Pizza is Personal

 Everyone has an idea of what pizza is, to them.  It would be difficult to search the globe and find someone in any metropolitan area of any given country, who doesn’t have an idea of what pizza is.  In New York, pizza is a post-soccer game feast with childhood friends, a Saturday night out, or an easy weeknight delivery while watching a baseball game.  In Italy, the birthplace of pizza, it is as ubiquitous as noodles in Hong Kong or an empanada in Argentina – it’s EVERYWHERE. 

Susumu Kakinuma, the well known pizzaiolo at Seirinkan in Tokyo, believes that making pizza is like Jazz music;  no 2 pizzas are alike and it is made with a personal expression of the moment.  What one person finds delicious and unique, that same pizza can be too oily, salty, overcooked, undercooked (you get the picture).   Kakinuma’s dough is unique, as is the look of the pizza, and his menu.  He offers 2 pizza on the menu: the Marinara and the Margherita.  He will make a “bianca” (a plain cheese pizza with no tomato sauce) if you ask nicely.   I’ve had his pizza and find it a true expression of my idea of who Susumu is as a pizzaiolo.  It’s round-ish, puffy-ish, crispy-ish and delicious.  My friend Matt who lives in Tokyo complains about the level of dust and age inside the steampunk themed building, but I find it more evidence of what Susumu’s priorities are: delivering consistently delicious pizza to the pilgrims who visit and often wait in a long queue just to get one of his unusual-shaped pies.  Matt also thinks it’s normally the best pizza he can find (so far) in Tokyo.   He may be right. 

I’m often asked what my favorite pizza is, or who has “the best” pizza….with the seemingly endless variations of pizza, it would be difficult to say what was ‘the best’.  Whether you prefer thin and crispy, soft and doughy, or the new fad of ‘neo contemporary pizza’ with toppings placed with tweezers, there is something for everyone.   My favorite type of pizza is one made by someone with experience, using properly fermented dough, good quality toppings and made with personality.  I don’t care what style it is, I want it to be made by someone who knows what the hell they’re doing, and is giving me the best possible pizza that can be made, at that moment, by that pizzaiolo.  

Now I want an oil-laden, garlicky marinara pizza from Susumu at Seirinkan.  He knows what the hell he’s doing….and it’s personal.