American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza – a review

[Perk]

I bought this book before I found this site otherwise I would have used the link above.
I wanted the book based on the author, I read reviews about his bread books and said hmm
Let me check out his pizza book.
I think the name of his bookcould have been better.
My wife thought I was reading the comedy movie and said what the heck are you reading that for! LOL

Anyways I just got it yesterday in the mail and got through with Reinhart's travels.
For me, I am American,
I have heritage in Italy and my mom is actually going to go to Italy on vacation this year so I will let her read the book.
I thought his travels were very interesting, and was the reason I got the book.
I have to agree that the crust is 80% of the pizza. I would say 80% crust, 15% sauce, if you use sauce.
4% cheese 1% toppings.

For his recipes I haven't really tested any out. From reviews here the chicago style sucks so I won't try that plus I'm really not a chicago style guy.
NY style, and Neo-Napolian maybe but I have to have sugar in my dough!

Well tomorrow I will finish the read, and then maybe test some receipes out later this weekend.

The cons of the book, no colored pictures of the pizza's he ate. I love to see what he ate, how the crust looked like.
To me that was a dissapointment. I mean he took pictures of everything but only had 1 or 2 black and white pictures of the pizza's he ate.

[briterian]

I  just took this book back to the library and realized I forgot to jot down the websites he references at the end of the book. Can someone who has the book post them here? Thanks in advance.

[joe]

I  just took this book back to the library and realized I forgot to jot down the websites he references at the end of the book. Can someone who has the book post them here? Thanks in advance.

www.pizzatherapy.com
www.chowhound.com
www.fat-guy.com
www.pizzatoday.com

[Fio]

I have several other books on pizzas and where they often fall short is in the pizza recipe area.  It seems that cookbook authors have an unwritten code of honor about appropriating recipes of others, or modifying them, whether there is a credible potential copyright infringement issue or not.  And coming up with completely original recipes that have undergone testing and fine tuning is not easy, and it is time consuming.  You have to be a big-name chef with a loyal following to be able to sell books just on your name only.  Consequently, most pizza cookbooks, at least the ones I have, tell you how to make simple pizzas, with pretty photos of pizzas and vegetables and cheeses, lists of ingredients that one can use on pizzas, and a few original recipes, reinterpretations or updating of old recipes, or recipes from their childhood or handed down by Aunt Mary.  

Peter

This is my observation as well, and apropos of that, I posted this: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2916.0.html

[varasano]

pizzatherapy.com is a total joke. Worst recipes on pizza ever.

[Nathan]

Does this book include bakers percentages with the recipes?  I just looked at the previews of it on Google and they don't show whether or not he gives the formulas.  Thanks.

[Bill/SFNM]

Does this book include bakers percentages with the recipes?

No.

[Nathan]

Well that's not cool. 

[Garlic head]

Well that's not cool. 

Sure it is. That book is a great place to start if you truly want to make great pizza at home.
Kevin

[dzpiez]

Just finished the first part "the hunt"  very fun and quick read.  Kinda feel like planing a vacation around some of his stops.

[jknl]

I don't have a lot to add, since most has been said already. His story in first third of the book was nice read. As mentioned earlier, the second part contains recipes. I can't really comment on them, since I didn't try any. However I might try some of his recipes later(probably the sauce and topping recipes). Another reason why I didn't make a recipe yet is that I would have to convert the values to the metric system, but that shouldn't be a problem. It would have been nice if the baker's percentages would have been given, but I guess the targeted audience of the recipes doesn't use them. I also agree that it needs more pictures of the different pies.