Dartboard Pizza

If there’s one thing I hate it’s something I call dartboard pizza.

I like simple pizzerias, and you don’t see this at mom-and-pop, old-school Italian pizzerias. But in today’s pizza world, there are people who use good ingredients, maybe a wood oven, and feel the need to make things fancy. They throw a bunch of ingredients at a pizza that sound nice but don’t have a story of why they’re together.

Why are these ingredients on this pizza? Who is the main character? Butternut squash, artichoke, heirloom tomato, roasted mushrooms, Kalamata olives—what do they have in common? Nothing. Some of their peak seasons are completely different. Don’t dart-board pizza.