© Provided by KTVI-TV St. Petersburg.
Street. Lewis: The New York Times columnist and best-selling cookbook author spent five months in Chicago learning how to make thin-crust pizza. J. Kenji Lopez-Alta's article about the experience created quite a stir in St. Louis. Did Chicago steal Gateway's identity? Not true, but he says that most pizza in the Midwest is influenced by Chicago pubs.
Article St. Lewis makes some interesting comments.
- "I'm sure this article is a hook of anger for the rest of the St. Louis demographic," wrote one Redditor.
- Another Reddit commenter said: "People who don't like clues do their best to let random people know."
- "St. Louis style is literally just Chicago cheese tasting bar style," said another Reddit user.
Two types of Chicago style pizza
There seem to be two styles of Chicago pizza. One is the deep dish that everyone outside of Chicago knows, and the other is called pub style.
"The deep dish was invented around 1943, and the pub style has been around for much longer. It has a thin, crumb-like crust, usually cut into squares and often topped with fennel sausage," wrote Eater Chicago correspondent Garrett Sweet.
As the story goes, yard workers in Chicago sometimes stopped at the bar on their way home. Pizza was cut into squares to serve on napkins and was often free for drinkers. It became very popular.
"Eventually, free pizza became so popular that bars started selling it. From Chicago, it spread to become one of the leading styles of pizza in the Midwest," Lopez-Alte wrote.
Chicago Magazine wrote, "Similar horizontal cracks can be found on Quad Cities-style pizza and cheese-flavored pizza in St. Louis."
What is the difference?
So how does Chicago-style thin dough differ from St. Louis-style? Well, the STL "Square Beyond Compare" is almost empty. Lopez Alt's recipe starts with flour, sugar, salt, yeast, water and oil. Also, there's a thing with spent cheese.
You might think that a New York Times food writer doesn't know that thin-crust pizza is from St. Louis. In 2019, Lopez-Alte wrote an article titled "In Defense of St. Louis Style Pizza" for Serious Eats. Here he has walked through the courtyards and many people have admitted that they throw San Juan pizza. Louis, but she really loves him.
"I finally understand why I love it so much. San Juan-style pizza. Lowe's is not pizza. Pizza is full-flavored nachos. Listen to me," explained Lopez-Alte. The article explores the city's strange relationship with pizza.
The history of Holly's Pizza
So where did San Luis pizza come from? Well, it has a rather complicated history, with many different roots. One of the first to start selling moved to the city from Chicago in the 1930s. Amedeo Fiore's Pizzeria was an instant success and inspired many others. The Chicago resident also applied for a probationary license, but was denied.
Why St. Louis Style Pizza? Did Lewis cut the squares? Imo is now famous for its St. Louis style pizza. The story goes that Ed Imo and his brothers worked as roofers. During the day they put tiles. Ed Imo cooked and sold pizza at night. He said cutting the pizza into squares was a natural progression.
Copyright 2023 Nextstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, transmitted, rewritten or redistributed.
For breaking news, weather, sports and streaming video, go to FOX 2.
