deep-dish pizza is the story of Chicago pizzas a matter of pride in Chicago
blue-collar broad-shouldered hearty Midwestern stock you know we have that
Midwestern sensibility but as much as we love the deep-dish pie
very few know it's tawdry history Rick Ricardo starts it I contend Rudy mill
not even for while deep-dish is the story of Chicago the story of deep-dish
is uniquely its own from recipe disputes there's really no conflict my father had
the recipe for the pizza to poaching cooks they actually hide outside of
Pizzeria Uno and they wait for Alice May Redmond just straight up stab you in the
back eree and Ike Sewell said you're not a partner I'm sure that they made
promises to her my father-in-law didn't think he was gonna make it go grab a
slice of the deep stuff we're about to weave a tale that'll have you rethinking
a true Chicago original we invented it we perfected it and it belongs to
Chicago Chicago's best presents piece of the pie the scandalous history of
deep-dish pizza
the story of what we call deep-dish pizza
starts because of a restaurant or artist merchant seaman Adagio dancer you name
it he did it known as Rick Ricardo Chicago cultural
historian Tim Samuelson about to drop some knowledge he lived in a post
Chicago fire residence at the corner of Wabash and Ohio but in the basement of
this old house was a bar and it was a rough place
the feds bussed the bar in so he takes over the old bar and makes us pizza that
is very different from traditional kind of pizza and Ricardo not created this
pizza the history of pizza would be entirely different but thank the pizza
gods he did and thus concludes our telling of the history of deep-dish
pizza well so as far as deep-dish goes huh
jonathan porter from chicago pizza tours with some alternative facts back in the
40s a couple of partners got together on the near north side of Chicago at the
corner of Ohio and Wabash one was a guy named Ike sole who was a former football
player at the University of Texas and all-american offensive lineman and then
his buddy a guy named Richard never ready who was affectionately known as
Rick Ricardo now Ike being from Texas he felt that Chicago didn't have any good
Mexican food I decided that what Chicago needed was a Mexican restaurant penne
Pollock dining editor at Chicago magazine so Rick enlists one of the guys
who works in his kitchen and Rick Ricardo who had never tasted Mexican
food in his life got sick totally hated it and ended up disappearing from
Chicago for two months but you're gonna tell me he went to Italy and was dazzled
by the Neapolitan style
but listen I've spent time in Italy they got this stuff called pizza over there
it's gonna be dynamite here in Chicago nailed it so the two of them are looking
at each other like all right eats that is there's only one problem with that
this happens a lot you know neither of them had any idea how to make pizza
excuse me what I am totally mystified about
stories that say that Rick Ricardo had no culinary experience oh it's on now
he had an artist sensibility and kind of a creativity and almost inner reverence
but he also had a food background Rick showed eye versions of what he had had
in Italy and an IKE soul being a big brawny Texan said oh I need something
much more hefty and maybe we need a knife and fork
so they kept building the pizza to be bigger and thicker and brawny ER and
that's how deep dish was born
but like let's just imagine they couldn't cook phillotson John so what
they do is they had to go out and find themselves a nice Italian guy by the
name of Rudy Malnati's senior an Italian immigrant mount Maddy you say now up
until then Pisa had been relatively small thin crust more of an appetizer or
a snack as opposed to like a full-blown meal and I've been from Texas he felt
that wasn't good enough so through his direction
Rudy Malnati's senior helped create the deep-dish pizza I'm probably the only
person that knows the real story other than my mother Rudy Mel Matty jr.
there's really no conflict my father had the recipe for the pizza RIT had the
building which was 29 East Ohio where the obviously pizzeria knows sits now
and Mike's was brought in for basically what he could do with bringing liquor to
the restaurants so on one side we have the Ricardo camp it must have been ready
Ric Ricardo starts it on the other is the monatti folks who better than an
Italian immigrant am i right I contend Rudy Milne Adi did and then
you can just start to add up the stories between you know what you hear over here
and what you hear here it starts to come together and give you an idea of what
may have happened mmm does it though what say we go to the source okay April
Gavin from the pizzeria oh no
the stance of our history is shrouded in mystery because I wasn't a journaler
neither wasn't over Eddie so we don't really know what they were thinking or
exactly those conversations what we do know is that nobody was an Italian guy
he made food for a living he had an Italian dough recipe it turns out though
that Ricardo and / Eddie died before any other deep-dish pizza place in the city
including our second restaurant pizzeria do it was open so it sort of became
Ike's legacy so what's the verdict last word penny people are greedy
they're terrible I find every version of this plausible because everybody wants
the credit and everyone wants their name on it and everybody wants the fortune
attached to it