Adam Kuban's interview

Interview by Lydia

We interviewed Adam Kuban!

Visit the blog: Margot's Pizza.

See profile page and recipes

Hello Adam Kuban, so tell us...

When did your love affair with pizza begin? Can you remember your first pizza, or the first pizza that made an impression on you?

The earliest I remember is the early '80s, when I was 7 or 8. My dad used to make a lot of pizza
at home in an effort to perfect the recipe for a pizzeria that he wanted to open. I would help out where I could — which wasn't much at that age. But I liked to help eat it! Those were the first pizzas that made an impression on me. The thinness of the crust, the crispness, the big hunks of fennel-flecked sausage. I can still taste it.

You're the man behind the blog Slice, now-defunct do you miss documenting your pizza adventures?

I do and I don't. I miss communicating my love of pizza with people and directing them to places I think they should be checking out. I do that now primarily via my Instagram account (@akuban), but I also keep a "secret" blog on the Margot's Pizza website: http://margotspizza.com/category/blah-blah-blah/

What I don't miss is the fact that toward the end of my days at Slice, the standard pizzeria "review" had evolved into a 1,200-word beast, half of which was of little interest to the general reader. A lot of that was my own fault, granted, but now I feel much more free to get in, tell only a few relevant facts, and get out.

Did your blog help inspire you to open your own place, or has it been in the works for a long time?

I'd be lying if I said I'd never daydreamed about opening my own place all the years I was editing and writing for Slice. But it was just that — a dream. What really inspired me was that my pizzeria mentor, Paulie Gee, had seen me waxing wishful in the comments of a Slice post and emailed saying, "Hey, if you really wanna open a place, talk to me." That was shortly after a conversation I'd had with my wife, who said, "You know all these pizzeria owners through your time at Slice. Why don't you ask one of them if you could do an apprenticeship? If you like it, keep pursuing this dream. If not, at least you'v e learned you need to get a new dream." So Slice didn't necessarily inspire me to open my own place, but it did give me a very good stepping stone toward it through all the connections I've made.

What are your culinary influences?

I don't follow anyone slavishly, and I would say that my influences are more philosophical ones than culinary. I love what pizzamaker Chris Bianco (Pizzeria Bianco of Phoenix, Arizona) has to say. He's all about using the best ingredients that are local to you and that make sense in context. He always says that that's the Italian way — use the best ingredients you can find, and let them shine. For him, that means tomatoes grown nearish him in California — not imported from Italy — and pistachios from Arizona on his signature "Rosa" pizza. It's not about slavishly re-creating "authentic" Italian pizza but using what's around to create something new. That really resonates with me.

I'm also very influenced by Paulie Gee. He eats pizza and food far and wide and uses these culinary field trips to inform his own pizza topping combinations. I am all for studying everything I can and synthesizing that knowledge into something of my own.

If you could be a contestant or guest on any cooking show what show would you choose?

I don't really watch cooking shows anymore. Television is a huge time commitment. The older I get, the more conscious I am about how I spend my time. It'a finite resource. Of course, then I fritter it away on Instagram and Facebook, so…

In your opinion what makes the perfect pizza?

The perfect pizza is … the next pizza to hit the table. Seriously, though, it really depends. There are so many styles out there, and you have to take into account the tenets of whatever particular style of pizza you're eating. What are the generally recognized benchmarks, and is the pizza hitting those? Is it doing something different, and if so, does it work? I personally love a crisp yet foldable crust that's sturdy enough to hold up the toppings when you pick it up with your hands. But that's not how you'd describe an ideal Neapolitan-style pizza crust, which is expected to be "wet" and which you'll eat with a knife and fork. I do want to see GREAT ingredients — good-quality tomatoes, cheese, etc.

Are there any ingredients you refuse to put on a pizza?

I'm not a purist, so offhand, no. BUT, I draw the line at trying to make a pizza something it's not. I've tried it before, and it doesn't work. For instance, a "taco pizza," or a "cheeseburger pizza." Generally, just let a cheeseburger be a cheeseburger and a pizza be a pizza. And, often, the more literal you get, the worse it is.

Tell us a little more about Margot's Pizza. What made you take the plunge now?

Oh, boy. I've been wanting to make a change in my life for a while now. For the longest time I've felt that I don't want to spend the rest of my life sitting in front of a computer screen. I'm happiest when I'm making something I can physically see. When there's something at the end of the day that I can point to. When my daughter, Margot, was born, I wanted to show her that it was possible to pursue your dream and achieve it. I also thought about "Career Day" at school. I don't even know if they do that anymore — where moms and dads come in and tell the kids what they do. I wanted to do the kind of job that you could explain to an 8-year-old. "I own a pizzeria and make pizzas" sounds so much better than "I schedule tweets and measure follower uptake and engagement."

Where would you like to see Margot's Pizza in the next year? Five years?

In one year, I hope I'm very close to opening. I'm still raising money at this point, and then it's on to hunt for a location. So, I'm still very early in the process. In five years, I just hope that Margot's Pizza is still in business. Though if I let myself dream a little more, I'd hope we'd be doing well enough that I could set aside money to eventually buy a building somewhere in NYC so the pizzeria is not always in danger of being forced out due to rising rents. That is a terrifying prospect in NYC, and I've seen so many classic restaurants go under because of that cycle.

Thank you Adam Kuban for answering our questions and see you soon!
Published by Lydia - 09/15/2014

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