“The Best Pizza is in LA” is a Cheesy Love Letter to the City of Angels
Like most movie-loving young people, there came a time when I packed my bags and moved west to Los Angeles. I was born and raised on the East Coast and spent my adolescence visiting my paternal grandparents in New York City. I know what good pizza tastes like. I know the simple joy of walking down the street and picking up a slice. When I moved to LA, that ceased to exist, but I wasn’t alone in feeling this loss. Peter Ferriero’s new documentary makes a bold claim that’s also the title of the film: The Best Pizza Is in LA. Through a cross-city trek to taste all of the pizzas LA has to offer, Peter tries to convince chefs and food lovers alike that Los Angeles is a serious contender.
When I was living in Los Angeles, I often found myself working out of a coffee shop on Melrose. A few months into working there, a pizza shop popped up. It was just a walk-up window where you could get a slice. I got to chatting with the guy who owned and ran the place (it has since closed). He told me that he spent months perfecting a water filtration system that would effectively turn Los Angeles water into New York water. Many people, myself included, believe that the key to New York pizza supremacy is what lies in those ancient pipes. The tap water in my paternal grandparents’ apartment was horrible. I hated drinking it unless I dropped a few ice cubes into it. Is water what’s holding Los Angeles back? Or is the city’s pizza thriving without it? The Best Pizza Is in LA would argue that it’s the melting pot nature of the city that creates something better, regardless of the pH of the water.
Courtesy of The Best Pizza is in LA
In La La Land, Ryan Gosling’s character laments the fact that a famed jazz club has been turned into a tapas place. “They worship everything and they value nothing,” he says. While he might be talking about the state of jazz in LA, the same sentiment could apply to pizza. As Peter mentions in the documentary, for a long time, pizza in Los Angeles was Wolfgang Puck’s Smoked Salmon Pizza. Respectfully, it sounds like an abomination, but it also begs the question, what makes a pizza? Is it a combination of dough, tomatoes, and cheese? If so, some Italian creations couldn’t be considered a pizza.
The Best Pizza Is in LA begins with a debate-inducing sentiment. No self-respecting New Yorker would ever let LA take that title away, but as Peter traverses the city, the concept and definition of this staple expand. Maybe New York reigns supreme over the traditional slice, but Los Angeles is more open to the ways pizza can be molded and expanded. That’s perhaps what Ryan Gosling’s character alludes to in La La Land. There are some chefs in LA who are importing Italian flour and water to get that classic New York taste, but there are also chefs who are perfecting the Detroit, Chicago, and Tokyo styles of pizza. Every metropolitan city has their own take on pizza, with varying degrees of success. My current residence, Pittsburgh, has its own take, which is a cold cheese pizza. The dough and sauce are baked and then, when the pizza comes out, cold cheese is put on top. Maybe some innovations in the pizza space matter less than others.
What The Best Pizza Is in LA ultimately proves is that we all have our own tastes and preferences. When we talk about agreeing to disagree on controversial topics, it’s things like whether or not semolina belongs on the bottom of pizza (it doesn’t), not whether everyone deserves basic human rights. The Best Pizza Is in LA is a love letter to a city, one delicious bite at a time.
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