An Afternoon with Scott's Pizza Tours

A crew of volunteers and students from MS 104 embarked on an adventure last Saturday, with a legendary pizza guide named Scott.

Our adventure began at Keste, a restaurant specializing in Neapolitan style pizza, the oldest style of pizza.

Keste bakes their pizzas in a beautiful, domed, tile-inlayed wood-burning oven that has heat temperatures ranging from 700 to over 1000 degrees.  The fornaio, the gentleman responsible for manning the oven, continually shifts the pizza around the oven in order to leverage the oven's different temperature zones, and to cook the pizza perfectly.  Total cooking time for one pizza is about 1.5 minutes.

Scott told us about the the special 00 grade flour Keste imports directly from Naples for use in their thin and airy pizza dough.

He also educated us on a common pizza-making blunder which involves rolling out the dough.  In order to maintain a light dough that is not tough and dull, you must use your fingertips to lightly push out the dough until it forms a circular width of your liking.  

The result of gentle fingertips and 00 flour yields a silky dough that is quite delicate.

We tried two pies at Keste, one which was the original form of pizza, simply presented as dough, pecorino romano and shards of lard.

The salty and savoriness of the mast'nicola made one forget that there was no tomato sauce at all.  Scott informed us that tomatoes were not brought to Italy until the 1800s, and thus the initial pies were not made with this characteristic ingredient that we all commonly associate with basic pizza.

We also sampled Keste's margherita pizza, featuring fresh mozzarella, basil and cheery tomato sauce.

The addition of fresh tomato sauce lightened the pie considerably, compared to the mast'nicola.  It was fresh and delicious.

I also particularly enjoyed Keste's attention to detail, down to their special curved knives that are designed to not deflate their airy and light crusts.

After, we crossed the street and ventured to John's Pizza, which introduces the state's namesake pizza: the New York pizza slice.

John's is a historic and popular New York style pizzeria, notorious for not serving slices.  One must always order a full pie.

We visited the West Village branch of the restaurant, which was more intimate and charming than its Times Square counterpart, with names of patrons carved into any wooden spot possible.

The pizza at John's is made with inexpensive American ingredients like regular flour and low-moisture mozzarella cheese.

The pizza is cooked in a coal-burning oven and requires about 6-7 minutes to fully cook.

What is notable about John's pizza is that the pie is prepared by pouring the sauce on top of the shredded mozzarella.  The result of this method melds the cheese and sauce uniformly together and avoids major pizza faux pas of massive cheese slippage while eating.

Although I have previously enjoyed John's Pizza years ago, I found I did not enjoy them as much in the present, especially after such a delightfully light pie from Keste.

Finally, we explored a third popular style of pizza called the Sicilian at a place called Ben's Pizza.

We were fortunate enough to visit the pizzeria while the owner was preparing huge bricks of mozzarella cheese to put through their industrial shredder.

We tried this interesting slice called the Palermo, a breadcrumb-laden pizza devoid of cheese, with a flavorful, garlic-infused tomato sauce.  This was a hefty bugger, and though tasty,  is a slice I just do not see myself ordering again soon.

The trio of pizza eateries highlighted a wide spectrum of pizza styles and toppings and was a great inaugural eating adventure for the gang!

Keste
271 Bleecker
New York, NY

John's Pizzeria of Bleecker St
278 Bleecker
New York, NY

Famous Ben's Pizza of Soho
177 Spring St
New York, NY