The recipient of this year’s James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur, chef Chris Bianco discusses his New York City roots, building his Pizzeria Bianco (pizzeriabianco.com) restaurant brand in Arizona and how you can make his famed margherita pizza at home.
PHOTO BY DAVID LOFTUS
Bronx native Chris Bianco fondly recalls frequenting the pizzerias that dotted every corner of his New York City neighborhood as a child. “It was food of the people,” Bianco says. “Even my young friends could go after school and get a slice for 75 cents, and be a part of something.”
In his early 20s, Bianco moved to Phoenix, where he rented 300 square feet of space in the back of a grocery store. The pizza Bianco made with stellar ingredients and techniques at that first Pizzeria Bianco outpost in 1988 found a fast following, and he followed it up with Pane Bianco, a sandwich shop and bakery; Bar Bianco, next door to Pizzeria Bianco in Heritage Square; a second Pizzeria Bianco location at Town & Country; and Tratto, “a little white tablecloth restaurant” where he could take his wife to a lovingly prepared Italian dinner.
After winning the James Beard distinction of Best Chef Southwest in 2003, Bianca just received the 2022 Outstanding Restaurateur award. “I was shocked and humbled then, and I feel the same way now,” says Bianco. “I just put my head back down and went to work. … It’s not a time to rest on it. It’s a time to build something positive on those foundations.”
What he’s building next is Pizzeria Bianco Los Angeles, with a dinner menu that mirrors the Phoenix locations, however, Bianco launched with lunch service and takeout, offering Angelenos the thinner, crispier New York-style slices and 18-inch pies he began making during the pandemic for comfort. “So, you know, the kids who work in the neighborhood can get something for five bucks and be a part of it,” he says.
Readers can now be a part of it too, with Bianco’s coveted margherita pizza recipe he kindly shared with us.
INGREDIENTS:
One ball of your preferred pizza dough, rested and ready to shape
2 oz. fresh mozzarella, torn into cubes
6 Tbsp. crushed tomato sauce, with an added glug of extra-virgin olive oil
A pinch or two of finely grated
Parmigiano-Reggiano (optional)
Fine sea salt (optional)
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
5 fresh basil leaves
James Beard Award winner chef Chris Bianco shares his recipe for margherita pizza. PHOTO BY ALEX BERLINER
STEP 1
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven (remove the rack above it) and place a pizza stone on it. Turn up your oven to its maximum setting, as high as it will go, and let that baby preheat for a solid hour. Don’t even bother putting together your pizza until the oven’s been going for an hour.
STEP 2
Once the oven is preheated, grab a pizza peel and give it a nice, light dusting of flour. This will help prevent the pizza from sticking when you slide it from peel to stone. (If you don’t have a peel, you can use a cookie sheet or an inverted baking sheet.) Shape the dough and set the prepared dough on the peel. Jerk the peel to make sure it’s not sticking. If it is, lift the dough and dust the underside with extra flour. Tuck and shape it until it’s a happy circle.
STEP 3
Taste your mozzarella and your tomato sauce to see how salty they both are and make a mental note of this. Spoon the tomato sauce evenly over the pizza, using the back of the spoon to spread the sauce, starting from the center and stopping about ¾ inch—a fat thumb’s width—from the edges. (With a handcrushed tomato sauce, the consistency of the sauce over the pizza’s surface will be uneven. It’s inevitable.)
STEP 4
Sprinkle the Parmigiano, if using, over the sauce. Let the spots where the tomato sauce is thinner guide you as to the placement of the mozzarella—hit those drier spots with a bit more mozzarella. If when you tasted your sauce and cheese earlier you determined that the salinity wasn’t quite there yet, sprinkle the pizza with some salt. Then give it a very light drizzle of olive oil.
STEP 5
Open the oven and, tilting the peel just slightly, give it a quick shimmy-shake to slide the pizza onto the pizza stone. Bake the pizza for 10 to 15 minutes, until the crust is crisp and golden brown.
STEP 6
Remove the pizza with the peel and immediately add the basil leaves, laying them evenly across the top. The heat of the pizza will wilt the leaves slightly and release their heady fragrance. Enjoy immediately!
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