American Cheese on Pizza Is Not a Mistake
A Philly native explains ‘Pizzaz Pizza’
“Pizzazz” is spelled with two Zs, like jazz and snazzy and terrazzo and, well, pizza, but for the purposes of this story, it will be spelled with only one. Robert Celebre’s boat was called Pizzaz, and that vessel is what gives Philadelphia’s strangest, greatest, regional pizza pie its name.
I’ve been eating pizzaz pizza all my life, or at least since I was old enough to appreciate its trinity of sliced tomato, pickled pepper rings, and American cheese. An unholy trinity, some might say. American cheese on pizza? That was the reaction of about half a crowd of 170 people at the Philadelphia Free Library’s auditorium on a recent October night. Joey Baldino and I were there talking about the cookbook we co-wrote, “Dinner at the Club: 100 Years of Stories and Recipes from South Philly’s Palizzi Social Club.” Baldino is the chef and owner of Palizzi, and the book is filled with recipes from his restaurants, his family, and his culture, which also happens to be my culture. We both grew up in Italian American families in South Philly, and when we were brainstorming dishes to include in the cookbook — ones that were emblematic of where we come from — pizzaz appeared like a lightbulb above our heads, neon yellow as the gallon-size glass jugs of pepper rings that line the walls of every South…
