My regional pizza gripe

This is just something of a pet peeve of mine:

“Chicago-style” pizza is not what you think it is. Sure, everyone labels a particular type of deep-dish “stuffed” pizza as “Chicago-style” but this is the province of a few specific Chicago chains: Pizzeria Uno, Giordano’s, Lou Malnati’s, most notably. It’s not what a typical Chicagoan eats when they get a pizza at the local pizza place, the sort that’s family-run and has generations of loyal customers.

That pizza has a thin crust, an exceptionally thick layer of cheese, and is cut into squares. Ugh — I can’t stand it. The edges are crunchy and burnt-tasting, and the interior pieces are just a gloppy mess.

And my hometown has it’s own “style” of pizza — Detroit-style pizza even gets its own article in Wikipedia. Thick-crust, baked in a rectangular pan — Little Ceasar’s has now been trying to introduce this nationwide (or at least in Chicago), and Jet’s Pizza has expanded at least as far as Chicago (and Grand Haven, where we’re vacationing, and ate it for lunch). Why do I say that Detroit-style pizza is “authentic” where so-called “Chicago-style” pizza is not?

Simple. Because I remember that on pizza days in school (parochial school, no cafeteria), the pizza was square, much like the pizza that we had for lunch today.