Author: Mike Kostyo

  Photo Credit: Rey Lopez « BACK NEXT »             A drizzle of hot honey is de rigueur on pizzas today, prompting many pizza chefs to take the trend to the next level, playing with their own house-infused honeys. At Yellow, a Levantine café in D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood created by Michelin-starred chef Michael Rafidi, the playfully named “(not) pizza” menu (because they mainly use Middle Eastern ingredients) includes the Soujek pie, featuring the Armenian beef sausage along with smoked jibne (a type of sweet Levantine cheese), pickled chiles, oregano and a drizzle of za’atar...

  Photo Credit: It’s Za Time « BACK NEXT »             In the age of Instagram, pizzas that showcase a range of artfully-placed colors and texturally interesting ingredients are essential for that all-important “hover-over-the-table” shot. Enter ricotta, which pizza chefs are piping into rosettes or dolloping with a spoon to create a pop of bright white—and a creamy bite—amidst a sea of red sauce and brown meats. Justin Hellwig, the founder and owner of It’s Za Time!, a pop-up and event pizza concept based in Arizona, pipes ricotta rosettes onto his Sourdough Za with...

  Photo Credit: Pascal Shirley « BACK NEXT »             While just about every meat imaginable can be found on a pizza these days, this old-school Italian cut is getting a makeover as an on-trend pizza option. The fat-laden spiced sausage is piled into rich, meaty nests on many a pizza today, adding height, a light pink color contrast, and ruffled edges to capture a final char. In Los Angeles, Best Bet Pizzeria opts for big chunks of crispy mortadella for its Reverse Spumoni pizza, topping a Grandma-style focaccia crust with cherries, pistachio, whipped...

With a sweet-and-sour flavor and crunchy texture, pickles could be the next big pizza topping