Growing up in New Jersey, I was eating some of the best pizza in the world without realizing it. Pizza in the USA started in New York. Go ahead. Look it up. New York / New Jersey style pizza is the original American pizza.
For now, most of the pizzas here will be using a NY-style dough, but I will be changing things up a bit with the toppings. There are a myriad of recipe blogs, videos, and books with all of the most popular pizzas, and I don’t want to repeat what’s already been done thousands of times.
Even though I’ve been cooking all of my life–literally since I was a kid–I did a hardcore, deep dive into all things culinary, up-at-dawn, all day, every day for the last 3 years. I’ve enrolled in online culinary courses and lessons with The Culinary Institute of America, Milk Street Cooking School, and Rouxbe Culinary School. I’ve watched nearly every cooking show, and competition, read every food magazine, and have become a certified food judge for barbecue, steak, chili, and pizza amongst others. I’ve judged at The World Food Championships, The World Chili Championships, The World Steak Championships, and pizza and BBQ cook-offs around the country.
I made my first (everything from scratch) pizza in December 2021, and since then have made over 300 pizzas, and experimented with numerous dough recipes until I created my own NY-style dough recipe.
Read my interview on Free the Pizza.
I am the co-owner of St. Petersburg Foodies, where I have authored several local restaurant reviews, and top 10 lists.
My Food Judging Certifications:
World Food Championships Certified Food Judge #1541
Certified Chili Judge #62 by the International Chili Society
Certified Steak Judge #1562 by the Steak Cookoff Association
Certified Pizza Judge #14 by the Pizza Cookoff Association
Kansas City Barbeque Society Certified BBQ Judge #112881
