“WE DID IT!” -Pizza Schmizza, On Portland Being Crowned America’s Best Pizza City
Food writers love to make viral “best of” lists, and this week two heavyweight cookbook authors, Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya (Modernist Cuisine, Modernist Bread), joined the chorus by boldly proclaiming Portland “America’s Best Pizza City.” Area chefs’ and pizzaiolos’ reactions to the news ranged from indifference to fervent enthusiasm. On the vivacious end of that spectrum was Pizza Schmizza Executive Chef, Gracia Ortiz.
“It is our great honor to bring this title home to a city that has given us so much. Dedication to our craft combined with a passion for local ingredients is what makes the pies from our artisan Schmizzarias world class. I want to accept this award for Portland on behalf of the other pizza titans in town. In addition to Schmizza, Ken’s Artisan Pizza and Apizza Scholls also do some really amazing work, even if it’s not quite up to our level.”
Ortiz also credited Schmizza’s commitment to the craft. “Our pizza is a combination of Sicilian and New Haven style. The dough is low hydration and is fired in our low powered residential ovens. We are perfectionists and our attention to detail leads us to finish some pizzas in the microwave if the cheese doesn’t quite melt all the way the first time. When we make our Hawaiian pie, we nestle whole rings of canned pineapple on a bed of SYSCO deli ham, and I don’t think there are a lot of culinary innovators in the game doing that right now.”
While Myhrvold and Francisco did not include Pizza Schmizza as part of the eight restaurants that propelled Portland into their top ranking, Ortiz was undeterred. “If you’re talking about the best artists on display in the Louvre, you don’t mention Leonardo da Vinci, because it’s a given. That same logic applies to these ‘best of’ Portland pizza lists. The reason that Schmizza isn’t on any of them is because it is generally understood in the elite global culinary community that we are royalty – the best of the best. Mentioning us would be redundant. That same logic applies to our absence of Michelin stars.”