Theo & Co Take 2

Theo & Co Take 2

After the phenomenal success of his first cookbook, Theo & Co: The Search for the Perfect Pizza (2008), World Pizza Champion Theo Kalogeracos takes to the road to continue his search for the perfect pizza " this time as far afield as Italy and the USA.

With recipes as original as Theo himself, the pizzas in Theo & Co. Take 2 are all melt-in-your mouth delicious. Inspired by the pizza capitals of Rome, New York and Chicago, and created with Australian produce, Theo's flavours are both Australian and international and full of his energetic style.

With recipes to suit every kind of cook, this all-encompassing -pizza manual' offers a complete pizza toolkit: dough types; how to make your own pizza oven; pizza for dinner parties and pool parties; pizza-making for cooks who like a challenge and for dads who never cook!

Theo Kalogeracos runs a very special restaurant in Mundaring called Little Caesar's, which became so popular that many people took the 50 minute drive out from Perth to the hills, and which has now expanded to three restaurants. A one-time pastry chef, Theo is now a twice-winner of the World Pizza Champion title, and was invited to judge the 2011 World Pizza Championships. Theo's phenomenally-popular first cookbook, Theo & Co, was named Kinokuniya Cookbook of the Year (2008).

Theo & Co Take 2: The Search for the Perfect Pizza Continues
UWA Publishing
Author: Theo Kalogeracos
ISBN: 9781742583532
Price: $34.95

Interview with Theo Kalogeracos

Question: Which recipe in the book contains the most memories, for you?

Theo Kalogeracos: Slow Cooked Pork Belly and White Wine Onions on a Sourdough pizza base. Everytime I eat this it takes me back to Fisherman's Wharf San Francisco, where I first smelled the roasting of the pork belly and then lining up to get a sour dough roll with pork belly, it was an amazing food experience, and every time I eat this pizza it takes me straight back there.


Question: What is your favourite pizza topping, at the moment?

Theo Kalogeracos: Siracha Chili Sauce, it's a Japanese chili sauce, the bottle with the rooster on the label. I've got this sauce on my flaming lips pizza with Japanese mayonnaise, it is such a great chili sauce with just enough heat but with a sweet taste, and great spices in the background.

Question: Breakfast pizza! Is there such thing?

Theo Kalogeracos: Yes! But it does not have to be eaten at breakfast, it's like cereal, how many times have you had them at night and they taste great, it's like my Green Eggs and Ham pizza or my Jebediah Dessert pizza which is a cinnamon doughnut on a pizza served with an affogato, with great flavours and textures like these it doesn't matter what time of the day it is.


Question: What inspires you when creating pizza recipes?

Theo Kalogeracos: Music, travel, and that one special ingredient, it does not have to be expensive or rare it just has to trigger something in my head that I can translate into a pizza, the Speck and Peas pizza is a great example of that, I was eating Oysters Kilpatrick with speck which where amazing, I loved the speck so much that I came home and cooked with it till I found the right flavours and textures that make the speck stand out.


Question: What types of dessert pizza do you provide recipes for in the book?

Theo Kalogeracos: There are two types of desert pizzas: 1. I turn cakes and pastry's into dessert pizzas, they take about 7 to 10 minutes to bake, I'm a pastry chef by trade, so really take the basics of a cake recipe and use that information and turn it into a dessert pizza.

Dessert pizzas are not a novelty they are just as important as normal pizza, the Italians have been doing them for ever.

2. Wood fired dessert smudges, a wood fired oven cooks fast, the normal dessert pizzas I make cook in 7 to 10 minutes, a dessert smudges cooks in 3 to 5 minutes, you can use any spread you like from Nutela to jam, lemon curd, peanut butter, topped with in season fruit be it thin slices of apple, banana slices, shaved pears, topped with icing sugar and a dollop of fresh whipped cream it turns the ordinary into extraordinary.


Question: Can you tell us more about the cupcake inspired pizza?

Theo Kalogeracos: This is a classic example of that you never stop learning. My wife dragged me down to this cupcake shop in Beverly Hills that she had seen on Oprah, so I wasn't that interested but I went, the second I ate the red velvet cup cake from sprinkles it was the best single cupcake moment ever, I could not wait to get home to try and make that cupcake at home, the sprinkle store sold pre mix cake mixture of the red velvet so I bought a few and brought them home, I followed the instructions and they were good but not great, then I did some research, bought some cook books and found the secret special ingredient for the colour and the moisture of the cup cake was beetroot juice.
Once I perfected the cupcake then I had to deconstruct it and re assemble onto a pizza which is a lot harder that it sounds it took me about six weeks of failures to get it right, I am very proud of that dessert pizza and I think it's taken our dessert pizzas to another level.