It’s the start of summer, which means it’s a great time to host your own pizza party. (And really, is there ever a bad time for a DIY pizza party?) To help, three new pizza-centric cookbooks have recently debuted, each dedicated to helping you step up your home pizza game. The quest to bake the perfect pie might just become your next hobby — the opportunities for specialty gear are myriad — but in the meantime, here are a few tips from the cookbooks and their authors.
Tony Gemignani is perhaps the Bay Area’s most prominent pizzaiolo, as the chef and restaurateur behind Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, Tony’s Coal Fired Pizza, Capo’s and more. Now his empire of Slice House locations — in Walnut Creek and beyond — is expanding across the country, with more than 40 pizzerias now in operation and 150 locations under development, he says. A Slice House opened in Mountain View last week, and additional locations are planned in San Jose, Fremont, Dublin and Livermore.
Gemignani, author of “The Pizza Bible,” grew up in Fremont and began working at his brother’s Castro Valley pizzeria before becoming a pizza-throwing competitor on the international stage. He now lives in Alamo with his family. “Pursuit of Pizza” was written by pizza pros for pizza enthusiasts, he says.
In addition to recipes, the cookbook includes QR codes that link readers to video tutorials by the authors, who include Laura Meyer from Berkeley’s Pizzeria da Laura . “The key to great pizza i.