I guess because different characteristics are common in different locations or places, and people just develop a preference for that/those characteristics and everyone new to the business trys to emulate those characteristics (isn’t that what we all do?) and when certain characteristics dominate the local landscape they actually become the identifying characteristics for the pizza in that particular region or location. This is not to say that any specific characteristics are good or bad, there are just those characteristics that identify certain types of pizza. Take for example a New York style of pizza. I think most would agree that the most common physical characteristics of pizza on Manhattan Island are thin crust, rather tough/chewy, with a dark, almost burned bottom and a light, raised edge and a bit on the sparse side as far as amount of toppings are concerned. And when you’re making a Chicago style it should be more of a cracker/biscuit type of crust and it wouldn’t hurt a bit to put the cheese on first, then the sauce. Right or wrong, that’s just the way things are, and that my friend is what gives us all of those great and wonderfully different styles of pizza!
Spice is indeed the variety of life, or should I say “pizza”.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
