-Tariq and I are about to do something fun.
It's time for the first annual "Tonight Show" Pizza-Off.
Here we go. [ Cheers and applause ]
The rules are simple.
The rules were make any pizza you want,
and whoever makes the most delicious pizza possible
is the winner and gets their name engraved
on the "Tonight Show" Pizza-Off Golden Pizza Slicer.
Look at this thing. [ Cheers and applause ]
Our judge has soundproof headphones, right?
He's not watching? So, Tariq and I, earlier,
we made our pizzas, and we recorded the whole thing.
I have no idea what Tariq is gonna make.
He has no idea what I'm going to make.
Check it out.
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Hey, guys, it's Jimmy. You may recognize me as
the "Tonight Show" Burger-Off champion.
♪♪
-You guys! -Number one!
The number one burger! -I love you!
I love you!
But, yeah, I guess I won. No big deal.
I don't want to gloat or brag that I won.
-Hey, what's up? Tariq Trotter here.
I been hearing about how Jimmy's running around New York City.
He's got his trophy on a necklace.
You know what I mean? He's bragging and boasting.
-You know, now that I've won,
I feel like I have a legacy to protect.
-I'm here to shut that down.
Today, I'm gonna be making my Pie'ing Lotus Pizza.
Turkey pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, sauce,
and I'm gonna finish it off with some hot honey.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I'm a trend-sniffer. And I sniff out trends.
I feel like there's big trend
with carb on carb happening right now.
So I went with spaghetti and meatballs on a pizza.
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
First of all, you start with the dough.
You can either make it yourself, or I go to my local pizzeria
and just buy dough from them.
And just stretch it around.
-I'm terrible with, like, stretching out a pizza dough.
It's never been my jam.
It's got a hole in it now. [ Laughter ]
Okay. We got another dough?
-A lot of people say the trick to making
a good pizza dough is height. [ Grunts ]
Don't worry about the holes. No one can even see the holes.
The new "Halloween" movie is in theaters October 31st.
Check it out. [ Cheers and applause ]
-I did borrow a little bit from my days working in Pizzeria Uno,
in that I put the pepperoni on before I put the cheese.
-I get my sauce from a can called Bianco.
And what you do is, you use your hands
to just squeeze the tomatoes and make the sauce.
Just get any, like, kind of aggression out.
[ Grunting ]
[ Record needle scratching ]
-Got to do that before you put it in the often.
This is the rock-a-bye technique.
Rock-a-bye pizza, because Jimmy's going to sleep.
Going night-night. You ready to go night-night?!
-Into the pizza oven it goes.
And then you kind of want to go, like -- "Shww!"
[ Cheers and applause ] That's what I'm talking about.
-And...it's not working.
The pizza's not coming off the peel.
-But I do want to -- ooh. Gosh, that almost fell.
Gah! Ooh!
What it would mean for me to have my name
engraved in the pizza trophy?
I'd be on cloud nine, or as they say in Italy...
cloud niño. Nino?
Ninto? [ Laughter ]
-To have my name engraved on the "Tonight Show"
Golden Pizza Slicer, it wouldn't matter to me at all.
Who cares? [ Laughter ]
All right. So, I'm about to take it out.
It's not bad.
-All right, now we want to get our pasta.
You can take a couple of meatballs
and make them into smaller bits.
I don't know what Tariq has on his pizza,
but I know what he doesn't have -- meat bits.
[ Laughter ]
♪♪
-Secret weapon -- I'mma hit it with a little spicy honey,
give it a little kick.
-Banana peppers. Now this is when I win.
That's what I'm talking about. Boom.
-And I feel like I used to have beef with Jimmy,
but now, you know, it's evolved into pepperoni.
There we go. Done.
It's level. -See, you need good ingredients.
Yes, you need a good pizza oven, but you also you need respect.
And this pizza was made with respect.
-I'm not even gonna trash talk you, Jimmy.
I'm just gonna let the taste do the talking.
-I think I won again with the spaghetti-and-meatball pizza.
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Both laugh ]
[ Cheers and applause continues ]
-Wow! -Wow!
-Wow! Interesting.
All right, to decide the wining pizza,
we have a special guest serving as our master pizza judge.
He's founder of Scott's Pizza Tours,
runs a pizza-themed non-profit, Slice Out Hunger,
and holds the Guinness world record
for largest collection of pizza boxes.
Please welcome Scott Wiener!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Welcome to the show. Thank you, Scott.
I wasn't doing that -- -Whatev.
-I wasn't doing that to -- -Okay, okay.
-I didn't do this after I saw Scott.
-Got it, yep. -Quick little fist bump.
That's all. -Yep.
-Thanks for being here.
I appreciate you coming to the show.
I love your videos, your work. I also love your book.
And you have the world's largest collection of pizza boxes.
-I do, it's true. -Did that start recently or no?
-No, man. Like 12 years ago,
I started collecting pizza boxes
and noticed that they're not all the same.
And, you know, they're pieces of art, you know?
When they have a pizza in them, pizza box.
When they're flipped vertical, art.
-Art. I agree, Scott. That's awesome.
-Thank you. [ Laughter ]
-It's now time to try the pizza.
Okay. Whenever you're ready, please try pizza number one.
Numero uno. -All right.
Lets see what's going on.
Oh. Interesting. Whoa.
There's spaghetti on this.
[ Laughter ]
This is not a mistake? This is actually...?
-That's a good question.
-Actually -- All right. All right.
I love pepperoncini, so I'm excited about this.
This actually looks like a serious dough.
Great fermentation from the edge.
Some nice open-crumb structure, which I always look for.
On the bottom, I see a really, really good bake, you know.
Things I'm looking for.
♪♪
[ Laughter ]
That was -- salt.
-You got some salt there. -Somebody got a little
carried away with the salt. -Yep, too much, yep.
[ Laughter ] -Okay.
Well, I got to say, decent pie.
-All right. Decent pie -- not bad.
-Decent pie. -Yeah.
-That pie was decent. -Yep, I agree with him.
-Number two. -Yup, number two is right.
-Oh! Okay.
Here's what I'm seeing on both of these -- post-oven basil.
I appreciate that. -Mm.
-Oh, there's honey on this. -Ooh, yeah.
-There's honey. Super common right now --
hot honey with a pork product on top.
I'm lovin' this. -Pretty common, yeah.
-Yeah. A little derivative, but, you know...
These are -- These are both legit pizzas.
So...
[ Laughter ]
Honestly, no offense, guys,
I expected a disaster from at least one of these.
[ Laughter ]
-You take offense. That's a compliment for me.
-Yes. Yeah, I concur.
-This is great. Now, Scott, the moment of truth.
Please write down your choice for the winning pizza
and put into the official
"Tonight Show" Pizza-Off ballot box.
Will it be pizza number one or pizza number two?
You can only choose one.
-All right. -And to make sure your vote
is complete and secure, Scott, please lock it
in the ballot box. Just put it in there, yes.
And then, now please fasten the straitjacket around the box.
[ Laughter ]
-You're gonna drop it into a pool of water, too?
-Well, finally, the shark-proof cage.
-Ah. -We do actually have
a shark-proof cage, just to make sure.
[ Cheers and applause ]
We know the vote's in there.
Can't be tampered with.
Now that the vote is securely locked in,
we can reveal to Scott who made what.
[ Clears throat ] Do you want to go first?
-Um, I made the pizza that you assumed was, you know,
the derivative pork product pie.
But I made it with turkey pepperoni,
which I've never seen in any pizza place on Earth.
So... -Maybe a reason.
-Yeah, yeah. [ Laughter ]
I went with the --
See, I think the honey trend has come and gone.
[ Laughter ]
I believe that carb on carb is the future.
And I went with double carb. People are running marathons,
people out there, they need some stuff.
I'm here to help you. -Interesting.
-So, Scott, now can you please remove
the shark-proof cage and the straitjacket
from the ballot box. In fact, I don't even know
if you need -- you can probably just open the top.
I don't even think it's locked. [ Laughter ]
You can just open it. Yeah.
-It's not really that secure, huh?
-No, not really. -All right, all right.
Okay. Let's see. -Ooh, gosh.
Oh, my goodness. I just want to tell my --
-Ah, ba-ba-ba, deh deh!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
We back, baby! We back, baby!
Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
-Go to bed! Honey, if you're watching,
put the kids to bed! They don't need to see this.
The kids don't need to see this!
Congratulations to the champion, Tariq Trotter!
[ Cheers and applause ]
And, again, thank you to Scott Wiener,
our pizza expert!
Thank you for being here, bud. I appreciate it.
-We'll be right back with Jeff Daniels, everybody.
Come on back.
I put too much salt on it?
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪