and other staff who prepare the food on which a restaurant's reputation is based," said Per Se chef/owner Thomas Keller in a statement. "The gap in pay is so great that it is becoming increasingly difficult for young cooks to pursue their passion at the rate of pay restaurants are able to afford."

But the move by Per Se -- which those in the business say will be watched closely by other restaurants across the country -- could mean less money for waiters and waitresses.

Certainly, it will mean less control for those doing the eating, at least if you're the sort who uses the tip to reward or punish waiters for their service.

In the weeds
While Per Se would only say the new system is expected to boost the salaries of those not currently working for tips, some say servers are bound to take a hit.

"We were working with stupid amounts of money," said Bill Guilfoyle, an assistant professor at the Culinary Institute of America and a former wine steward at the Quilted Giraffe, a now-closed upscale Manhattan restaurant.

Guilfoyle said servers and other floor people at the Quilted Giraffe would make upward of $100,000 a year, while those in the kitchen might have taken home $30,000.

He said he saw no way around Per Se tinkering with its compensation without that top figure coming down. "The waiters are going to have to take a pay cut," he said.

With a cut in pay, or even the tip incentive removed from the equation, service could suffer.

"It's kind of like working for the government," said Paul Paz, an Oregon-based career waiter of 25 years and author of the book "Serving at Its Best." "If I know it's automatic, then there is no incentive to work harder."

Stiffing the diner?
Customers may also grumble as the power to tip is removed from their hands.

"They will lose the sense of control that they can reward or punish the server based on the service they receive," said James Oliver Cury, a food writer at the the entertainment magazine Time Out.

A poll by the entertainment guide Zagat Survey backed up Cury's claim. It showed that 70 percent of restaurant patrons surveyed in 2004 would rather determine the tip themselves than have the gratuity included in the bill.

Yet Cury cautioned against reading too much into the impact on the diner or the service. He said people tend to leave the same tip, which nationally averages 18.6 percent, no matter what type of service they receive.

Leave the tipping to us
Management at Per Se doesn't seem particularly troubled by these concerns.

Chef Keller has said he instituted a service charge at one of his other restaurants, The French Laundry in Napa Valley, and it has gone well.

A spokesman for Per Se said the stable salary -- which also comes with benefits like vacation and health insurance -- would create a more professional environment and increase motivation. He also said the customers might find it convenient not having to contemplate a tip.

Eric Lilavois, director of Per Se operations, said profit margins in restaurants are slim and the service charge is really what supports the staff.

But others questioned how slim margins really are at high-end places and the need to restructure the wait staff's pay.

posted August 19, 2005 10:24 AM            

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's not exactly a guilt-free pleasure, but food researchers say cocoa beans could be good for you.

Dolly Sullivan is a believer. She eats two or three squares of Dove dark chocolate daily and talked her mother into switching from coffee to cocoa.

"I'm a chocoholic. I can't walk by a chocolate store," said Sullivan, 60, who lives in Warwick, Rhode Island. "I've always enjoyed chocolate, but now I have a reason to eat it."

The health potential is real. Cocoa beans have natural compounds called flavanols, and a growing pile of scientific research suggests they do good things to blood vessels.

Customers at Neuhaus, a Belgian chocolate shop in Washington's Union Station, like thinking the dark stuff might be healthy, said manager Clementine Loeman.

"That way, they don't feel guilty," Loeman said, adding that chocolate was sometimes considered medicinal when the company began as a pharmacy 148 years ago.

Despite the enthusiasm, flavanols are missing from much of the chocolate on store shelves today. Flavanols make chocolate and cocoa taste bitter, and confectioners have spent years trying to perfect ways to remove the pungent flavor.

"Most chocolate, in fact, isn't flavanol-rich," said Norm Hollenberg, a radiology professor and flavanol expert at Harvard Medical School. "But all chocolate is rich in fat and calories. Chocolate is a delight. It can and should be part of a prudent diet. That means you limit what you take."

Flavanols are found in other foods, such as red wine, grapes, apples and green tea, although cocoa beans are a particularly rich source.

Mars Inc. developed the technology to visualize flavanols on a computer screen. Says Harold Schmitz, the company's chief science officer: "Now we understand cocoa well enough to start to do new things with it."

The company is starting with CocoaVia granola bars, made with a special cocoa powder that retains most of the flavanols. The bars also have plant sterols, which have been shown to help lower cholesterol.

For now, the 80-calorie, 23-gram snack bars are sold only on the Internet. The bars have a satisfyingly rich chocolate flavor, along with a slight but distinct bitter taste.

Mars says its Dove dark chocolates -- a 1.3 ounce bar is 200 calories -- also contain flavanols.

Researchers are excited by the potential of flavanols to ward off vascular disease, which can cause heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, dementia and hypertension. Vascular diseases are linked to the artery's inability to make a simple but fundamental chemical called nitric oxide. Flavanols appear to reverse that problem.

posted September 27, 2005 09:44 AM            

ROCHESTER, New York (AP) -- Wineries in New York are drawing nearly three times as many visitors as a decade ago, making the wine industry the fastest growing sector in agriculture and tourism -- two of the state's biggest economic engines.

Of the 212 wineries that have sprouted from Long Island across to Lake Erie -- there were only 19 in 1975 -- each one had an average of 54 percent more visitors in 2003 than it did three years earlier, according to the latest survey by the New York Agricultural Statistics Service.

The typical winery more than doubled its tasting-room sales, with each visitor spending 49 percent more on average than in 2000, the agency said.

The throng of tourists will likely swell to more than 3 million this year, up from an estimated 2.5 million in recent years, New York Wine & Grape Foundation President Jim Trezise said.

"We have had an equal number of winery startups in the first five years of this decade as we had in the whole decade previously, so we've doubled the growth rate," Trezise said. "I would say that probably we will have over 300 wineries statewide within two or three years."

It's been especially energetic in the Finger Lakes -- 10,000 acres of vineyards encircling four of the 11 fjord-like lakes in west-central New York.

One of America's oldest grape-growing regions now has 92 wineries, a sixfold increase in 30 years. The tourist influx is spawning dozens of bed-and-breakfasts and upscale restaurants and a burgeoning array of antique and gift stores, farm and craft markets and festivals.

"There's a huge multiplier effect from wine-industry growth, not only in tourism but in manufacturing because you have to have tanks and barrels, bottles and labels and corks and everything else," Trezise said.

A report by MFK Research issued September 19 that is the most comprehensive survey of its kind in New York estimated that the wine-and-grape industry in New York contributed $3.3 billion -- directly and indirectly -- to New York's economy in 2004.

A long-awaited state law allowing the direct shipment of wines into and out of New York went into effect August 11. Many New York vintners think the potential for sales growth nationally exceeds the risk that the local market may turn more toward wines from other states.

New York churns out about 200 million bottles of wine each year, generating more than $1 billion in sales, and is the nation's third-largest wine producer behind California and Washington. The state industry employs an estimated 18,000 people, both full-time and part-time.

The survey recorded an estimated 4.14 million "person visits" to New York wineries in 2003, up from 1.44 million in 1993 and 384,000 in 1985. The actual number of tourists is less since most of those people visited more than one winery, Trezise said.

Long Island had 943,000 "person visits," up 76 percent from 2000 to 2003, and the Finger Lakes topped 2 million visits, a 53 percent jump, the survey found. More than a quarter of visitors came from outside New York, and per-capita spending averaged $20.50 in 2003, up from $13.75 three years earlier.

posted September 29, 2005 12:23 AM            

French scientist Jean Masson carefully unlocks the gate of a heavily protected open-air enclosure. Behind the fence and security cameras there are no wild animals or convicts, just 70 vines.

In the heart of the picturesque Alsace wine region, researchers have planted France's only genetically modified vines in the hope of finding a way to battle the damaging "court-noue" virus afflicting a third of the country's vines.

The modified plants will not grow grapes or yield any wine, and scientists at the state-financed National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), which is conducting the experiment, say it is safe.

"The environmental risk is nil," said Masson, head of INRA in the eastern town of Colmar. "We have taken all safety measures."

But many local winegrowers fear the plants will contaminate their vineyards and ruin the reputation of France's wine sector.

"It makes me angry because this is imposed on everyone without us being informed about the risk," Pierre-Paul Humbrecht, a maker of bio wines, said in his vineyard just a few mile or so away from the open-air experiment.

"If there's a problem, it concerns us all. We fear for our vines."

In France, resistance against genetically modified food is fierce. Farmer and environmentalist Jose Bove has shot to national fame for ripping up modified crops.

INRA stopped its first tests on genetically modified vines in the Champagne region in 1999 following protests. After years of talks with locals and winemakers, Masson said his researchers had now set up enough safety measures to satisfy critics.

They dug a hole of the size of a basketball court, put in a cover to shield the natural ground and planted the contested vines on soil from outside. The plants are also surrounded by some 1,500 normal vines.

The prison-style fence was a request by environmentalists, who wanted to prevent animals and human intruders from carrying parts of the plants outside the enclosure, Masson said.

DAMAGING VIRUS

Masson said INRA conducted tests only in the lower part of the vine, the rootstock, which did not carry any grapes.

Almost all French winegrowers have used separate rootstocks since the phylloxera pest nearly wiped out the European wine industry in the late 1800s.

In response to the tiny louse, which attacks the root system of vines and was accidentally brought to Europe from America in 1860, European winemakers imported resistant American rootstocks and grafted their vines onto them.

INRA says no genetic information can pass from this rootstock into the plant's upper part -- which grows the grapes. But to ease fears that a modified plant could one day yield wine, the researchers will strip the vine of any blossoms.

"We don't want to produce grapes. We want to answer the scientific question of whether this transgenic (genetically modified) root can lead to the plant developing durable resistance to this virus," said INRA's Olivier Lemaire, who is in charge of the project.

Winemakers agree the court-noue virus is causing havoc but they disagree over whether INRA's research is needed.

"In the long-term it is a very dangerous virus," said 80-year-old wine grower Jean Hugel, whose family has run a vineyard in the small town of Riquewihr for more than 300 years.

"The end result is that the blossoming doesn't go well and you don't have any crop."

So far, winemakers have had to battle the virus with very toxic pesticides or by letting the soil rest for years.

"If they find a way to get rid of the virus on the American root, with assurances that it does not pass into the European grafted-on vine, it would be a great, great success. You have to try," Hugel said.

But fellow winemaker Frederic Geschickt, bringing in grapes from his vineyard, said he would rather live with the virus than accept the danger of genetically modified plants.

"You should tear these vines down," he said. Genetic tests on vines already exist in places such as the United States but the French case was special, he said.

"French wines are already subject to strong market pressure. Over recent years, competition from New World wines has grown. The only solution for French wines is to affirm their particularity and their difference," he said.

Genetic tests risked making French wines uniform, he said.

NEW WORLD THREAT

The wine sector -- a pillar of French life that provides 75,000 jobs -- has been hit hard by competition from "New World" rivals such as Australia and Chile.

France and Italy are the world's top winemakers with the former accounting for around one-fifth of world production, but New World countries have been increasing their market share.

Masson said the scientists did not want to market their test results, pointing out that scientific publication would be the ultimate goal when the experiment ends in four years.

But environmentalists fear the case sets a precedent.

"They want to test to what extent we will resist this," said Henri Stoll, Green Party mayor in the small town of Kaysersberg which is surrounded by vineyards.

"If we don't, something else will come up. We will have genetically modified wine and a genetically modified society."

But the gray-haired Hugel said he believed winemakers were too intelligent to ever make genetically modified wine.

posted October 20, 2005 11:53 AM            

CHESAPEAKE, Virginia (AP) -- There are no rolling hills at Carafe Winemakers.

No rows of vine-ripened grapes ready to be transformed into sophisticated wines -- none of the typical pastoral landscapes and none of the historic wine cellars found at most wineries.

But the micro-winery's retail storefront still gives wine-lovers a unique experience by allowing visitors to choose their own custom blend and complement it with their own label.

And while it doesn't offer the natural beauty of a rural vineyard, "it has the charm of letting you get your hands in the process," said John Goss, who along with his wife, Kathy, were among the first to bottle their custom wine at Carafe's first U.S. location. "It's just fascinating that you get to mix grapes from all over the globe."

Micro-wineries have dominated the Canadian province of Ontario, boasting nearly 640 different storefronts and sales of $100 million in 2004. But the idea of creating custom wines from the bare bones of yeast and grape juice has only recently made its way south.

"All over the U.S. there is a growing interest in wine, and consumption of wine is increasing," said Carafe's president Stewart Petrie.

Carafe started in Canada with brew-your-own beer stores called Brew Kettle. Its first winemaking store opened in 1993 in Ontario, where it now has 13 blend-your-own wine stores. The Virginia store is Carafe's only U.S. location.

Other companies with blend-your-own locations in Ontario and the U.S. are Vintner's Cellar (stores in Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina and Texas); and Wine Not (stores in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Texas).

At Crushpad, a San Francisco blend-your-own store, customer involvement ranges from those who get their fingers purple sorting through grapes and adding the yeast, to people as far away as Sweden who design their custom wines over the Internet.

Fermenting and filtering
Occasionally traditional wineries or regional harvest festivals will have blend-your-own sessions -- sometimes referred to as "u-vint." But many blend-your-own stores are far from the bucolic landscapes associated with places like Napa Valley, California, or New York's Finger Lakes.

The Carafe is tucked in a strip mall in Chesapeake, next to a vinyl sign maker. Crushpad is located in what was once an industrial district in San Francisco.

"We make no illusion," said Bob Miller, proprietor of the Chesapeake store. "We're not a farm winery, nor do we want to be. But from the point of having the grapes picked and crushed, we are doing the exact same thing that a winery is doing."

Shelves of bottle-openers, wine bottles and other accessories line the white walls in front of the store's tasting bar. Visitors can taste the wines they are interested in creating to decide whether they fancy a Chardonnay from Australian grapes or a Chilean Merlot.

Customers can choose from 30 wines that are immediately available to create, browsing through descriptions of wines with hints of black cherry, toasted oak or grapefruit.

But it is the back of the store where the wine creations really begin.

Once a wine is chosen, visitors fill a plastic container with water, grape juice, yeast and other chemicals needed to make sure the wine begins fermenting.

The complex concoction sits on the shelf in the back of the store for about six weeks. That allows the wine to ferment.

Like all wines, it then goes through other filtering processes before it may be consumed. When it is ready, visitors can return to bottle, cork and label the wine.

Customer pride
For an average price of $175, visitors can take home 30 bottles of their own wine, which can be customized for sweetness or other flavors. Visitors can bring their own bottles or buy the bottles for $25. Customers can also buy non-customized wine by the bottle for around $8.

Miller said the novice would enjoy coming out and making wine to learn what goes into it and how it is made. Wine connoisseurs can try different varieties or make wines that they may not otherwise be able to afford, such as a Barolo or Amarone, which can go for as much as $60 a bottle.

"What they are buying at Carafe is wine meant to drink," Miller said. "They're buying their everyday wine that they are going to come home from work and have it with dinner, or have when friends are over."

For Miller, it all comes down to the customers' pride of walking out with bottles of wine they made themselves.

The customers' labels range from Al's Fine Wines and Kathy's Best Sauvignon Blanc to Shenanigan Chardonnay and Compass Rose Cabernet bottled by Pirate Pete and First Mate Missy.

But the wine isn't quite at its peak when it leaves the store. It's drinkable, Miller said, but the wines benefit from aging about a month or so. Once the 30-day period has passed, the wine should be consumed within two years.

posted October 21, 2005 01:39 PM            

High temperatures, good sunlight and dry weather during the summer and early fall produced an unexpected bounty for the region's winemakers.

About three-quarters of the grape crop has been harvested and winemakers are finding an unusually rich fruit that many believe will yield some of the area's best wines in years.

"I think it's going to be a very good year," said Sharon Klay, owner of a 15-acre winery about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

The long stretches of sunlight with little rainfall ravaged some other crops, but the conditions were unusually good for the grapes, reducing the amount of water and boosting sugar levels.

Klay, also vice president of the Pennsylvania Wine Association, said she has harvested most of the grapes at her vineyard, which produces about 45,000 pounds of the fruit annually. She said she delayed picking two red varieties to let them ripen further "to get maximum flavor development and as high sugars as we could."

Hans Walter-Peterson, a viticulture specialist for the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program at Cornell University's Cooperative Extension, said the summer temperatures, among the hottest on record in several East Coast cities, played a key role.

Heat combined with dry weather generally makes smaller and more desirable red grapes with a larger proportion of skin that's rich in flavors and nutrients, he said.

"Around Memorial Day, the oven got kicked on and it started to take off," Walter-Peterson said.

Although the crop is generally looking good in the region, prospects for wineries in some areas, including in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, are a bit dimmer because of recent torrential rains.

The rains pelted vineyards and some late-season fungus has set in, Walter-Peterson said. The rain can also cause some grapes to swell and split open.

More than 12 inches of rain fell in some areas of New York, leaving some winery owners to fret over whether they can salvage their merlots and other red varieties of grapes still on the vine.

In New Jersey, grapes picked before the rain set in will make the best wine the state's relatively young vineyard business has produced since 1991, said Gary Pavlis, a Rutgers Cooperative Extension agent.

However, the late-season varieties are going to need time to dry out, he said.

The summertime sun and dryness meant fewer grapes suffered from fungus and rotting, said Stephen Menke, a winemaking expert at Pennsylvania State University's Cooperative Extension.

The lack of rain also meant that vines absorbed less water, which can dilute the flavor of the grapes, while the abundance of sunshine spurred photosynthesis and helped the fruit grow quickly and profusely, he said.

"It was probably one of the best ones for five or 10 years," he said.

The bumper harvest is a welcome change after two lackluster years.

The 2003 and 2004 seasons were hampered by too much rain, the killing of vines by frost in wintertime and the onset of fungus, among other problems, Menke said.

"This year, we've had none of those problems," he said.

___

On the Net:

Christian W. Klay Winery: http://www.cwklaywinery.com