Today we decide what the best pizza in history is. Welcome to Pizza History 1 0 1. Now, pizza throughout the years has taken many different forms and I even enlist the help of two Kitcheners, plus myself to plow through the Annals of Pizza history to decide which one. Throughout the years it’s truly the best in history. We are going to fully immerse you in the historical world up that pizza with one good cookery and two excellent character work. You think we got what it takes to show him? What do you think he said? Idols of history. I like that. Let’s get cooking. Hey, blaze, Ratliff, Ratliff, enterprises, entrepreneur, consultant, D. Glad to meet you. How much time do I have time? How much time? Great. We don’t have a lot of time. Let’s get into it. I’m about to tell you about the greatest pizza ever invented, 1985, Los Angeles, California. City of Dreams. Did my dreams come true? Yes. And more. The greatest pizza ever invented, California Pizza Kitchen, barbecue chicken pizza. Next slide. It all starts with this guy. This guy, Wolfgang Puck. We used to say, we used to say, Wolfgang, this guy pucks. You get the joke. You guys like jokes. You watch comedy. I can get you tickets. I can get you anything you need. Is he all right? Is he okay? I You good? You straight. You need anything? I’ve been hitting that. Wolfgang Puck worked at a restaurant called Maison in 1978. Big celebrity clientele. I also had a big celebrity clientele. Did a little business with the guy mostly outta the bathroom sometimes in the alley behind it. But Maison was not Wolfgang P’s Dream restaurant? No, no. His dream restaurant was to open a Marsai style pizzeria and that is what he met this guy. Ed, Leddo. We used to look at Ed go, this guy pucks. It didn’t make sense. ’cause was Wolfgang’s name. It was the eighties. Things were moving very, very fast. Back then, so Edla do. He was an experimental pizza maker up in the Bay Area. He was putting pate, he was putting asparagus, he was putting clams on pizza, making pies like the world I’d never seen before. Just like me. I was doing business, like the world I’d never seen before. You know what I invented? What the care bear. Don’t fact check it. Next slide. Enter 1982, Spago. I was actually in the background of that photo while I was technically behind the building. I was doing a little bit of business in the back alley. Everything was legal. You’re wearing a wire. You got a lot of layers on. You wearing a wire, you got a lot of layers on. Check me. Check me. Awesome. I’m catching. I swear. I’m of the wood. All right. I’m catching every other wood man. Muggle opens In 1982, Wolf King’s idea was to put a giant pizza oven in the center of the restaurant, along with the suggestion of his partner, Barbara Lazaroff. They wanted to be a giant show. The star of that show was Ed Ldu making the fancy pizzas. He made a peeking duck pizza that all the celebrity clientele, they loved it. What was the duck peeking at? Huh? Ducks peeking at you. Why are you peeking at me? Were you peeking at me? No, don’t. Don’t peek at you. Peek at yourself. The peeking duck pizza was one of spa’s. Highlight menu items. Larry Flacks, Rick Rosenfield. Now, they wanted to start their own pizzeria. They saw Ed Ladu as the real talent of that restaurant. I’d say they also saw me as the real talent of that restaurant, but they were the ones that funded the first California pizza kitchen open in Beverly Hills with Ed Ledou at the helm. Now they thought people they love. Hi sweetie. Are there still orange Groves in California? No, no, no, no more orange groves. The oranges are mostly used to traffic. Other oranges? What do you mean? They knew that the fancy pizzas with fancy ingredients were a big selling point. However, they knew that they had to make them much, much cheaper. So the peaking duck pizza, the smoked salmon pizza with the caviar, that was no longer on the menu. They had things like barbecue chicken pizza, but the original California pizza kitchen menu also had crazy things like rabbit sausage. Did you ever eat rabbit sausage? You ask a lot of questions. The barbecue chicken pizza is the most important pizza in the history of the world because it opened up Pandora’s box. The entire culinary cannon was open to now being put on a pizza. The toothpaste is outta the tube and it is not going back in onward and upward onto the future. 1992, Jesus Christ. That’s bright. 1992, rough year for me. Technically, my business did have a sting operation from a three lettered ANA Grand Agency. I’m not gonna tell you which one. 1992 California Pizza Kitchen explodes 26 locations. Next slide. Now you can find California Pizza Kitchen, over 200 locations internationally. Who the heck is this guy? It looks like a fine young entrepreneur. I’d like to take him onto my team. You can find them in the frozen aisle of every major grocery store. That is how big of an innovation California Pizza Kitchen was. Meanwhile, my business. Not doing great. Can I have a job? I’m a woman. That’s a fair point. Jesus Christ is bright here. Wait, I stared right into the light and it actually is so Rainier, I can’t see anything with the sunglasses on. I haven’t been able to see anything of all time. California pizza, kitchen barbecue, chicken pizza. Uh, truly I think it’s the best pizza of all time. And I’m gonna show you how to make it first up, because jacket’s gonna get so wrecked by the end of this. We’re gonna make the dough here. So typical Neapolitan pizza dough only would have. Salt flour, maybe olive oil, uh, and yeast in it. But California style pizza, they started introducing things like honey and then that gave way to other California pizza makers, like say Nancy Silverton of Moza, who did a lot for the pizza world. So like I think this is kinda the progenitor of really changing the entire game of pizza. I’m going to take some yeast, boom, bloom that in water. I grew up eating a California pizza kitchen. All the time. It was truly my favorite place to go. The excitement of being able to get like peanut sauce with chicken and beans straps on a pizza was just one of the greatest things of all time. The Jamaican jerk Chicken Pizza. Y’all have the The Toast pizza with the refried beans. Dude, man, early 2000 CPK, there was nothing. Like it. I wish I could go back. If I could go back to one time in history, I would go to 1985 with the original California pizza. Kitchen Wouldn’t kill Hitler. No straight to 1985. Anyways, so we’re gonna make the barbecue sauce. We have added water, we have added vinegar. I’m gonna add a little touch of liquid smoke because this is an artificially smokey barbecue sauce that is part of what makes it delicious. Just huff that brown sugar mustard. Someone do it mustard on the beat. Hope. No, you got a Yama. Gonna have some cayenne in there. We’re having garlic powder. We’re so in sync. Cumin. Boom. I’m gonna go ahead and whisk this up. We’re just gonna wait for all that sugar to melt down. I think a lot of food innovation, hear me out. It comes from people realizing the fact that Americans really like sugar. I think that’s a real thing. It’s come here. I think it’s a real thing you about the Korean taco movement. It’s the first time people had ever had a meat marinated in sugar inside of a taco, and they’re like, wow, that’s incredible. What a lovely time. It drop some honey into a wet perfect. The honey actually helps the yeast bloom in this situation. It helps the yeast eat all the sugars. And then I’m just gonna mix all the wets together. I am gonna drop this right into the dough. Start real quick. I like to form my dough outside of the bowl of the stand mixer. That way I can just add it directly to the stand mixer and then let that run. So now we have like a rough dough formed. Go in there, give it a nice little tossi toss. Barbecue sauce. All the edge. Boy, do I hate cooking in long sleeves, man. Okay, that’s, I kind of got it rough. Now we’re going to go smoked gouta selling the barbecue sauce theme. We got smokey cheese on there. And mozzarella. I’m actually gonna put the gouta on the bottom ’cause Gouta doesn’t melt in brown, as well as mozzarella, which is the joy of the duality of cheeses on here. Fantastic. Gonna go on with the mots mozzarella’s down. Now we are simply going to throw these onions on, get those all around the pizza. You get like one crunch of onion. Every three bites, that’s what you want. And now are nominal amounts of chicken just for protein. I don’t even think this pizza really needed the chicken, but it had the chicken. There you have it. We’re gonna top this with cilantro after it comes outta the oven, it’s the slide, and this is feeling good. Here we have the California Pizza Kitchen, barbecue, chicken pizza, greatest pizza of all time. Hello, I’m a nameless, faceless woman of the forties. Welcome to my presentation. We’re going to be talking about St. Louis style pizza, and you can’t start this story without mentioning a Ma Fiori. Yes, that’s right. He came to America by way of Naples. First he settled in Chicago and then he moved to St. Louis with his lovely wife, Elizabeth. Isn’t she an absolute stunner? Right, hit, right hit. All right. You did. No, I never hit a woman. I believe he’s complimenting her. Our lovely Armo was a singer, a tenor to be exact. He was also a car salesman, a handyman, and he worked for an electric company. But after a while, he scrounged up money to own a lovely business with a basement and restaurant space in 1945 in the Meadows Apartments in St. Louis. Look at those beautiful tablecloths. They had chairs likely place for them to be. The original name was the Melrose Cafe. They changed it to the original Neapolitan Pizzeria. Decided that was a mouthful, changed it back to the Melrose Pizzeria. During this time, there was a large crime syndicate going on around there, but I won’t talk about that too much. In order to make a really good St. Louis salad pizza, there’s three things you need. You need an unleavened crust. And an incredibly sweet, sweet sauce with lots of oregano. And then we have pro vel cheese, a cheese that’s made as a combination of Cheddar, Swiss, and provolone, known for its gooey texture and a very, very sharp taste. How much for the arch, I’m sorry, the Arch St. Louis Arch. How much. Well, I don’t know. I’m not allowed to handle money again, nameless and faceless woman from the forties. We’ll keep it in St. Louis. That’s right. That’s no, I want the arch. Next slide. One of the most well known pizzerias to sell St. Louis salad pizza is Emo’s Pizzeria Open by Ed Emo and Margie Emo in the sixties. They have over 100 locations, mostly in the St. Louis area. They also have locations in Kansas and Illinois. As you can see, this pizza’s not cut in triangles. They’re cut in squares, aren’t they? Nice. Look at the squares. Does anyone know what’s inside the arch? Have you, have you looked inside the arch? Is he talking to me? My chaperone isn’t present. Sir, you’re really obsessed with this act. I love the arch. I want the arch. The reason why they’re cut into little squares like this, also known as TN cut or potty cut, is because a emo was known to be a tile layer. So he inspired the cut. Do you have any questions, gentlemen? I hate this. I have any hands going on. Alright, to be clear, it’s not because you’re a woman. No thank you. It’s about the pizza. Thank you. Some people say that St. Louis style pizza isn’t really pizza, but the people that say that are B less YouTubers. Sorry about me. Same about me. Blaine Ratliff. Hello. I’ve decided to name myself. It’s Edith. Did everybody like the trans-Atlantic accent? Is everybody into it? Um, so we’re gonna start with our lovely dough. Now, I did say it was unleavened. Originally, but I’m not so sure if that’s true. It’s more of an yeasted dough, but there is a little bit of baking powder in there, which is gonna give us a slight lift, but we’re not, it’s nothing substantial. The way that a classic Neapolitan pizza dough or a Pizza Hut pizza or Domino’s pizza dough is. So we got some warm water, some AP flour, some olive oil spilled all over this nice machine, um, baking powder. Salt and then a little bit of brown rice syrup. Now this adds in parts of nice sweetness. Just add a little bit there, then let it rip. Yeah. So I’m just gonna let that go for a little bit and then we’re gonna get started on the sauce. Now this sauce over here, it is an uncooked very, very sweet tomato sauce. So we’re gonna start with crushed tomatoes, some tomato paste, add it all in there. So much sugar. So much sugar. Lots of oregano and a hefty pinch of salt. And I’m gonna go ahead and immersion, blend that now. Did they have immersion blenders back in the forties? I wanna know. Alright, we are ready to assemble our gorgeous St. Louis style pizza now for all the haters. Who happen to be my motivators. Um, they say this pizza isn’t real pizza. Well, I say innovation is where it all starts, honey. Um, so I’m literally gonna roll this out until it is as thin as cracker dough. We’re trying to make a cracker. Oh, and fun fact. We have some really awesome cheese in the house. We literally got imported Emos roped provel cheese. It looks like a, here, I’ll do it for you, Taylor. It looks like a brain. That’s a really good selling point. If you ask me, make this as round as my little fricking hands and brain can make it, no, I can do it. I’m smart and I’m capable. Um, a nice smattering of pizza sauce. And hey, if you see this pizza magically a lot rounder, oops. I’m gonna break apart this brain cheese. Let me taste a little bit of it. Hmm. Yeah. Wow. You definitely, wow. The provolone flavor is so incredibly strong. And then I’m going to, I’m gonna thumb some sausage, some raw sausage on there. And I don’t know, I feel like a little bit of sausage on this pizza will really cinch the wind for me, you know? So we’re gonna put that in an oven. It’s gonna get nice and toasty and gorgeous and delicious. We’re gonna cut it into some fricking squares or rectangles. I still don’t know, but by the time you’re back, it’s gonna be a gorgeous thing to behold. My name’s Vincenzo Pan Vodka. Nice to meet you. My father, Benny Pan Vaca, my mother Poly Panal Vaca. You might not have heard of them, but if you’ve heard of pizza, you’ve heard of. Lombardi’s Pizza. Now Lombardi right here on the right, that Anson fella. Now the story goes, Lombardi opened a really famous pizza joint, and I don’t want to get into the fact that it was actually my father and the penal Vaca family to put him there, but we’ll talk a little bit about that Later. Lombardi came to the US and he said, you know what? That crazy Neapolitan bastard. He said, I’m gonna make a pizza joint now. Genaro Lombardi. Some people say that the before him there was a guy named Felipo Maloney. They didn’t care about the Italians coming over, they were writing their names down wrong, couldn’t get a legitimate business going. People say that’s why Felipo Maloney didn’t get the credit he deserves, but Genaro, he came in and he said, I’m gonna do it right. So Lombardi goes, he takes over this pizza joint. That’s what they say. He starts making Neapolitan style pizza and he’s pour it stallions all over. You know, they can’t run a legitimate business. My father, however, you know, he created. The biggest legitimate pizza business in New York pizza business. And the thing about Neapolitan style pizza is, you know, it’s got a fluffy crust, all right? It’s got a, it’s got a nice little chew, but not too much chew. It’s not too tough, it’s airy, it’s light. You get the big slices of mozzarella that cooked down sauce, tangy sauce, uh, but you know, over time New York hustle and bustle, you got things going on. You wanna take a slice on the go see in the politan style? The style of pizza. Sit down. You have a glass of red wine, you have a cigar. You know New Yorkers on the move. I’m on the move. I’m on the move all the time. How much of the statue of the green lady? The green lady? Yeah. Was the green lady around in 1905, New York Pizza evolved, but Lombardi’s in Naro, he started it all. He made New York pizza. He got the institution. I mean, talking about guys coming here to train with him. He’s training pizza makers. He’s the best pizza chef out there, and my father built the biggest pizza empire New York City’s ever seen. Why are you pausing song before you say pizza? My father’s. Pizza Empire. Yeah. Yeah. There’s a long pause there. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t wanna mess. You wanna talk to my father? No. I don’t wanna talk to your about you wanna talk, you wanna talk to my mother? I, I certainly don’t wanna talk to her. You don’t wanna talk to my mother? I don’t wanna talk to your father. You don’t wanna talk to Paul When she gets going, she gets going. You don’t want to talk to Mama Paul. Now, here’s your thing. I forgot what was on the slide, what I was gonna say. This is just the pizza now. Lombardi still operates in Little Italy today, and you know what still operates is my father’s pizza empire. There it’s again, to this day, I don’t know what you’re talking about with the deposits. It’s good affectation. I don’t get it. Does anybody else know what he’s talking about? I feel like he’s implying something. Just talking. You hear what? You hear the pause. I don’t. You’re both crazy. You’re a woman. Why you talking to me? Alright. That’s why are you talking to me? That’s you’re crazy. No, no. I think you don’t need to do that. You don’t need take that from him. Watch out for any people with three letters on vests coming into your father’s pizza business. Three letters on your vest, your letter’s on vest. Nothing gonna happen. You’re gonna get a letter on a vest. Nope. Where the letter’s gonna go. It’s not good. It’s not good for you. It’s gonna be bad for you. Look, pizza business, Lombardi’s a great man. My father was a great man. My mother was a great woman. Alright? And I’m gonna be a great man. Vincenzo. Penny, a la vodka. You look out for me, okay? I’m gonna be in your history books, Vincenzo Pen Lava. It’s me, Vincenzo Pan. I came into this room today prepared to do this character the whole time. So that’s what I’m gonna do. You’re getting a full whatever. How long is the runtime on this show? 25 minutes of Vincenzo Pan La vodka. Look, we’re making a pizza and I’m gonna do it like, uh, St. Lombardi would’ve wanted, uh, Neapolitan style. Now, if you notice, here’s my dough ingredients. I’m gonna get this going in the mixer. There’s the flour. Gonna get this yeast blooming. And the thing about a Neapolitan, there’s no sugar and there’s no oil in the though. It’s four ingredients and that’s all you need. It’s gonna get light, airy crust. This is double zero flour pizza flour. It’s gonna encourage less gluten development. You don’t want a lot of gluten. You know what my past said about having a lot of gluten, and I’m gonna get some olive oil and butter going in this pot now. God butter. I told you the story of Lombardi and now you’re gonna hear the facts. Okay? My father, Benny Penny, Oliva guy came over here. He had one extra shirt, about two American dollars to his name, and he said, you know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna build the biggest pizza empire that New York City’s ever seen. Now my father came over here and, uh, ran into a man, Tony Sota. Th ceta, big, big pizza business in New York. One of the prominent pizza businesses, owner pizza business owners in New York. And you know what he said to him? He said, th he said, I want to take this over with you. I think together we can build the biggest pizza empire than New York has ever seen. Well, my father, you know, he’s a rap bastard, that guy. ’cause you know what he did while he is talking to Tony Sota. He goes over to his buddy Donatella Mortadella. You know what he says to Donny? What he says to Donny is he says, Hey, I’m talking to Tony. I’m talking to Tony, I’m, I’m gaining his trust. He said, we’re gonna build this pizza empire together. But you know what he did? He went to Donny Marella and he said, Donny, you and me, we can take so set of down. Now, Donny, obviously he is a sandwich guy, sandwich pizza through different worlds, but they worked together if it was mutually beneficial. So my daddy stuck it to that bastard Thony. So Prosetta. Well, you know, this is sort of the pizza making process. It’s not very glamorous, but you know, behind the scenes, dark, dirty stuff going on in the pizza world. Yeah. All right. These onions, is Galax looking good? I’m gonna give it a little seasoning. I’m gonna give it a little salt. Come on. Can’t be too generous with the salt. Gonna get a little bit of time going in there. Little red pepper of flake. This is how you do it. Neapolitan style. Little oreg though, and some sugar. You’re gonna get that sweetness. All right. I’m gonna get all that mixed around in there with the garlic and onions. Look at that. You know what, I’m just gonna go for the pool. Oh yeah. You know it’s gonna splash a little bit, but the, uh. A pizza business can get kind of dirty. Now, here’s the thing about a Neapolitan sauce. It’s gonna get cooked down for a long, long time. So I’m gonna get that going in there, heating up and that’s gonna simmer forever. Alright, this yeast is blowing. I’m gonna put the water in there. Gonna get this going. Kn it up. You know what though? I mean, this is what, this is what Embody was doing day in, day out. Whoa, sorry. These newfangled machines. My father always said, he said, life, it’s a lot like a pizza. You know, you’re born, you start out, you’re kind of just a little ball, little pale ball. Then you get some red stuff on you. You come out a little red stuff. You go in the oven at some point, and you come out and you’re beautiful and tasty. I think that was a metaphor for puberty or something. I don’t know. Not all of it made sense, but you know what he did do is he created. One of the largest pizza businesses of all time in New York City. I’ve been told by the production theme that I have enough cheese, so I’m gonna stop with the cheese. I’m gonna get to the dough. The dough, much like me. When I was a baby, did I already do the baby metaphor? I think I did some beautiful air. Oh my God, this is so light and fluffy. I already feel it. So we’re just gonna get this. To a nice round circle. I forgot I was still holding this. Not gonna let it go though. It’s like a little pacify for me. Oh, there it goes. Gonna give this a little light sing. I don’t want my sauce to be all the way on the edges. I don’t like that. I don’t like my pizza cut and squares. I’m just gonna start tossing some big, chunky slices of mots. Now that shredded junk. I like big circle looking shapes, and we’re gonna save the basil. We’re gonna do fresh basil at the end. I tell you what, I am gonna pick a beautiful little leaf here. Just to show y’all. Look at that Italian grown basil. That’s what they told me. He is told me he is grown in it. Mr. Penne vodka unnamed woman from the 1940s. It’s Edith. Edith from the 1940s. We have the three pizzas in front of us. I think we should start with the oldest in history. The oldest in the best. Yeah. I’m sorry I, yes. Wow. I mean, that’s so freaking good. This is why we, what do you need? Something for that nose, little Parmesan cheese, if you know what I mean. Huh? Don’t ever have your elbow touch my arm ever again. Yeah. I know how to cook a pizza. That’s what happens when you own the most successful. Pizza business in New York City. Don’t, don’t like that. Pause. I love the pause. I think it’s sweet. Speaking of sweet time for St. Louis style pizza. Now, why the hell is it cutting squares? Well, if you were listening to my lovely presentation, I told you that Ed Emo was once a tile layer. He was in the tile business. Now, do you understand this isn’t a front to mankind? I listen, I, I don’t understand it, but I’m gonna give it a fair shake. No. Saint Lombardi is rolling in his grave. Hmm. What’s the problem? Why does St. Louis Pizza, forgive me, I’m sorry. We’re gonna, the entire state of Missouri is lost for me with the Eagles beating the Chiefs and now me on St. Louis Pizza, this just doesn’t feel like a meal. In a way, this feels like a party appetizer, you know what I mean? Well, that’s the point, I guess. So you eat it with your friends going from this to that? It’s pretty jarring. I love provel. Cheese is really great. I want to use Provel cheese for other things. ’cause it, it has that like. Processed kind of nature to it. Like I wanna melt that on a sandwich. And the pizza, I like the way it browns, but there’s no like pull and chew to provel. You know what I mean? But that is goo. There’s no pull, no chew. All goo provel cheese. Welcome to St. Louis. What’s inside the arch? Nobody knows Now to the winning pizza. Ah, Mr. Penn LA Vodka. This is gonna blow your freaking mind right here. Grab a slice. It means a lot to me to eat this pizza. No, it is the red. Where’s this? Tomatoes? It’s so brown. Well, there’s a whole tube of tomato paste in there. Tomato. I feel like I’m transcending into like, oh my God. A new dimension that I haven’t been to since I was like 11. You know what I mean? You ever want to throw up from pure joy? Why? What’d you say that sauce was again? Barbecue. Barbecue, newfangled idea coming out of Texas. Texas. Did this come outta your mouth? Oh. We will be ranking the pizzas on the scale of both historicity and taste, and you cannot vote for your own. Why is there only two spots? What do you mean? What do you mean? There’s only two spots. You don’t rank your own. What? You don’t start, did I do this right then? How do you know, oh, that’s how you spell pen vodka for the history ranking out of five. Who’s the best storyteller? No, no, no. It’s more like, which holds the most significant history. Okay. No, I get it. This part’s all cracked. I hate this. I don’t like it. Oh my God. Alright. The scores have been tabulated. Let’s check ’em out. Thank you so much, Vanna. Uh, in third place. Yeah, it’s you. Yeah, it’s you. Yeah, it’s you. St. Louis Pizza with six total points at it. Six. Six outta 20. It’s not bad. No, that’s pretty good. That’s a C. And in first place, the winner of the greatest pizza in history. Drum roll. The greatest pizza history we have. Trevor, be vodka New York with 19 total. Look how official this is. 19 total. That’s out of 20. How much did did your pizza get? I got 16. That listen for a fringe pizza. That is a damn good showing. Wait, how many points did you give Nicole’s pizza? I had one. Oh yeah, I suppose I had one total. Zero historical value. Oh really? I thought one point for taste 10 because I kept eating it and I liked the sausage. You guys are monsters. Absolute monsters. Um, this is incredible though. I hope y’all had a fun time. I had fun with you guys. I had a good time. I had fun. I’m just caught. I have a patina of sauce. I had a good time with you guys. Uh, thank you so much and thank you so much. So, so my, I’m so sorry I interrupted you. Oh, say something. I was just gonna say, it’s rare I shake hands with a woman. Oh, that’s it. Welcome to the future, handsome. Well, thank you so much for stopping by Mythical Kitchen. Uh, you can go home now. You know, somehow we don’t have gas burners, but there’s still a gas leak in here, somehow. Wrist up your next fire meal with a Mythical Kitchen utensil Set. Available now at mythical.com.