Pizza and Pie: Chicago vs. New York (vs. Chicago)

When people ask what’s “better” – New York pizza or Chicago Deep Dish, it is important to clarify whether they really mean Deep Dish, or whether they actually mean stuffed pizza (or pizza pie, as I call it).

Before anyone can begin to compare deep dish to NY style, they need to understand what deep dish actually is. Deep dish, as represented by Uno’s, Gino’s East, and (the best) Lou Malnati’s, is thick flaky crust, sliced mozzarella cheese, toppings, crushed tomato sauce. Pizza Pie, however, fails the definition of being pizza because it is actually thin crust, shredded mozzarella cheese and toppings, a second thin crust, and then sauce. This is why it is more of a pie or a casserole than a pizza, at places like Giordano’s or Connie’s.

With these clarifications in place, we can evaluate the differences between true deep dish and NY style. The infographic below is courtesy of Lou Malnati’s and is a fair comparison. As you can see, NY style is thin crust, sauce, cheese, toppings.

When I make pizza at home, I do it in an iron skillet, but I actually make a Pequod’s inspired pizza, which is a kind of hybrid: thick crust, sauce, toppings, sliced cheese. this is because I lack the skill to make the true crushed tomato sauce necessary to protect the cheese, and I like the carmelized crust effect from layering mozz over the edges on contact with the pan. Here’s the last one I made:

hybrid deep dish - Aziz P style
hybrid deep dish – Aziz P style

And now, the actual infographic. Are you not entertained?

Infographic-Chicago-vs-New-York-Pizza

Related: RealDeepDish.com’s exegesis of the styles of Chicago pizza.

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