I Ate The World's Best Pizza
This is the best rated pizza in the entire world. And we’re going to be comparing it to the world’s most expensive pizza that has more gold than my chain. The top rated pizza in New York city that uses a 100 year old oven and everything in between. And as crazy as it might sound, we’re going to start at Costco. I’ve never actually had their pizza, but based on countless articles I’ve found online, this is the internet’s favorite budget slice. Do I think Costco pizza is going to beat the slices we’re going to have in New
York or Italy later in this video? Probably not, but we won’t know until we try. Members only shouldn’t be a problem. Not the best photo though. Fun fact, they sell so much pizza here at Costco that technically they’re one of the largest pizza chains in the country. I need to find out why people love it so much. So you think it could be the best in the world? Costco is the best. We watched this pizza be made back there by this robot machine that spreads the sauce perfectly. The robot is so smart that as it
gets closer to the center, there’s less sauce so that your pizza can hold up and doesn’t flop over. They’ve just got everything down to a T where it’s all the same consistent,
like it’s the very best version of a pizza that you get at a birthday party. I love it. The only negatives for me is that there’s no crunch in this crust, and the bottom doesn’t have that classic pizza char I’m looking for. This pizza right here exceeded my expectations, but the real question is, can it hold up against the best pizzas in the world? This is Al Forno. It’s in Providence, Rhode Island, just a few minutes away from the hospital where I was born. And this is where grilled pizza was invented. Grilled pizza has a
more complex flavor than any slice you’ve probably ever tasted. And it’s so good that at one point, it won Al Forno the award for best casual restaurant in the world. How are you? Good, how are you? It’s good to see you. The last time I was in this kitchen was when I was 17. 17 years old? Yeah. Are you 21 now? I’m 27. So, fun fact, this was my first ever job. David was the chef. Was I helpful? Give me an honest rating. Oh, yes, you were. I remember. I swept the floor a lot. You
were helpful, yes. Do you think this deserves to be up there with, like, the best pizzas in the world? Because I actually do. I do. Oh, absolutely. Because of all the care and time that we take in making them. It seems easy, but it’s not that easy. I promise you. The whole process takes like, I don’t know, three minutes. And David, Nick will be able to make one too? Absolutely. Was he allowed to make one back in the day? No, he was not. Any reason why? Haha uh, he needs some training. That right there is
what makes a grilled pizza a grilled pizza. Those clean, fresh marks that go across it. So what’s the secret? I mean, what makes this pizza so good? Fresh ingredients, very simple. Cooking it on a live fire like that, right straight on. Uh, David, I don’t know if you remember this, but one time I went to use the bathroom when I was working here. Uh-huh. And I turned off the lights in the whole restaurant. Oh, I do remember that! Yeah, everybody does that when they go. Hahah! That was pretty bad. Did we scream at you? Yeah,
yeah, I think I got yelled at. What the f*** are you doing? I love all the little spots that you do when you put them on there. So unique in the sense that, like you said, every pizza looks different. It kind of breaks the rules of pizza. Like, you know, the sauce is not first. The cheese is first. The cooking method is different. Everything is different about it. We got to rotate it constantly because some spots are hotter than others. Finish it with scallions. And you don’t really see scallions on a pizza anywhere else. No.
And the pizza’s ready. Another beautiful pizza. Here we go. So this is the first time I’ve ever been allowed to touch pizza in this kitchen. And this dough is so easy to work with. It’s so nice right now. It’s incredible. Get these corners. Get over here, you see. And then when you go in there, you’re going to kind of open your hands a little bit. Stretch it out even a little bit more. Here we go. And I’m going to drop. Perfect. I’m going to be honest, mine looks pretty sh**. No, it looks beautiful. I just,
I’m not happy with how I dropped it on there, David. Oh, you’re not? That’s okay. Like I said, every single pizza looks different. Can I try one more time? Absolutely. That looks good. All right. That looks good. It’s perfect. Absolutely. It looks beautiful. Beautiful. Bravo! That’s a little better. No, that looks great. That’s better. Now I’ll pull it back and I’ll flip it. First a little bit of olive oil. Here we go. Yeah, like painting it. Exactly. And then we do the cheese. Yeah, that looks good. And just dump it in the middle. And then
spread it out. Spread it out. Now we’re going to do the tomato sauce. The idea is that every single bite has a little bit of tomato and cheese. Now we do herbs. Perfect. Just a little olive oil. Yep. And then we’re going to push it back. Looks gorgeous. You did good. We need somebody to work pizzas. Would you come and work? You should have let me touch the pizza when I asked. It’s too late now. Check the bottom, make sure it’s not burning. Looks good. And then finish with the scallions. Garnish the pizza with scallions.
I don’t know if mine is good or yours, but I feel good about it. No, it’s beautiful! Show everyone how you eat the pizza here. Fork and knife. We use fork and knife. Yep. You cut it. Look at that. You’re not gonna cut me a slice? What I’ve always loved most about this is that it looks so thin, but it’s got a really nice chew to it. It’s chewy, crispy. It’s got like a little bit of that acidic bite to it from one of the cheeses. All right, well, if you ever need help making the
pizzas. You know where to find me. This right here is Frank Pepe’s. This is Dave Portnoy’s favorite place to get a slice. Dave has reviewed thousands of pizzas through his Barstool Pizza Reviews. And this restaurant here is based in New Haven, Connecticut, which many say is the pizza hub of America. If you look up best pizza in America, this place is top three on every list. What’s going on, guys? Hey, what’s happening? How you doing? I figured you guys would be happy I’m seeing some Connecticut-style pizza before New York City, which… Absolutely. We love to
showcase off our coal-fired oven. Frank Pepe is the birthplace of coal-fired pizza in New Haven, Connecticut. So right here is a custom 100,000 pound coal fire brick oven. This is the powerhouse of the pizza that they make here. So this right here is 2,000 degrees inside. A new fire starts every day. It burns your eyes. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Every 30 minutes to an hour, we’ll flip the fire just to get the old ash down, add some new coals. Remember, just like any fire, you need oxygen to breathe. So if you flick this fan on,
that pushes air through here and gives really nice airflow into their oven, which is what cooks the perfect pie. Should we make a pizza? We have a bread flour, not a pizza flour. So it’s a little looser. So you want to get under it with a little flour, and then you just want to grab around the edges. You’re not throwing it up in the air. You’re not making a circle and throwing it. It’ll make a hole in there. No throwing dough in here. Nope. So how many pizzas do you make a day here? On a
busy day, you can do over 1,000. Wow. People love pizza. So level scoop. Put it in the middle. You’re going to write like a pencil. Oh, that’s great. I could write my name into it. It all just circles into it. Sliced mozzarella cheese. Yep. This actually is a big key for us. Ok. It melts different. Then we have our Pecorino Romano, our olive oil. And then this is the hardest part. Ok. Is throwing it in. The key is just throw it. You don’t want to get scared. You get to your point, shake. It’s finesse, I
like it. Okay, this is nice, light, airy dough. Look at that. We make our dough fresh every day. And it kind of spreads itself, like you said. A little bit of farina on here. Toss it right on. Honestly, I’ll say, I could have made it a little more circular. It’s okay, it all tastes the same. One scoop, right in the center. Once I put it in the center, I like that you’re kind of like drawing with a pencil. Food is always art, isn’t it? It is. It’s nice to have that cheese a little bit dry
before you make that pizza though, that way you’re not going to have this wet, leaking pizza. A little bit of pecorino, just a little bit of olive oil to finish it off, and then we’re good. Alright, this is the toughest part. I don’t want to hit anyone with this thing. So everybody duck, alright? Alright, I’m going to go all the way in. All right, about 10 minutes later, my pizza should be done. It definitely looks good. Let’s see. Beautiful. Wow, that is a good looking pizza. We did the hardest part. We actually made the pizza.
So now the only question is, how does it taste? Right off the bat, I have to say this is a damn good looking pizza. I can tell that crust is nice and crispy and it’s definitely nice and hot. If I’m being honest, I just don’t see how you can get a better pizza than this, but… New York and Connecticut have always been in a fight on who has the better pie. So let’s go see. Can Connecticut’s best beat New York’s best? We made it to New York City, and after searching through over 2,000 pizza restaurants,
I’ve decided to visit this one. It’s literally called Best Pizza. Best Pizza serves up classic New York-style slices. Everything is baked in a custom oven that’s bigger than a lot of New York City apartments. This is an 100-year-old oven about? Yeah, it’s like 130 years old. And how big is this oven? So I’ll show you right now. People always flip out when I bring them to this part because this is literally the whole, this is the whole oven. The oven goes all the way back? Yeah, it’s the size of a one car garage. It’s very
similar. Like if you go to Frank Pepe’s in New Haven, and if you go to like a lot of those pizzerias that have been around for a hundred years, Frank Pepe has the same exact oven as us. We just went to Frank Pepe’s. Yeah. Sounds like all the best pizzas come out of the same oven. Big shout out to Frank Pepe’s. You call this place best pizza for a reason, right? Yeah, I mean, you know, that’s what some say. We’ll let you be the judge. Let’s make some pies. Yo, I’m coming into the kitchen real
quick, guys, right behind you. This is crazy. So the main goal is to kind of not touch your crust when you’re making it. Oh, okay. Yeah, the crust kind of makes itself. When I’m making the pizza, a lot of pizzerias, you see pizza guys smacking the s*** out of the pizza, you know. I want to keep the air inside because that’s what keeps the slice nice and light. So you’re pretty delicate with it when you put it down. Delicate, that’s exactly what I teach all my pizza guys. Get it up into your hands and then
this is when it starts spreading out. I haven’t seen a technique like this before. Yeah, you just kind of flip it. Gravity is your friend with pizza making. You know, you see people throw it in the air, and it is a trick and people love watching it, but it actually helps the pizza spread out. We’ve seen a lot of pizzas in this video. This is the biggest, biggest pizza we’ve seen. Biggest one so far? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, if you’re talking about how big the actual, you know, pizza dough is, but to get
it to this size without having any little holes or thin parts in it. Yeah. It takes time. You gotta make a lot of pizzas, and that’s what I tell young pizza makers. First thing is the tomatoes. When the pizza cooks, the crust puffs up and it pushes all the ingredients to the middle. So what you want to do is kind of get everything to the outside rim. This is our oregano. We use the oregano on the stem. This is what makes a New York pizza, in my opinion. Oregano? The dried oregano. If you go to
Italy, you go around and eat a New York slice. If you keep that in your mind, you’ll be like, oh, I taste the oregano. This reminds me of New York. It’s a powerful herb, especially when it’s dried. So we don’t go too heavy. Pretty light on the cheese from what it looks like, too. Big time. I’m not big in just having a big cheesy slice. And you’re also putting more of that cheese on the outside, just like you talked about, to make sure it’s not being weighed down, yeah? Exactly. So this fresh mozzarella, it spreads
a lot, so you don’t need to use as much as normal pizzerias do. And then we’re going to go right in. Coming right behind. There it goes. You got the launch down to a science, huh? Yeah, it’s a lot of years, you know? The oven’s so hot, as soon as the pizza gets in there, it pops right up. You can see all those bubbles forming. Oh, man. Yeah, it looks nice. This is a technique. Sometimes we’ll take it and dome it, and let the top of that fire, just kiss the top of the pie. Doming
it? Yeah, because the top is a dome. Yup, and that’s where all the heat is. So the higher you go, the hotter the temperature. For me, I don’t want the pie to look perfect. I want it to look rustic, you know? We try to mix the old with the new, and I think that’s what makes our spot special. Come on, boys, eat up. Grab a slice. This is what it’s about, right? It’s passing the food around and eating it. Oh, that’s it. That’s what we’re looking for in New York. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Mm, that’s the
sound of pizza. That’s it, baby. I would just call it the perfect well-rounded slice. You’re not doing anything fancy, but you’re doing everything right. Thank you, man. That is the best pizza, huh? Come visit Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Come see this handsome guy. Our next stop is Industry Kitchen, home to the world’s most expensive pizza. And I figure if you’ve got the world’s most expensive ingredients, it’s gotta be pretty damn good. Are you ready to see how we make our 24K pizza? As ready as I’ll ever be. Should we do it? Yeah, absolutely. Come over. All right,
let’s go. There’s a lot of stuff happening back here. This is Luis. Luis, how are you? Luis is going to start the dough. It’s a black dough. It’s made with cobblefish ink. So that makes it super, super black. There’s a little earthy tones to it in the flavor profile. I feel like you might be the only place in the world with a black dough pizza. First, we start with a roasted garlic cream. That’s our base instead of a tomato base. Definitely not a traditional pizza. It’s not. The second layer is mozzarella cheese. So this is
a Stilton cheese from England. The best we can get is a blue cheese. How often are you making one of these? About 15 to 20 a year. This oven is like a gas oven, but also we have apple wood. So you’ve got gas and wood in this oven. Yeah, so the gas is for the temperature to make the bottom very crispy. Then that is for the smoke and flavor of the pizza. Foie gras, this one is the liver of a goose. It’s coming from the Hudson Valley. It’s so decadent. Almost like a fancy butter. A
fancy animal butter, yeah. So the pizza’s finished its first bake. Yes. How many slices do we have here? Eight slices. $250 per slice. Oh sh**. Time for the gold. So each slice gets a nice big square, huh? Absolutely. Yeah, we are not shy with our gold. This is actually 24 karat gold. Absolutely, yeah. So instead of putting this on a wedding ring or on a chain or in a watch, this is on a pizza. This is on a pizza. All right, so we have the gold. Now we are going with our other ingredients. So that
foie gras just baked in that oven for a little bit, and now you’re placing that onto the pizza as well. Now we have the caviar. It’s a beautiful Ossetra caviar from Iran. And again, you’re putting one nice big spoonful on every single slice. That’s correct. We’re trying to achieve the full flavor profile, umami, in this pizza. Then we have some beautiful edible flowers. And this part I love because the colors start to really pop. Well, we have the benefit of the black dough. That’s a nice canvas of art, right? Now we have some more textures
of gold. So there wasn’t enough gold on there? No. No, there was not enough gold. And we’re going to model the pizza with truffle. Oh my God. Nick, this is your 24K golden pizza. One more little surprise here. I actually brought one of my best friends from high school who has no idea what he’s about to eat. He’s also kind of a picky eater. You ready to eat some pizza? I’m ready. Let’s do it. Let’s go. Wow. Thank you so much. What do you think? Crazy. I don’t think there’s enough gold. Believe it or not,
this is the most expensive pizza you can buy. In New York? Anywhere. Really? Guess how much each slice costs. $100? $250. Have you eaten gold before? No. All right, let’s go. Wow. That’s insane. I taste a lot of the Stilton blue cheese. It’s like a super powerful, powerful cheese. I got a big fat bite of foie gras when I bit in, so it’s all buttery. Did you like the foie gras? I loved it. Wait so is foie gras like super expensive? Yeah. I love the fact that there’s a bunch of different cheeses and I love
the look of the dough, even though it tastes just like regular old pizza dough. All around, give it a pizza rating. You like pizza. Pizza rating out of 10? I mean, in terms of how unique it is, 10 out of 10. Kind of unbeatable. I think it’s the best slice I’ve ever had, to be honest. Is it? It’s not every day you have some gold pizza with caviar. This is your top pizza that you’ve ever had? I think so. Wow. I’m going to tell everyone I had some gold pizza today. All right. Let’s see the
damage. You got this one? Yeah, I’ll take it. This is the first bill you’ve ever picked up for us. Have a good day! For our final pizza, I flew to Italy in search of the number one rated pizzeria in the entire world. And I decided to have a little bit of fun along the way. Did you really think I wasn’t going to pull up to the best pizza restaurant in the world in style? There are over 250,000 pizza restaurants in the entire world. And behind me is number one. This is I Masanielli, a pizzeria just
outside of Naples, Italy, that was just ranked number one in the world by a panel of 900 judges on the most prestigious pizza rankings list. How are you? Nice to meet you. Head chef Francesco Martucci has invited us into his kitchen to learn how he makes the best pizza in the entire world. So my brother here, Pete, speaks great Italian. So he’s going to be helping us translate today. Let’s make the dough first. Okay. Are you ready? I’m ready! So I’m curious, how did you get so good at making pizza? I started at 10 years
old out of necessity. I was a kid I had to help out at home. At home we didn’t have heat or gas. I started out by washing plates and bathrooms in pizzerias. And then slowly step by step I got closer to the pizza table. And then it became my life. Now is when he really gets to develop that gluten. We’ll knead until we get a consistency without lumps. Then when we begin to see that the dough starts to come apart, we put it into the bowl. Where it will rest for an hour. See you later!
I’m starting with a classic Margherita pizza. San Marzano tomatoes. I like to put some basil on before and after it cooks because it gives it some character. We put it under the mozzarella and it doesn’t burn in the oven. Add some extra virgin olive oil before and after cooking it. I put a little before because the temperature of the oil goes up much more than the other ingredients and it helps cook the tomatoes. That pizza just cooked faster than we could film it, and it’s done. The addition of that oil completely transforms that pizza I
like the oven on a low flame because a bigger flame would cook the outside and not the center of the pizza, and voila! That was it? That pizza just cooked faster than we could film it, and it’s done. That was it. It was fast because it was just one pizza in the oven He’s using the scissors to cut the pizza. This is a very classic Italian style. Why do they cut with scissors? That is the lightest crust I’ve ever felt in my life. It tastes like Italy. The crust is so soft and light. They got
the perfect crisp and char on the outside. Pizza needs to melt, like chocolate That’s the first time I’ve heard a pizza compared to a chocolate. That’s a good pizza. So who gets the last slice? Luckily, we didn’t have to fight as the chef made us one more pie. His specialty deep fried pizza, futuro di marinara. Oh my God. That is a crazy crisp. Mmm, you hear that? This crust is amazing! That is insane. This is the best pizza crust that I think I’ve ever had. You got to make it in America! You know what’s funny,
guys? I just realized this. I was taking a shower, and it’s 6.42 p.m. on Thursday evening. It’s been like a week since I filmed this video, and I just remembered I didn’t even pick my favorite slice of pizza. And that was like half the reason I filmed the whole video. So, sorry about that.
