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(CNN) -
After all, it's not just about you, New York.
And Chicago, the wind has blown the sails off your famous deep saucer.
The honor of America's Best Pizza City doesn't go to traditional pizza banners, but to the innovative West Coast city of Portland, Oregon.
That's what Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya say, authors of the upcoming encyclopedic book "Modernist Pizza," due out in October.
With three volumes and nearly 1,700 pages, it includes the history of pizza, more than 1,000 recipes, pizza-making techniques and tools, and tips on where to get the best pizza, with exquisite detail and stunning photos.
Myhrvold, who was Microsoft's CTO from 1996 to 2000 before leaving to pursue his other passions, told CNN Travel in a video interview that this job took them nearly four years.
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He added that they managed to finish their pizza tours, which included visiting 250 pizzerias, before the covid-19 pandemic shut down activities.
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How did Portland get to the top of the best pizza cities in America?
Innovation is a key ingredient in the Portland pizza scene.
(Credit: Shutterstock)
Myhrvold said he had no idea, when the search and pizza tasting began, that Portland would take the gold.
"We knew Portland had experienced something of a food renaissance in the last 20 years. But I didn't particularly think that pizza was going to be as good there as it is in many other places."
The Modernist Pizza team traveled to cities large and small in the United States, some of them long established as pizza paradises, to make comparisons.
In total, they were the following cities:
Chicago
Detroit
The Angels
Tri-State Area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut
Old Forge, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois
San Francisco
Seattle
St. Louis
What made Portland stand out?
Myhrvold says it's about innovation and a passion to deliver the best.
He credits two artisanal locations - Apizza Scholls and Ken's Artisan Pizza - with boosting the quality pizza scene.
"If you have a really good reference, that helps, compared to other places where pizza is terrible."
He thought Scholls and Ken's would be for Portland, "but they weren't at all. There's a huge, vibrant community of people who make great pizza."
He said there is no one style that defines Portland pizza, except for the commonalities of creativity, an emphasis on quality ingredients, and "people who want to do great work."
"In general, where you find good food, you find some obsessed person who goes out of his way to make his food the best it can be."
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Portland favorites
Portland's pizza scene is booming.
Check out the list below to see some of the best options.
(Credit: The Cooking Lab LLC)
These are some of the pizzerias that have received special recognition from Modernist Pizza, in case you want to try them for yourself.
In addition to checking the menus, make sure of the opening days and hours, and the food delivery options or take away:
Lovely's Fifty Fifty: Myhrvold says it's arguably one of the two best pizzerias in the country (the other is Razza, in Jersey City, NJ).
Lovely's other specialty is ice cream.
It is located at 4039 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR 97217.
Others that receive special mentions, in alphabetical order:
Apizza Scholls: 4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97215.
Handsome Pizza: 1603 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, OR 97211.
Ken's Artisan Pizza: 304 SE 28th Ave., Portland, OR 97214.
Nostrana: 1401 SE Morrison St. Ste. 101, Portland, OR 97214
Red Sauce Pizza: 4641 NE Fremont St, Portland, OR 97213.
Scottie's Pizza Parlor: 2128 SE Division St., Portland, OR 97202.
Sizzle Pie: 926 W Burnside St, Portland, OR 97205 and other locations.
Where was New York lost?
The New York pizza scene relies too heavily on old reputations, Myhrvold said.
(Credit: Arturo Holmes / Getty Images)
This statement about Portland is sure to elicit emotions and cries of disgust across America, especially New York City.
Myhrvold has some harsh assessments of the current pizza landscape as a whole, especially in Manhattan.
Dollar pizza and cheap pizzerias dominate there, he said.
It is not a compliment.
In his opinion, New York City relies too much on tradition and living off reputation rather than trying to present the best pizzas possible today.
"Most of the old-school New Yorkers aren't that good, which is also part of our general finding around the world: the famous old-school pizzerias don't live up to their reputations. So if you go somewhere in New York and they say, 'We've been doing this for 50 years' ... UH-OH! "
If you want good pizza in New York, Myhrvold says you have a better chance of finding a good restaurant in the neighborhoods or in the suburbs.
"I like Razza better than pizzerias in New York City, and certainly in Manhattan. That's a bit surprising to New Yorkers."
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Pizza around the world
Nathan Myhrvold traveled the world in search of the best pizza, including big cities in South America and small towns in Italy.
(Credit: The Cooking Lab LLC)
Pizza is not just an Italian invention and an American obsession.
People like it all over the world, and they add their own twists to it.
It is not to say that there are no good pizzas in the land of the founders.
"In Italy there are fantastic pizzas. I have had a great pizza in Naples and in a little town on the outskirts of Naples called Caiazzo."
Myhrvold said that two cities that caught his attention and a taste for pizza are Sao Paulo (Brazil) and the powerful Buenos Aires (Argentina).
Both South American cities had considerable numbers of Italian immigrants in the 19th century, especially from Naples.
Myhrvold is not very fond of creativity for its own sake.
He and his team went to Seoul (South Korea) and Tokyo.
"And there are very good pizzas there. But there are also many pizzas that have, for my taste, weird things on a pizza. Squid tentacles and sweet potato cubes are a strange combination."
Why three volumes on pizza specifically?
This is where the magic happens: Modernist Cuisine for cooking tests.
(Credit: The Cooking Lab LLC)
"Pizza is possibly the most important dish in the world," Myhrvold said.
"It is the most important imported cuisine."
He was also drawn to the versatility of pizza and even controversy.
There are "so many discussions about what a great pizza is ... If you look at a steak, it is pretty much a steak in the whole world. ... It is not the case with pizza. The different forms of pizza are per the whole map, literally. And that makes people have violent disagreements and so forth. "
How did the authors of Modernist Pizza get to nearly 1,700 pages on the subject?
"We had to stop somewhere."
He acknowledged that it is bad to judge the size of his books.
"I always think it will be smaller than it turns out to be."
Modernist Pizza is aimed at people "passionate and curious about food".
He said you don't have to be a skilled cook to get something out of volumes.
"In the meantime, if you cook a lot, but you are not curious, and you just want to follow a recipe, then there are a lot of smaller books that you could buy."
As for the team's next project, get ready for the pastries and desserts.
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