Last Friday, while sitting in a crowded outdoor Parisian cafe’ before the Mondial de la Pizza, I recieved word that my story, “Truffle in Paradise,” was selected to appear in Holly Hughes’ “Best Food Writing 2012.”
“Truffle,” is a story about me and my three friends trying to find those wonderfully pungent dirt-mushrooms in Italy. Not the noble whites or the rough blacks, just the early spring truffle called “Bianchetti.” This truffle is grey, earthy and what some call “ugly” and “trash,” quite possibly a metaphor for the standing of the lonely pizza guy in the culinary universe, huh?
I had planned to shave this much-sought-after wonder on my pizza for the World Pizza Championships of 2008 but was not prepared for what happened next…well, lets just say, you gotta read this one!
The story first appeared in the spring edition of Gastronomica, the journal of food and culture published by Darra Goldstein and the University of California Press.
As you can tell, I am very glad that Darra and Holly took a chance to highlight a story about competitive pizza making in very tough environment that seperates the strong from the weak and strenghtens bonds between friends. Thanks also to my good friends Bruno di Fabio, Tony Gemignani and Justin Wadstein who appear in the book and my fabulous writing coach, Dianne Jacob. But most of all, the love of my life, Debra for putting up with all my insane pizza crapola.
