The Daily Meal's 2014 Expert Pizza Panel
Coming up with a list of the 101 best pizzerias in America is a formidable task. Pizza is arguably our most varied and beloved culinary genre, one whose followers are some of the most opinionated, and yet it remains one of the most accessible foods there is. Every red-blooded American, rich and poor, grew up with his or her preferred regional style of this national fascination, knowing it as the best. That accessibility and loyalty makes for some tremendously spirited debate. While to some degree everyone's an expert, there are people who devote a good portion of their waking (and sleeping lives) dedicated to pizza. As The Daily Meal sought to narrow down a list of some 700 pizza spots, these are the people we turned to.
Read Story: 101 Best Pizzas in America
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Who were the fine folks who made up this year's pizza panel? In addition to The Daily Meal's in-house pizza experts and city editors, this was a geographically diverse panel of American chefs, restaurant critics, bloggers, writers, and pizza authorities. We're indebted to this group of sauce-loving, cheese-obsessed, crust-crunching pizzaphiles and salute their dedication and love to this, one of Americans' most beloved foods.
Following is the 2014 expert pizza panel minus the experts who asked to remain anonymous. Count among them national and New York pizza experts SF Weekly food editor Anna Roth, the Los Angeles Times' S. Irene Virbila, Esquire and Bloomberg News columnist John Mariani, Clean Plate Charlie's Nicole Danna, Scott Wiener of Scott's Pizza Tours, John Berardi of LA Pizza, Jonathan Porter of Chicago Pizza Tours, Jason Feirman of the blog I Dream of Pizza, Felicia Braude of Pizza Lover Chicago, Taste of New Haven's Colin Caplan, food writer Joe DiStefano of Chopsticks & Marrow, and Virginia B. Wood of the Austin Chronicle. This group of experts even includes The Pizza Underground, the pizza-centric band feartuing actor Macaulay Culkin.
"The Daily Meal's 101 Best Pizza's In America 2014 is a testament to the quality and craftsmanship of the dedicated pie makers across the country," the band noted. "While we encourage everyone to Take A Bite of the Wild Slice and try something different, the best barometer of a pizza parlor's quality is a good plain slice of cheese pizza – and there are plenty of excellent slices such as that on this list. Enjoy!"
Think you have what it takes to be a pizza panelist? We're always on the lookout for aficionados so feel free to reach out and nominate yourself by email. Please send a line about your bona fides and provide a link to any sites you'd like us to consider. We'll keep you (and any pizza spots you'd like to nominate) in mind for the 101 Best Pizzas in America list for 2015.
• Michael Andre Adams
Traveling In My World
• John Arena
Metro Pizza
• Gorman Bechard
What Were We Thinking Films
• Mark Bello
PizzaSchool.com
• Ari Bendersky
@aribendersky
• John Berardi
LA Pizza
• Victoria Bouloubasis
This Feeds Me
• Felicia Braude
Pizza Lover Chicago
•Colin M. Caplan
Taste of New Haven
• Rachel Cossar
foodista on pointe
• Nicole Danna
Broward Palm Beach New Times Food Blog, Clean Plate Charlie
• Viviana Devoto
San Francisco Editor, The Daily Meal@vivianadevoto
• Joe DiStefano
Chopsticks+Marrow
• Jen Stevenson
Under The Table With Jen
• Shaena Engle, Los Angeles Editor
The Daily Meal, The Divine Dish
• Dean Falcone
• Jason Feirman
IDreamOfPizza
• Foodie Buddha
FoodieBuddha.com
• Rachel Forrest
RachelForrest.com
• Albert Grande
Pizza Therapy
• Winston Gu
The Gluttonous JD
• Guttergourmet
Contributor, The Daily Meal
• Cindy Heyd, D.C.
Editor, The Daily Meal
• Brooke Jackson
Too Many Apples
• Melissa Kravitz
New York Editor, The Daily Meal, melissabethkravitz.com
• Dominique Love
Atlanta Food & Wine Festival
• Lauren Mack
New York City Travel Editor The Daily Meal, @lmack
• Amanda Mactas
Manhattan with a Twist
• John Mariani
Mariani's Virtual Gourmet
• Tony Muia
A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours
• Theresa Nemetz
Milwaukee Food Tours
• Jonathan Porter
Chicago Pizza Tours
• Angel Postell
Charleston Editor, The Daily Meal,Home Team PR
• James "Dr. Fermento" Roberts
• Anna Roth
SF Weekly, @annaroth
• Larissa Mae Sarangaya
TheBearBatLionDog
• Eric Schaefer, @ericeatsout
• Cary & Lillian Steiner
Passion-4-Pizza.com
• Alexis Steinman
yum du jour
• Jen Stevenson
Under The Table With Jen
• The Pizza Underground
• Mike Thelin
Feast Portland
• S. Irene Virbila
@sirenevirbila, Los Angeles Times
• Jeff Waraniak
jeffwaraniak.com
• Summer Whitford
Editor, The Daily Meal, The Food and Wine Diva
• Scott Wiener
Scott's Pizza Tours
• Virginia B. Wood
The Austin Chronicle
View List: 101 Best Pizzas in America
Arthur Bovino is The Daily Meal's executive editor. Read more articles by Arthur, reach him by email, or click here to follow Arthur on Twitter.