Listeners in Italy, I apologize in advance . Today, we’re talking about American pizza
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English, where we use stories to help you upgrade your English. And today’s mouth-watering story is all about pizza, specifically the different kinds of pizza you can get in the United States.
If you’ve only had Domino’s , then listen up. This story is for you.
In the second half of today’s episode, I’ll show you how to use the English expression “made of.”
This is lesson number 699 of Plain English. How about that? We’re almost at another round number. One more in the six hundreds for you. JR is the producer. And he has put this lesson at PlainEnglish.com/699.
Regional varieties of American pizza
Not too long ago, pizza was a relatively unknown ethnic food in the United States. Italian immigrants brought pizza to east-coast cities in the 1880s. But it wasn’t until about the 1940s that it spread from Italian neighborhoods into the American mainstream .
Today, of course, pizza is one of the most popular foods in the United States. You see pizza on the dinner table , at parties, in conference rooms at the office, at bowling alleys —anywhere people get together is a good place to have pizza.
American pizza is quite different from traditional Neapolitan pizza. Almost all American-style pizzas have a thicker crust than Italian pizzas have. And most of the time, an American-style pizza is made for a group of people, not just as a single serving .
There are many regional varieties , too many to talk about in just one episode. But here are some of the most famous.
Start in New York, where pizza first arrived with waves of Italian immigrants in the late nineteenth century. A New York-style pizza is big, about 45 to 60 centimeters in diameter. And it’s thin. The dough is stretched out by hand . And the slices are wide—so wide , in fact , that the most common way to eat a New York slice is by folding it.
New Yorkers fold the wide crust in one hand. Folding a slice makes it easier to eat and it catches the grease and the toppings . A New York slice can be eaten at a table with a knife and fork . But it’s just as easy to enjoy your slice standing up , with a paper plate .
The traditional New York pizza is made of dough , tomato sauce with spices , and mozzarella cheese. Popular toppings are pepperoni , sausage , mushrooms , onions , and peppers . It’s common to add oregano and red chili pepper flakes after it comes out of the oven .
Speaking of the oven, original pizzerias in New York used coal-fired ovens. For safety reasons , most are now gas-fired .
New York is the king of the thin slice ; now let’s go to Chicago , which is known for its deep-dish pizza . This is a pizza unlike anything you have ever seen. A single slice of deep-dish pizza is a meal in itself , and most Chicagoans only have deep-dish pizza once in a while. You’ll know why in a second.
A Chicago-style slice starts with a very thick crust . The crust is an inch thick and has a buttery taste . It’s cooked in a circular , metal pan with high sides . The cheese goes on the bottom, followed by the toppings, followed by a generous helping of sauce .
So the order of the ingredients is different from other pizza styles, which put the sauce on the bottom and the cheese and ingredients on top. When a Chicago pizza is ready to eat, you need a special spatula to serve the individual slices. It really is like a thick piece of pie. And don’t try to eat this with your hands or, God forbid, try to fold it. This is a pizza you eat with a knife and fork.
A deep-dish pizza takes about 30 minutes to bake. So if you go to Giordano’s, Lou Malnati’s, or Uno’s and order a deep dish pizza, expect to wait a while . You can’t really buy single slices.
What do Chicagoans do when they’re not having deep dish? The city has a distinctive thin-crust style too. It’s called tavern pizza. Tavern pizza has a very thin, crispy crust. The pizza is a circle, but it’s cut into small squares , which are easy to snack on and share with a group . This is the pizza you’d bring to a party: everyone can have as many of the small squares as they like. Chicago tavern style pizza is easy to eat with your hands.
There’s another city with a thick pizza style, and that’s Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is the traditional home to America’s car making industry .
Detroit-style pizza is cooked in a steel automotive pan , the kind car companies used to store car parts in the factory or to catch grease . You heard that right: They cook Detroit pizza in a style of pan that’s used in factories .
A local bar owner named Gus Guerra is the undisputed father of Detroit-style pizza. He got some of these automotive pans from a friend who worked in the factories. His Sicilian mother-in-law created a pizza recipe. They put the pizza in the automotive pan, put the pan in the oven, and that’s how Detroit got its own style of pizza.
A Detroit pizza is thick. Rather than mozzarella cheese, a Detroit pizza has Wisconsin-style brick cheese on top. The cheese extends all the way to the edges of the pan , so it gets caramelized and crispy around the edges. It’s cut into squares and most people eat this pizza with a knife and fork.
If anyone ever offers you a Detroit slice, make sure to ask for one of the corner pieces . Those are the pieces with the crispiest cheese . They’re the best. You can get Detroit-style pizza at restaurants around the country.
California is…let’s just put it this way: California likes to be different. And so it is with its pizza. California doesn’t have a specific style—and that is its style. A California pizza might have barbecue chicken on top, or it might have smoked salmon . Pineapple on pizza? Anything goes in California. You can even get caviar on pizza. So California style is all about experimentation , bold flavors , local ingredients, and taking risks .
A couple more. New Haven style pizza is like New York style, but it’s even thinner and crispier . Quad Cities pizza has spicy sauce and a cracker-thin crust that they cut with scissors . Greek pizza in New England has a thick, chewy crust and a lot of olive oil .
Jeff’s take
Again, listeners in Italy, I apologize. But this pizza is good. You guys know, I lived a long time in Chicago. But I grew up near New York and I have to say—I like New York pizza the best. You can get a whole pie or just a slice. Here’s how it works if you just want a slice. A pizza restaurant makes a bunch of pizzas, with different toppings, and they’re all under glass .
You browse, you look at the pizzas they have. You tell them what you want—say, pepper and onion or sausage. And they put the slice back in the oven for you. It cooks for a while. It comes out piping hot . They usually put it on a paper plate, you can eat it there or take it with you. So delicious.
If you know Dominos or Papa Johns or Pizza Hut, the standard slice you get there is closest to New York style. It’s not true New York style. The pizza from those national chains is smaller and the crust is thicker than what you see in the New York area. But those are closest to New York style.
Great stories make learning English fun
