January 2026 Fireside Chat - ALL THINGS PIZZA! W/ Special Guest Dave Joachim

[Huskee]

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Join us on Facebook or YouTube LIVE this Wednesday 1/28 at 7:30 p.m. CST for Meathead's Fireside Chat for all things pizza!

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• Cookbook author, pizza guru, cycle enthusiast, rock band drummer, and AmazingRibs.com's own Editorial Director Dave Joachim will be the special guest.

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About Dave:

Dave Joachim (jo-WOK'm) is the co-author of two acclaimed pizza cookbooks: The earliest, from 2018, is Mastering Pizza co-written with James Beard-award-winning Philadelphia chef Marc Vetri. This authoritative book has sold more than 100,000 copies and is an Amazon Editors’ Pick, consistently ranking among the top pizza cookbooks. It focuses on Italian pizza, focaccia, and calzones, including a deep dive into oven types and temperatures, various doughs for thick and thin-crust pizzas, and the affect of different wheat varieties on dough flavor and texture. There’s quite a bit of food science here. For research, Dave traveled throughout Naples and Rome eating dozens of pizzas of various styles.

His newest pizza book is We The Pizza, from 2025, ghostwritten for Philadelphia James Beard-award-winning social entrepreneur Muhammad Abdul-Hadi, owner of the acclaimed Down North Pizza in Philadelphia. This book is all about Detroit-style pizza with unique topping combos like berbere-spiced smoked brisket, pikliz, and harissa cheese sauce. It has been nominated for some prestigious awards.

Over 30 years of researching and cooking, Dave has tasted most of the acclaimed pizzas in Italy and America from Bonci’s pizza al taglio in Rome and Franco Pepe’s Neo-Neapolitan style near Naples to Frank Pepe’s white clam pizza in Connecticut, Ann Kim’s Pizzeria Lola in Minneapolis, Pizzeria Beddia in Philadelphia, Ken’s Artisan in Portland, and Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. Dave is also the chief pizza oven tester and reviewer for AmazingRibs.com, and he’s done thorough tests and pizza cooks on everything from the $2000 wood-fired Gozney Dome outdoor pizza oven to the $99 Culinary Chef indoor electric pizza oven.

[Huskee]

Here's the recorded version of this chat on YouTube:

[Michael_in_TX]

We The Pizza has one of the most powerful book covers I have ever seen!

[Steve B]

Looking forward to this one, as I’ve been working on my pizza game big time lately.

[RhodeHog]

Same. It's my goal this year to make homemade pizza that rivals anything I've enjoyed in a restaurant.

[Alan Brice]

I am in! Both books arrive on the 30th.

[jfmorris]

Woohoo! I am putting this on my calendar and hope to be able to join.

Question though. The TEXT says 7:30PM CST, but the little table at the bottom says 6:30PM CST. Which is it?!?!

[WI Bubba]

You kids enjoy your late night fun. I'm too old to be partying until the wee hours like that anymore.

[J-Melt]

WI Bubba I’m a youngeon, but have a 4:30am work start tomorrow, so I won’t be partying late either!

[Huskee]

I selected 7:30 in the calendar thing, but it doesn't allow me to select a time zone, so it apparently defaulted to my time zone. It shows me 7:30, but shows YOU whatever your time zone is. So I typed 7:30 CT in the topic's title, in its body, and in the notes section on the calendar to help clarify.

[Tracy Evans]

I'm looking forward to this! Always interested in making my pizza beter!

[SheilaAnn]

I’m working tomorrow! If I get home in time, I’ll jump in.

[dpearce]

8:30 EST! I've only joined one fireside chat, hoping I can make this one. Can't really miss it, as we both belong to the cult of Dave.

Edit: I believe we have a newsletter.

[Alan Brice]

Excellent Meathead n Dave! Thank you.

[synodog]

First time jumping on the Fireside Chat. Enjoyed the info and now I've got a bunch of stuff in my search history and Amazon cart.

[johnec00]

Great show Meathead and Dave. Learned a bunch of stuff about the pizza world.

[dpearce]

Great chat, thanks Meathead and davejoachim for putting up with us!

Slow process, attempting to replicate my mother's sauce recipe. The family story was, she learned how to cook sauce from grandma Persuti, her neighbor, whose family had one of the first Italian/pizza joints in Columbus Ohio. No idea if that's true or not, but she used a lot of northern Italian spices in that sauce, and to this day my kids appreciate a more "spicy" mix, with a much heavier use of Oregano. The story was, since northern Italy didn't have access to sugar year-round, they used spices and basil to temper their sauce, and omitted the sugar. (odd side note, there's a restaurant in Columbus that serves a very "sweet" sauce with sugar in it. Not my favorite.)

So maybe the legend is true. Don't know.

Before my brother passed, he said, he'd figured out what Mom's (written) recipe was missing! Cumin. Ok! Great! Let's add that in! Well, numerous attempts have not exactly panned out. We're still trying. But one thing she was really good with was making pizza dough. She baked amazing Apple, Cherry, Pecan pies, and cookies, brownies, you name it. If it had dough, it was in her wheelhouse. I admit, I'm a complete novice on the dough front. Maybe I should've paid better attention growing up, but you know how that goes.

Mom cooked by taste, mostly. The written recipe's were guidelines, nothing more. She had a flavor in mind and when it panned out, that's what she made.

She also had "several" spaghetti sauce recipes. Including a short cut recipe with V8 juice. I have not attempted to master those.

There's a lot to deal with when it comes to pizza. Dough, sauces, toppings, but really appreciate Dave's expertise in those matters. Hoping to learn more through his writings!

[Meathead]

My wife ran a food safety lab for the FDA and was meticulous about note taking and cracked the whip on her team. She is also a great cook.

Meathead: Wow this is great
Mrs.: Thanks
MH: How'd you make it?
Mrs: Little of this, a bunch of that, and some of the other thing.
MH: Did you write it down so you can make it again?
Mrs. No.
MH: Grrrrrrrrr

[dpearce]

Meathead it’s amazing how many times I’ve heard the “just pinch of this, sprinkle of that” from older family members when I was a kid. I assumed cooking was more voodoo and black magic, than anything! I will say, cooking by taste can be phenomenal. Not so great for replication, though!

[jfmorris]

Unfortunately, I got called away by my wife on other business from 5pm to 10:30pm, and only got to tune in for about 20 minutes while driving, playing the audio through my truck via bluetooth. What I heard was great (mostly the launching portion of the talk). I hope this ends up viewable after the fact somewhere, so I can watch it in its entirety.

[Alan Brice]

Thanks WI Bubba

[SheilaAnn]

I got home from the trade show too late. Is it recorded anywhere Meathead ?

[Alan Brice]

It was interesting. I learned the dif btw Chi, NY n Detroit styles. I would watch again.

[Huskee]

They are posted to our YouTube channel.

[Meathead]

Also in X. Probably on FB too. Let me know if you cant find it. It wasx really good.

[WI Bubba]

https://www.youtube.com/live/yRa6nk3EUE8?si=b7rbQgiW15kJQUq2

For those who missed it live.

[Alan Brice]

Thank you Bubba. SheilaAnn