[.ca] Pizza (ISBN 0877014485)

Pretty to look at, no substance:
McNair has a "cookie cutter" approach to his cookbooks, laughing all the way to the bank. No love, and little care, went into this one. The recipes do not generate the appearance or flavor promised in the descriptions, and have to be tinkered with. In some cases, you wonder if the author actually worked with the recipes. Expensive ingredients are specified, such as imported cheeses, which add little or nothing to the dish. This feels like a book done to pay the mortgage. Save your money for your own mortgage-- don't buy this book.

Mommy makes the best pizza in the whole wide world:
I had to write this review to refute the "pretty pizza, no substance" one, written by the angry reader who accused McNair of writing the book to pay off his mortgage. Don't believe a word of that negative commentary. I've been making pizza for years using a brick oven stone and have had lots of success with McNair's ideas. And his ingredients don't seem particularly exotic to me-- what's so mysterious about freshly ground Parmesan cheese? McNair himself recommends substitution if you don't have a particular ingredient on hand, or if you prefer an alternative ingredient taste-wise. I especially like the whole-wheat pizza crust recipe-- I just throw the ingredients into a bread machine and use it for two thin pizzas. I add some mozzarella & cheddar, the New York Neopolitan pizza sauce (very simple) and some garlic and add steamed spinach, basil & Italian flat-leaf parsley and oregano & Parmesan on top, & it's easy & delicious. And according to the kids, "Mommy makes the best pizza in the whole wide world." Thanks, James McNair. I hope you pay off your mortgage and that I pay mine off too someday.

Great cooking!:
I own several James McNair books, and I find them consistently reliable. Yes, some of the recipes do call for specialized ingredients (Parmigiano Reggiano cheese instead of Kraft Parmesan, for example), but that's just one detail that makes McNair's recipes so much better than many others. I recently made pizza for lunch for some houseguests who were astounded that I could do so from scratch without an awful lot of effort--they had NEVER seen it done at home before. It's not at all difficult, and the results are far superior to anything out of the freezer or thrown at the doorstep by a fast-moving delivery driver. Many of McNair's books are old reliables around my house!

Great Start to making Homemade Pizza:
I never figured I'd be able to make a decent pizza at home, until I purchased this book. I was worried a standard home oven could never produce the quality any pizzeria could produce, and that the right equipment and skills wouldn't help. I was wrong. This book offers simple recipes for pizza dough, and how to cook the pizza in your oven, that allows you to come up with something rivaling the local pizzeria. I've followed the instructions, and found the regular recipe produces a nice, high quality crust - and once you have the crust, you can play around with toppings, so you've got most of a good pizza down. I have yet to try the Chicago-style corn crust, as I can't find a deep-dish pizza pan yet. The sauce recipes are not quite as good as the dough recipe, with the one I use most often seeming like it's missing something, perhaps a little sugar, so that's going to be something to play with. To be honest, the interesting history of pizza presented in the book, along with the basics of cooking the pizza, and the supplies you need, are the best part of the book - the other recipes for various toppings do seem like afterthoughts, though a few do get my interest.

Good book, nice pictures - covers the basics.:
Great book for the amateur pizza maker with good insight into the history of pizza, and recipes for all the basic pizza's plus New York style and Chicaco deep dish. The photography is great.