Pizza.

Can't wait.

I enjoyed this six-episode series, even if it was a little heavy on the drama. I like that they showed how much these people had to sacrifice (often in mental/physical health or family relationships) to reach the point where they're considered the best.

I knew about Franco Pepe, but didn't know about the rift with his brothers. Ann Kim and Yoshihiro Imai's relationship with their parents/dealing with their disappointment was also touching. Not sure what the hell the whole samurai focus was with Imai, though.

After reading about Chris Bianco previously, it was nice to see him featured on the show.

You could tell the emphasis on local farmers/local ingredients and farm-to-table was one of their over-arching themes this season.

Really liked how they got into Pepe's process and showed him using a starter and making the dough from start to finish. They don't mention it in the Sarah Minnick episode, but she also uses a starter for her pizza.

The attempts to say Portland is the #1 pizza city in America and sell Portland as this funky oasis was amusing.

A friend just moved out of Portland after living there for 10 years. Absolute crap hole of a city. Wouldn't go there if my life depended on it.

TheFunnierPhideaux said:

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A friend just moved out of Portland after living there for 10 years. Absolute crap hole of a city. Wouldn't go there if my life depended on it.

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interesting, not what I hear and not what I experienced (only one short visit, however)

for its size, good food town and is kinda quirky

I spent 4 days there for the mentioned friends wedding some years ago. It was on the downhill slide back then of what you mention. It's sense dissolved significantly. If you're considering any significant amount of time in that city or bringing the family there, I'd strongly suggest you speak to locals about go/no-go zones.

TheFunnierPhideaux said:

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A friend just moved out of Portland after living there for 10 years. Absolute crap hole of a city. Wouldn't go there if my life depended on it.

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Sadly agree. Used to travel pre-COVID to PDX for work regularly. From 2015-2018 it was fantastic. In 2019 and 2020, you could begin to see the decline of the city. Locals tend to be more stand-offish than any other city I've visited as well. Such a shame because the area around it is beautiful and the food scene does rock.

Watched the first three episodes and I'm honestly torn about this season. I'm not against learning about the chefs and their struggles and demons because it informs how they got to where they are, but this season feels like it's just not balanced in all honesty. I liked Bianco's episode the most of the three. I thought both the Bonci and Kim episodes were a bit out of whack, I will leave the details out so I don't spoil anything but they weren't what I've come to expect from this series, which I love.

It's got me hankering to make some pizza right now.

Max Power said:

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Watched the first three episodes and I'm honestly torn about this season. I'm not against learning about the chefs and their struggles and demons because it informs how they got to where they are, but this season feels like it's just not balanced in all honesty. I liked Bianco's episode the most of the three. I thought both the Bonci and Kim episodes were a bit out of whack, I will leave the details out so I don't spoil anything but they weren't what I've come to expect from this series, which I love.

It's got me hankering to make some pizza right now.

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Bonci was the worst episode of the six. Dude just isn't that likable.

I enjoyed Kim's story because it's achieving the American Dream through pizza.

bularry said:

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TheFunnierPhideaux said:

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A friend just moved out of Portland after living there for 10 years. Absolute crap hole of a city. Wouldn't go there if my life depended on it.

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interesting, not what I hear and not what I experienced (only one short visit, however)

for its size, good food town and is kinda quirky

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I wouldn't defer to a TexAgs take on PDX.

We live in unincorporated PDX (Cedar Mill). Prior 11 years in Houston. Raising a 3 year old. There's challenges for sure. The homeless problem is very much still a major issue. But there's fewer "no-go" zones than we had in Houston.

Love it here. Great food. Great beer. Great weather. So much to do outside! Look forward to the episode!

RangerRick9211 said:

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bularry said:

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TheFunnierPhideaux said:

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A friend just moved out of Portland after living there for 10 years. Absolute crap hole of a city. Wouldn't go there if my life depended on it.

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interesting, not what I hear and not what I experienced (only one short visit, however)

for its size, good food town and is kinda quirky

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I wouldn't defer to a TexAgs take on PDX.

We live in unincorporated PDX (Cedar Mill). Prior 11 years in Houston. Raising a 3 year old. There's challenges for sure. The homeless problem is very much still a major issue. But there's fewer "no-go" zones than we had in Houston.

Love it here. Great food. Great beer. Great weather. So much to do outside! Look forward to the episode!

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How's Tualatin and Tigard?

TheFunnierPhideaux said:

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RangerRick9211 said:

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bularry said:

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TheFunnierPhideaux said:

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A friend just moved out of Portland after living there for 10 years. Absolute crap hole of a city. Wouldn't go there if my life depended on it.

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interesting, not what I hear and not what I experienced (only one short visit, however)

for its size, good food town and is kinda quirky

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I wouldn't defer to a TexAgs take on PDX.

We live in unincorporated PDX (Cedar Mill). Prior 11 years in Houston. Raising a 3 year old. There's challenges for sure. The homeless problem is very much still a major issue. But there's fewer "no-go" zones than we had in Houston.

Love it here. Great food. Great beer. Great weather. So much to do outside! Look forward to the episode!

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How's Tualatin and Tigard?

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No idea. I assume fine. We only pass through on I5 south. Probably like most burbs in the US. Never really been, though. Had some BBQ at Matt's tonight. Only good queso in town and a taste of home. Smoke has sucked balls today. Wife has the week off so they're bailing back to Dallas to see the grandparents.

Buzzy said:

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Max Power said:

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Watched the first three episodes and I'm honestly torn about this season. I'm not against learning about the chefs and their struggles and demons because it informs how they got to where they are, but this season feels like it's just not balanced in all honesty. I liked Bianco's episode the most of the three. I thought both the Bonci and Kim episodes were a bit out of whack, I will leave the details out so I don't spoil anything but they weren't what I've come to expect from this series, which I love.

It's got me hankering to make some pizza right now.

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Bonci was the worst episode of the six. Dude just isn't that likable.

I enjoyed Kim's story because it's achieving the American Dream through pizza.

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Bonci was insufferable in my opinion, I really disliked his episode.

Pepe from episode 4 might have been my favorite so far.

RangerRick9211 said:

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TheFunnierPhideaux said:

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RangerRick9211 said:

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bularry said:

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TheFunnierPhideaux said:

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A friend just moved out of Portland after living there for 10 years. Absolute crap hole of a city. Wouldn't go there if my life depended on it.

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interesting, not what I hear and not what I experienced (only one short visit, however)

for its size, good food town and is kinda quirky

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I wouldn't defer to a TexAgs take on PDX.

We live in unincorporated PDX (Cedar Mill). Prior 11 years in Houston. Raising a 3 year old. There's challenges for sure. The homeless problem is very much still a major issue. But there's fewer "no-go" zones than we had in Houston.

Love it here. Great food. Great beer. Great weather. So much to do outside! Look forward to the episode!

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How's Tualatin and Tigard?

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No idea. I assume fine. We only pass through on I5 south. Probably like most burbs in the US. Never really been, though. Had some BBQ at Matt's tonight. Only good queso in town and a taste of home. Smoke has sucked balls today. Wife has the week off so they're bailing back to Dallas to see the grandparents.

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I'll save you the trip. Homeless are setting up camp on the streets in cars and tents in front of 3/4 million dollar homes. Drug use in school parking lots and rampant rapes and assaults in stores. So much so they don't even make the news anymore.

If only there were a forum for these kind of diatribes.

You could also just scroll past the recommendations that trigger you

Watched Bianco's episode tonight. Great stuff!

Quote:

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Drug use in school parking lots and rampant rapes and assaults in stores. So much so they don't even make the news anymore.

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good grief.

Almost finished the last episode and I'd rank them in three levels.

1: Bianco & Pepe
These two were the most in line with what I've come to expect and love from this series. Highly recommend these two for anyone that might not want to invest in all six.

2: Kim & Imai
Both of these episodes were just fine I'd say, not great and not terrible. Just not as compelling as the first two. I was interested but not overly, very average by comparison, but still worth a watch.

3: Bonci & Minnick
Bonci is just too unlikeable IMO, he kind of ruins his own episode. Minnick puts flowers and weeds on pizza, who cares? It just feels really shoe-horned in there, it stands out as not like the others and not in a good way IMO.

I agree with your classification, although I'd probably put Minnick at #3 and drop Bonci to #4.

Minnick went from art to restaurant ownership to learning to be a chef, which is opposite of how it normally happens. I also appreciated how she explained her struggles learning to make pizza and how long it took her to learn to work with sourdough.

I thought Kim's was very interesting as kind of the true immigrant experience (get good grades, go to best school, get big job) and how she dropped off that path to pursue true passions.

But they didn't really go into her cooking background much. You don't win Beard award just making grandma's food. Clearly she is uber-talented but they just talked about Columbia and acting school. Was she completely self taught? lessons learned along the way, etc.

Do Americans prefer these voice overs to captions, I'm assuming? I'm seeing it more and more.

Also- how did this thread become an f16 thread about how terrible Portland, New York, Chicago is? This is about food. The opposite of politics. The thing that can bring all people and cultures together.

I prefer the captions to the voice over. Luckily on Netflix you can turn off the voice over. I think the voice over is distracting and takes away from hearing the chef's tell their story in their own language. Though I know plenty of people who have no interest in reading while they watch TV or a movie.

To your point bularry I think Kim is the anti-Bonci. I came to appreciate her episode more after thinking about it. She has a degree from Columbia, but she didn't boast about it, it was nothing more than a footnote in her journey. She was more proud of her journey regarding acting than her educational accolades. Bonci was braggadocious about success and failure. Kim was very humble and appreciative. I would put her episode in third place after Bianco and Pepe.

Hulu is countering with a pizza cooking competition show.

Just finished the Kim episode. Sorry but it was horrible for a "pizza" show.

Did she ever actually make one? I saw kimchi, heard the tired story of the Asian child of immigrants getting made fun of over her lunch at school (my Vietnamese wife had the same experience and she's sick of hearing it time and again these days), her dad was pissed she wanted to act….then I started washing the dishes and looked up as she's crying accepting an award.

Zilch about pizza. She might as well could have been a famous peanut boiler.

These shows are fine when they put at least some emphasis on education or the food, but sneaking Hallmark episodes into my diet sucks. Bianco's episode at least went into detail about what makes his pizza game changing, then they backed into how he got to that point.

Just got back from a work trip to Phoenix area. Had to wait almost 2 hours but it's every bit as good as you imagine.


ETA: Just realized the sign is kinda blurry. Pizzeria Bianco.

is it still a good place to visit for like bachelorette parties ?

swimmerbabe11 said:

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is it still a good place to visit for like bachelorette parties ?

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Rule 1, or wrong board?

Is this the show that covered barbecue in the first season with the first episode being Snow's? I really enjoyed it.

MyNameIsJeff said:

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Is this the show that covered barbecue in the first season with the first episode being Snow's? I really enjoyed it.

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Kind of. They've done chefs from all around the world for 5 or 6 seasons. They broke off and did a special 3 or 4 episode "season" on BBQ and one of them featured tootsie. Wish they'd do more of those.