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Who's Who: Chris Bianco

Chris Bianco is the only pizza maker ever to win a prestigious James Beard Award, and though he's grateful, he's not impressed by his achievement.

June 24, 2003

Many U.S. chefs would view winning a James Beard Award as a watershed moment in their careers.

Not Chris Bianco.

Not that he pooh-poohs the prize, an honor bestowed on so few of his peers -- none of his pizza peers have ever won one. In fact, the normally loquacious Bianco was nearly speechless when chosen Best Chef of the Southwest at the May 5 Beard Awards in New York City.

Making great food from the best ingredients, however, is what his work is all about, he said, not accolades.

"It's fantastic to be acknowledged by your peers, but I won't even put the James Beard up on the wall in the restaurant," said Bianco, co-owner of Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. "You get your 15 minutes of fame in this life, and I think I'm on overtime on my 15. ... What matters most is what happens tonight in your restaurant. It's what you owe the customer."

Based on its success, it appears his customers feel indebted instead to Bianco. The restaurant, located in Phoenix's historic Heritage Square Park, has been a hit since its 1993 debut. In 2000 it received a near-perfect score of 29 out of 30 from the Zagat Dining guide, an astonishing feat for high-end restaurants and positively otherworldly for a pizzeria.

But ask Bianco about those accomplishments and you'll nearly always get this answer: "Thanks. I really appreciate that. But it's not just about me.

Chris Bianco, co-owner and chef, Pizzeria Bianco, and winner of the 2003 James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Southwest.       -- Photo courtesy of the James Beard Foundation.

It's about the restaurant, it's about the people who work here, and the people who grow the foods we use here ... it's a symphony of big karma."

Bronx boomer

Bianco, 41, first worked in a pizzeria when he was 13. The Bronx native grew up believing he knew all there was to know about great pizza until his parents took his family to Naples, Italy.

"I ordered a pizza Napolitana thinking it would be great," Bianco recalled. "But it was just a small disc with some sauce and a little fish on it. I almost turned green."

And then he turned inquisitive. "I saw this wasn't pizza by the slice, and I wanted to find out what this thing was all about. I wanted to know why they did it this way."

Bianco dove headfirst into the study of food and threw himself into his restaurant work. But as he rose through the ranks to become "the legitimate chef wearing the big white hat," he realized he was straying from his passion: making pizza.

He moved to Phoenix in 1985, where he worked briefly in food sales before taking chef's jobs in Italy and Santa Fe, N.M. He returned to Phoenix in 1993, and opened Pizzeria Bianco with business partner -- then and now -- Susan Pool, in a strip center location. It moved to its present spot in 1996.

Today Pizzeria Bianco serves up a modest menu of pizza, pasta and salads at moderate prices (per person check average is $17). The walls are adorned with simple artwork and customers dine at long, plain tables on food from a wood-fired oven.

According to Michele Scicolone (pronounced "shecolonee"), however, there's nothing ordinary about the food. A cookbook author, Scicolone visited Pizzeria Bianco at the behest of friends who told her the pizza was the best they'd ever had.

"My husband and I are New Yorkers, and we couldn't believe you could find great pizza in Phoenix," said Scicolone, author of "Pizza: Any Way You Slice It," and co-author of the best-selling "Sopranos Family Cookbook." "But after we checked it out, we couldn't believe it. ... I don't think there's any one who does pizza as well as Chris."

Scicolone said two things make Bianco's food superb: great ingredients prepared by a passionate chef.

"He's a man who focuses on one thing, while others get so easily distracted and try to do everything," she said. "They look to win awards, but Chris doesn't care about that. His only concern is making great pizza."

Chris Bianco Position: Co-owner, chef, Pizzeria Bianco HQ: Phoenix Age: 41 Hobbies: Food history Quote: "Food writers tend to take one person's opinion as gospel and apply it to how they think things should be. An understanding of food needs to be more in-depth than that. It's not that simple. People's (food) opinions can be different and still both be right."

Bianco admits as much, and said his dedication sometimes pinches profits.

"I tell people all the time that two things I never worry about are food cost and labor, and they think I'm crazy," said Bianco. "Just get good people and pay them well and you'll be fine. It's worked for me; I have about the same staff since I opened."

One and done

Though Bianco is asked often about franchising Pizzeria Bianco, his answer is always the same: Thanks, but no thanks.

He said the world doesn't need 30 Pizzeria Biancos; additional restaurants would only water down a concept whose owners, food and ambiance can't be duplicated. His restaurant, Bianco said, is simply one man's understanding of truth told through food.

"People say, 'I love your concept,' and they say it like I woke up out of a dream in a cold sweat and said, 'That's a great idea!' That's bull s--- ," said Bianco, whose vocabulary sometimes is saltier than a pound of prosciutto. "It's none of that. Doing it was like breathing to me. It's natural. It's not something I want to grow into this great big business."

What the world does need, he added, is more restaurants run by mature chefs with the ability to bring their culinary vision to life with the best ingredients available.

To Bianco, that means sourcing local foods first, and looking elsewhere second.

"We use custom-grown tomatoes and we make our own fresh mozzarella," he said. "Every day we forage, go to local farmers' markets and find great things. Then we try to screw 'em up as little as possible when we cook 'em."

Bianco said the best chefs -- whom he counts among his Beard Award-winning peers -- have an insatiable desire to know everything about the food they prepare, including who grows the vegetables and how, as well as what the chickens and cattle are fed and how they're butchered.

They also seek to know the history of food by studying the origin of different dishes to learn why those ingredients are blended and cooked the way they are.

Chefs with such a grasp of food then are able reinterpret a dish as they see fit -- though not as a food critic may perceive as authentic.

"Food writers tend to take one person's opinion as gospel and apply it to how they think things should be," Bianco said. "An understanding of food needs to be more in-depth than that. It's not that simple. People's (food) opinions can be different and still both be right."

The simple life

Though he won't open another Pizzeria Bianco, Bianco is opening up an artisan bakery dubbed Pane Bianco. The new project, he said, is an outgrowth of his love of baking, not a desire for more money or fame.

Support from partner Susan Pool and brother Marco Bianco, who works at the pizzeria, has allowed him to step into the new venture.

"Susan does all that crappy hard stuff that allows me to cook, and Marco is a huge help," said Bianco, who also praised both with in his 30-second Beard Award acceptance speech. "The truth is I could make a hell of a lot of more money than I am, but I could do nothing more satisfying. In that aspect, I'm the richest guy I know."