Let's Talk Pizza Cutters

I use one of these and they are great:

My wife bought a Cutco one several years ago from a friends son who was in college, and like many college kids, got into selling Cutco products.

It is still working fine and has probably cut a few hundred pizzas in all that time. The roller blade does remove from the handle which makes cleaning a snap. Oh, and I've never sharpened it or felt like it needed sharpening.

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Is that the one they use at Little Caesars?

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It’s just a normal rocker blade. Pretty much just about every pizza place from “gourmet” to gas stations uses them. If you cook and eat a lot of pizza it’s definitely worth it.

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I'm seeing some $100 cutco pizza cutters online. If that's what it costs to buy a decent pizza cutter

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No, I guarantee my frugal wife didn't spend $100 on a pizza cutter, but I remember at the time it wasn't cheap for what it was.

The ONLY reason she bought it was to help out a friends kid try to make some money while in college.

I have a little axe from Etsy.

Just get a 10 dollar rocker type from Amazon

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Scissors

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My wife does this and it kills me for some reason

This seems red flaggy in the description:

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The handle comes in black, which blends in with existing pizza supplies.

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If you do order from a restaurant supply, grab a couple pizza screens. They season up if you don't put them in the dishwasher, and cook better than a pizza pan or cookie sheet.

Dear Friends,

It is a good day when we read of interesting topics on the forums. Today’s most interesting topic, undoubtedly, is that of pizza cutters. Cutting pizza was popularized by Americans. Most Italians simply do not cut their pizzas except with a knife at the table. They believe cutting in the kitchen causes the pizza to lose its beauty and its temperature. New Yorkers thumb their nose at people who eat pizza with fork and knife, but, while I respect New York as the capital of pizza in the world, I think it is fully acceptable to use utensils for pizza. Some Italians choose, instead of forks, to fold their pizzas, making impromptu calzones. Still others, like the disgusting Roman style, typified by the now defunct Bonci of the Warehouse District, use scissors to cut. Scissors is the least appealing of all pizza cutting devices, a nearly immoral abomination.

I know that one of the erudites of the Food Board will remind us that it was Silvio Pacitti of one of the states that later became Italy who invented the mezzaluna, “half moon,” knife in 1708. This arched blade, which uses momentum gained by rocking the blade against the object cut, was not originally made for pizza. The story goes that Pacitti was simply working on a more efficient cutting tool for his vegetables. I have yet to read any source material connecting Pacitti to the mezzaluna, but for most pizza historians, it seems that century-old legend is good enough for them.



The mezzaluna was later adopted by pizzaiolos in Rome and and is now most commonly seen in Chicago with its deep dish. Giordano’s still uses the full-sized, two handed mezzaluna. Lou Malnati’s uses the hand blade, a short rectangular, one-handed knife with 90 degree edges, some call a pizza bench scraper or chopper, which I do not consider a mezzaluna, but it is a derivative of the mezzaluna. Pequod’s, which is a blend of Chicago deep dish and Detroit style with its delightful frico edge, uses a 90 degree serving utensil to cut in to its pie. On my one trip into Pequod’s kitchen a decade ago, the maker let me cut my own pizza using this device. It is probably the least efficient way to cut a pizza, requiring the most manual force. It caused my wrist tendonitis to flare. UNO’s also uses a derivative of the mezzaluna, but its cutter looks more like a knife-machete combo, a long flat blade, approximately 24 inches long without a curve, that is best used with two hands.

It is no surprise that most chain pizzerias, including Domino’s and Pizza Hut use the mezzaluna. Many Detroit style pizzerias, like the originator of the style, Buddy’s, also use the mezzaluna.

Just as the mezzaluna was not intended for pizza by its inventor, the most common tool for pizza cutting today, the pizza wheel, was invented for an entirely different purpose.

Rewind the clock to the Asheville, North Carolina of 1888. The town is an up and coming community of just 10,000. Its setting in the western mountains of that state offers a most scenic location. George Vanderbilt of Staten Island falls in love with Asheville and with the Pisgah Forest. He purchases a huge swath of land and hires, among others, Frederick Law Olmstead, the father of landscape architecture and builder of Central Park, to construct his Biltmore dream.

As Biltmore is being built, a native Ashevillian, David S. Morgan, falls asleep one night, dreaming of how he might get a contract to install wallpaper at Biltmore. God visits Morgan in dream. In that dream, he learns of a much more efficient way to install and trim wallpaper. He wakes up the next morning and jumps to his inventor’s desk, and creates the vision he saw the night before – a one-handed handle attached to a circular piece of metal that revolves as the handle is pushed or pulled. The revolutions cause the semi-sharp blade of the wheel to cut as it moves.

Whether or not this device leaks into the food world, we do not know. We do know that Morgan’s device is identical to the pizza wheels we know and love so well now. An Ohio baker in the 1920s likely borrows Morgan’s design to create a cake cutter. By the time of the big post World War II pizza boom that starts primarily in cities, pizzerias throughout America are utilizing the pizza wheel knife.



Today, the pizza wheel is the most common pizza cutting device in America, and most the device used at the best pizzerias. Yes, Papa John’s and Little Caesar’s also, surprisingly, use the pizza wheel. But do not let their usage sway you. Whether you are dining at Razza in Jersey City, Lucali’s in Brooklyn, Joe and Pat’s of Staten Island, Louie and Ernie’s of the Bronx, Mama’s Too on Manhattan, Frank Pepe’s in New Haven, Andrew Bellucci’s of Queens, or Deluca’s of Hot Springs, you will find they all use the pizza wheel. The wheel is the rigger brush of the pizzaiola; it is the tool they use to sign their creations. The mezzaluna or scissors or any newfangled gadget (I am looking at you Genuine Fred Boss Circular Saw) used for pizza cutting just does not have the finesse and personal detail of the pizza wheel.

In summary, for Chicago and Detroit style and cheap chain pizza, a mezzaluna is the preferred cutting device. Uncultured barbarians use scissors. Neapolitan style deserves a fork and knife at the table, no pre-cuts. And the best of the best deserve a pizza wheel.

My favorite pizza wheel I carry when going on pizza tours is the Kitchy Pizza Cutter. It is smooth and remarkably effortless. The best pizza wheel for the kitchen is either the Kitchen Aid or the OXO Grips.

Yours,
TulaneLSU