Ignore the Pizza Police

 

New Haven-style pies aren’t genuine Neapolitan? Nobody cares.

Very good article, in depth and brings up a question, perhaps this belongs in a new thread.

Mentioned here are the trademark or copyright regulations effecting particular food items.  Much like the German beer purity laws, do you think this is something that should be applied more often to a regional recipe?  What comes to mind first off was, and still is the word Kobe beef.  The mass use of this term to describe tacos, burgers, steaks, etc that were clearly priced well below the cost of real Kobe beef and thus started to erode the origin of this item, and gave a lot of people the false sense that they had in fact tried it when they were duped by marketing spin.  Another one that I see a lot is a hot sauce called Sri Racha that is popular in the US, its actually made in California and has nothing to do with or even close in flavor to the real Sri Racha sauces that originate in where else Sri Racha, Thailand.  So I guess my question is should these names be protected, whatever they are, perhaps southern fried chicken, or Chicago style pizza, New York style pizza.  Is it worth going thru the hassle of protecting these by doing what the Italians did, by getting together and defining the essence of a food item and making sure it stays pure? 

Your thoughts?

Thanks for posting that.

Fascinating article......These pies sure sound great, and sound like they have the most important ingredient in pizza...LOVE! Great ingredients, love and care all make great pizza.......New York? New Haven? New Zealand...make it right, and they will come....or else go to pizza hut...oh never mind that!!

"Nobody cares" is right. I know I don't. Great pizza is great pizza, no matter what name you put on it. Frank Pepe's place is #2 on my list of Roadfood restaurants that I'm eager to get to, second only to Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe. One of these days...

Having German beer purity laws authentic Neapolitan pizza laws is not a bad thing. It preserves a bench mark. It appears the only commonality is Frank Pepe came from Italy. So New Haven style pizza it is. Is that a bad thing? No.

I hope to taste authentic Neapolitan pizza in Naples, Italy this coming October. I will be following up on Washington, DC area pizzerias this coming year as well. I've already been to a few that claim Neapolitan authenticity. Then sometime soon I hope to get to New Haven. I'll now have to give wanderingjew an opening to step in here. Pizza is pizza.

Pizza is love:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap5OqZy6vbY

Really interesting article, but really, by the time I got to the end - I just want a slice now. Time for a run to Pepe's!

There's an American branch of the society promoting Vera Pizza Napoletana.

http://www.anticapizzeria.net/vpn/

Here's a list of the US members:

http://anticapizzeria.net/vpn/members.html

Carolina Bob


"Nobody cares" is right. I know I don't. Great pizza is great pizza, no matter what name you put on it. Frank Pepe's place is #2 on my list of Roadfood restaurants that I'm eager to get to, second only to Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe. One of these days...

Absolutely. Rooster Sauce might not come from Sri Racha, but it sure is good.

MiamiDon


There's an American branch of the society promoting Vera Pizza Napoletana.

http://www.anticapizzeria.net/vpn/

Here's a list of the US members:

http://anticapizzeria.net/vpn/members.html

None in Ohio!

all that matters is that if it's delicious.

Michael Hoffman


Thanks for posting that.

Btw, old dude......

Happy (belated 1 day) 10th Anniversary as a member of this board! (7/1/2000 - 7/1/2010)

I think the only other active member who is even close to ten years and not named Stern is Jennifer_4

I think

TJ Jackson

Michael Hoffman


Thanks for posting that.

Btw, old dude......

Happy (belated 1 day) 10th Anniversary as a member of this board! (7/1/2000 - 7/1/2010)

I think the only other active member who is even close to ten years and not named Stern is Jennifer_4

I think

 
Not so, TJ.

Howard Baratz

Not so, TJ.

Well, I did say "I think" :-)

(as in.....I am too lazy to sort memberlist by signup date ascending and find the first instance of currently active poster)

I am not sure I will remember to congratulate YOU tommorrow, Howard.......frankly, you should have signed up here 3 days earlier and then YOU could have been the old man of the forums :-)  

You blew it, dude :-)

TJ Jackson

Howard Baratz

Not so, TJ.

Well, I did say "I think" :-) (as in.....I am too lazy to sort memberlist by signup date ascending and find the first instance of currently active poster)

I am not sure I will remember to congratulate YOU tommorrow, Howard.......frankly, you should have signed up here 3 days earlier and then YOU could have been the old man of the forums :-)

Remember, even though the website has been around since 2000, the interactive forum as we know it didn't become "live" until 3/1/03....

I'm a bit confused

if the forums did not exist until a few months before my own arrival, why would someone have a much much older forum id?

ynotryme


all that matters is that if it's delicious.

So true!!

TJ Jackson


I'm a bit confused

if the forums did not exist until a few months before my own arrival, why would someone have a much much older forum id?

You were still able to join and become a member of the roadfood website prior to the interactive forums.
If you go into archive.org you'll see that the forum model was quite different prior to 2003.

MiamiDon


There's an American branch of the society promoting Vera Pizza Napoletana.

http://www.anticapizzeria.net/vpn/

Here's a list of the US members:

http://anticapizzeria.net/vpn/members.html

The only one in Florida is across the state from me in Naples.  Appropriate location I would say. Like to give it a try someday.

ces1948

MiamiDon


There's an American branch of the society promoting Vera Pizza Napoletana.

http://www.anticapizzeria.net/vpn/

Here's a list of the US members:

http://anticapizzeria.net/vpn/members.html

The only one in Florida is across the state from me in Naples.  Appropriate location I would say. Like to give it a try someday.

Yeah, I noticed that, and thought, "Hmmmm...".

if its good pizza,who cares.
the important thing is that if the person who is eating it likes it & thinks its good, its good to them. to each his own.
F the snobs.

TJ Jackson

Michael Hoffman


Thanks for posting that.

Btw, old dude......

Happy (belated 1 day) 10th Anniversary as a member of this board! (7/1/2000 - 7/1/2010)

I think the only other active member who is even close to ten years and not named Stern is Jennifer_4

I think

Huh?

sk bob


if its good pizza,who cares.
the important thing is that if the person who is eating it likes it & thinks its good, its good to them. to each his own.
F the snobs.

 

What in the  world do   you  mean  by "F the snobs"?

"To each his own"...then how can you be a snob if your "own" is more refined. Some people will eat any kind of hot dog, can't really taste a difference. Good for them. Same with pizza. But many won't eat a certain kind of pizza....chain pizza, and poorly made individually- owned pizza turns me off...to my taste buds, it's not pizza as I expect it to be.....I'm not a snob.....it's just different taste.......If I prefer a craft beer instead of Miller lite,I don't think I'm a snob...if no one was what he called a "snob" we'd all be eating at chains and roadfood would be dead!!

leethebard


"To each his own"...then how can you be a snob if your "own" is more refined. Some people will eat any kind of hot dog, can't really taste a difference. Good for them. Same with pizza. But many won't eat a certain kind of pizza....chain pizza, and poorly made individually- owned pizza turns me off...to my taste buds, it's not pizza as I expect it to be.....I'm not a snob.....it's just different taste.......If I prefer a craft beer instead of Miller lite,I don't think I'm a snob...if no one was what he called a "snob" we'd all be eating at chains and roadfood would be dead!!

A big amen to that...

NYPIzzaNut

MiamiDon

There's an American branch of the society promoting Vera Pizza Napoletana.

http://www.anticapizzeria.net/vpn/

Here's a list of the US members:

http://anticapizzeria.net/vpn/members.html

None in Ohio!

Not sure why you felt a need to point this out

Well, hmm, maybe I do, actually.

In any case, the fact that none of the listed members are in Ohio is a mostly meaningless fact, just as it will be mostly meaningless when some pizza joint in Ohio does eventually gain this distinction.  The reason it is meaningless is that many good pizzerias PREFER to NOT be rated VPN for various reasons even if they were already able to meet said standard  Why?  Because most folks dont known what VPN means, so having that distinction would be meaningless to most customers and ergo have no impact on their business. 

Further, even among those who ARE well aware of what the designation means, there is disagreement whether or not a VPN pizza is actually a superior product.  I for one would say that a VPN pizza tends to be too wet in the middle for my tastes.  

leethebard

"To each his own"...then how can you be a snob if your "own" is more refined....

...if no one was what he called a "snob" we'd all be eating at chains and roadfood would be dead!!

NYPIzzaNut

A big amen to that...

Gotta thank you both for these big belly-laugh inducing statements.  I need to laugh more.  Thank you.

Anytime.

Greymo

sk bob


if its good pizza,who cares.
the important thing is that if the person who is eating it likes it & thinks its good, its good to them. to each his own.
F the snobs.

 

What in the  world do   you  mean  by "F the snobs"?

Forget the snobs.
 
in a way we're all snobs of some sort, are we not?

Tj...glad you're so easily amused...guess you're not a humour snob!!!!