Posts Tagged ‘ohio’

Famous Joe Carlucci, Pizza Maniac

At the North American Pizza and Ice Cream Show this last weekend, I partook in the annual ritual of competing with some of the best pizza makers in the Midwest. In order to clear the air, let me just say that I took 40th spot in the Gourmet category. Yes, that’s FOUR-ZERO. My pizza choice was the tremendously popular Hot Tuna pie at Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio. Evidently it wasn’t tremendously popular with the judges in Columbus.

Not to worry. My friend and fellow pizza fanatic Joe Carlucci of Tortoras Pizza won with The Sydney in the traditional category on Sunday.

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Joe Carlucci with his winning pizza.

I hadn’t seen Joe since last year at the World Pizza Championships in Salsomaggiore, Italy. It was our final night at the five-star Hotel Valentini, and I had just lay down in my bed after an exciting yet rowdy party with my team, The World Pizza Champions. Brits, Irish and  Aussies had joined in the festivities (yes, a very bad combination for any club owner).

Hearing a noise, I opened my  door to see what the commotion was out in the hallway. My foggy eyes saw Joe gleefully jumping up and down, playing rowdy leapfrog down the hallway with the members of the Australian pizza team. They were adept in their hyper-hops along the padded carpet, with nary a miss. I asked if they could pick another hallway. Joe’s last word to me was an endearing, “Ribbitt.”

2009 pictures of italy 025 Joe making his Pizza Teglia at the World Pizza Championships in Italy, 2008.

Joe is to pizza what Willie Mays is to baseball. He’s often overlooked because of bigger, louder, and more aggressive celebrity chefs, pundits and artisan bread cretins shoving their way into the limelight. Joe still has the title from the Guinness Book of World Records for the Highest Pizza Dough Toss, when he threw a perfect round pizza dough 21.5 feet in the air. His competitive nature has propelled him to win numerous culinary as well as acrobatic awards, which is why he is one of the greatest pizza consultants around. But despite all the awards and accolaides, Joe still remains one of the kindest and best friends any pizza guy could have.

Monday, I was in a loser funk that floated around in my head like Badluck Schlep-rock after a failed attempt at pizza victory on Sunday. While standing around with my “L” tatoo newly imprinted on my forehead, Joe came by carrying 4 pans in large plastic bags. The dough in these pans was bloated to the point of looking like “The Blob” of Steve McQueen fame, only these blobs were white.)

“Holy Moly, Joe.” I sniffed the dough, smelling the familiar smell of long-fermentation similar to a mellow Scotch. “How long have you had this stuff fermenting?”

He looked around to see if anyone was listening, “Seven days with a pre-ferment. Wanna see me par-cook this stuff?”

I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Joe was using two specialized pans from the best custom panmaker in the nation, Lloyd Pans. These pans were seasoned to perfection and would transfer enough heat to turn any dough into a crisp golden brown.

“Looks good,” he continued. “Huh? Huh? Looks great John, huh?

“Yeah,” I said, pushing the now-crisp outside, feeling a great bounce back from the bread-like interior that makes a great Pizza Teglia. (This is a pan pizza process that we undergo at the World Pizza Championships in Italy.)

“You’d tell me if it wasn’t, huh? Huh, John? You would, right? Right?” Joe was rambling, trying to elicit an honest response from me by nagging. Little did he know, I’ve been married for too long to fall for that.

I smiled at the funny way in which this guy, who has won so many competitions, was still modestly demanding a second opinion. He was doing the same thing I do when reaching the finals: get a response from a friend. After all, every opinion from a team member is a good opinion.

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As Joe took his pizza to the table to top it with his ingredients, I asked him about his toppings. “Some sausage, tomatoes and onions and mozzarella.” he said flippantly. I knew this response well. Keep it simple, tell the truth, but not all the truth. Accidently leave the secrets out. For years Joe and I have had conversations like the following:

“Well Joe, that looks like Chorizo sausage,” I said, trying to sound insulted.

“Oh, yeah buddy, sorry. Sausage with paprika…that’s chorizo.”

“Those look like carmelized onions, Joe.”

“Oh yeah. Sorry John, it was a long night.”

“Did you oven-dry those tomatoes, Joe?”

“Ah, maybe…Oh, yes, it think they ended up in the oven. Yes.”

“What’s in that sauce?”

“Tomatoes…and stuff.” he said with finality and smiled. I threw my head back and laughed. Now that’s a competitor, I thought.

Here is a video of Joe’s final moments before submitting his pizza at the show.

And after the final bake, he made another pizza for the finals competition.

After congratulating Joe, I asked him for his recipe. He hasn’t responded. I don’t blame him, as I’m going up against him in Italy and Las Vegas soon. Contact him at Famous Joes and bug him, but don’t get your hopes up.

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Congratulations to Joe. Semper Pie!

“Robin Hood” of Athens County Retires

“A person who has food has many problems. A person who has no food has only one problem.” Chinese Proverb

As I see the devastation and ruined lives in Haiti, I go online to give a donation at Clinton Bush Haiti Relief. Then I stumble across a clip of Rush Limbaugh trying to persuade individuals not to donate.

Being of independent and of fairly sound mind (despite the 70’s), I thought: Would Rush still have this opinion if his life had been constantly filled with hunger and despair?  To grow up in, let’s say, Athens County, Ohio where he was one of many kids who had to wait in line at the food pantry with his parents  just to get something to eat? Would his cynicism and sarcasm about avoidable slow death be muted? Would he be motivated to get off of his ass and do something for his community? Who knows.

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Community Food Initiatives’ Donation Station sign. Keith Peterson weighing food donations from the market.

This got me thinking about Keith Peterson, a man I met years ago who has recently just retired. In 2007, he decided to do something about the lack of quality foods available to the poor. He started delivering fresh local produce to food pantries, food banks, shelters, battered womans’ centers, and just about anyone who needed it. In the 2 years that followed, Keith delivered over 80,000 pounds of fresh food to people in this area. Last year he delivered loads of my fresh baked, high protein Barbari bread to poor community centers and food pantries every Tuesday.

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Daniel Martino weighing corn. Keith’s small car stuffed with summertime produce. Delivery to the Food Pantry.

Keith hooked up with Rhonda Clark, head of the  Community Food Initiatives non-profit, which coordinated the support needed for him to, quite literally, be the vehicle that enabled the needy to get fresh, nutritious, fruits, vegetables, baked goods and meats to sustain life.

I went Keith to food pantries many times. Here was a guy who, instead of flapping his gums like Rush, coerced, begged, pleaded and wheeled and dealed to get people to give food, or money to buy food. He then bought more food and transported it to the people who need food most: the elderly, the sick and the children. He never espoused any political affiliation or philosophy (except being a huge AC/DC fan) and had a fair amount of contempt for people trying to manipulate the needy for religious, political (or in Rush’s case) rating reasons. That’s why I like him.. Oh, he is funny as hell also.

Keith’s modus operandi was to stand all day at the Athens Farmers Market with his right hand man, Daniel Martino (employed through VISTA), and ask people to donate any item from the farmers, which he would then take to 13 different organizations to feed the needy.

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Produce given to CFI by the farmers and customers of the Athens Farmers Market.

At the end of the market, tgenerous farmers drop off huge amounts of produce, meats and foodstuffs to Keith. The CFI team, including Keith’s wife Ellen, spends the rest of the day weighing, cataloging and bagging up all the foods to meet the greatest food needs of this, the poorest county in Ohio.


Kieth also was a regular at the Chesterhill Produce Auction, now run by Rural Action and Tom Redfern and Bob Fedeski. Here he bid on items with donated monies. While there, he’d also guilt me  (just by staring) into giving him some of my  Amish vegetables that I so proudly outbid all comers for.

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Just one load of food brought to the Kilvert Community Center looks massive. Amish vegetables at auction.

I gotta tell you, this dude is a tough bidder. He can outbid me at the last minute after distractingme with “Hey John, isn’t that a flat tire on your vehicle?” All of a sudden, that good-looking basket of red and yellow beets are in his hands and he’s laughing like the Joker of Batman fame.

I will miss Keith and the worthwhile work he does. Whoever fills his shoes will have alot to cover to reach the intensity and productivity he showed helping out the families of Appalachia. Here is Keith in typical Peterson mode: downplaying what he has done.

Thanks to Keith, Community Food Initiatives and the Farmers of Athens County. More than one kid in Athens County benefitted from Keith’s efforts and was able to concentrate better at school instead of worrying about an empty stomach. Maybe that kid, because of the nutritious food he or she was able to eat, broke the chain of generational poverty and moved on to college.

And just maybe, that kid will go on to become a radio announcer, or the President of the United States, or even better yet, a crazy pizza guy.