New York pizza traditionally comes in pieces that have about the consistency of a large washcloth. Now a culture war has broken out around them, reminiscent of the German heat pump debate.
The pizza comes from Naples, of course, but that doesn’t mean a city like New York doesn’t need a pizza historian. Scott Wiener has been working in this field full-time for 16 years. He offers guided tours through all five boroughs, and it’s not just about dough and toppings. It’s also about cultural, scientific and, last but not least, evolutionary questions regarding pizza. The New York pizza traditionally comes in pieces that have about the consistency of a large washcloth, you receive them on a cardboard base and eat them while walking. “It differs so drastically from the Italian original that we have to speak of it as a separate species,” says Wiener.