Between the opening of Rockford’s new Woodfire grilled pizza and news that Blaze Pizza is now opening one new location every five days, one can’t help but get the feeling that we’re living in a golden age of Pizza. So perhaps this as good as any a time to ask: why?
I like pizza as much as the next guy. I heard an NPR reporter give what she deemed an astonishing statistic: The average midwestern family eats frozen pizza once a week. I was like, that’s only here? What are they eating Tuesday on the coasts?
Pizza is weirdly universal but also totally personal, but you shouldn’t be making it from scratch. Nothing sadder than going to a friend’s house for their secret pizza recipe. Often it is good, but you can get it just as good at a gas station … or a teenager will drive a whole bunch of it to your house dirt cheap.
Let’s just say it: There is no bad pizza. Chicago deep-dish pizza is great, but have they ever had New York pizza? It delicious! Foldable, yummy … what’s not to like?
Sure, Rockford’s Woodfire is delicious. But the dirty truth is, so is the Casey’s gas station slice. And so is the frozen Home Run Inn at the store.
Let’s let the professionals bake our pizzas at the nice restaurants, or the kids at the gas stations or the chemists at the America’s corporate food processors. And you home chefs go back to brewing your own beer and making chili for the super bowl.
I’m Dan Libman, and that’s my perspective.
