‘Gourmet’ ingrediants… like pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese. That sort of thing.
Partly the above, but “artisan” also implies “hand made”, so I’d expect an artisanal pizza to show evidence of being formed by hand. It would probably not be perfectly radially symmetrical.
I don’t know - you go into a good neighborhood pizza shop, and you can watch a (sweaty, Mediterranean) guy handtoss & stretch the dough into a pretty damn good looking circle. I think the non-circular pizzas just look lazy.
The non-round shape looks harder to make than a round shape in the hands of a good pizza thrower. I think they do it so they don’t have to use as many topping and can make you eat a bunch more crust.
Hell, unless they’ve changed dramatically since I worked there (17+ years ago) you can watch that at Dominos.
…bt what is “artisanal water”?
Are you thinking of artesian spring water?
According to this article in the NY Times, it means no pepperoni.
According to Ken’s Artisan Pizza:
"The pizza at Ken’s Artisan Pizza is inspired by pizzas Ken and chef Alan Maniscalco each have enjoyed during visits to Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Baked in the intense heat of a wood-fired oven, with a blistered crust, and topped with the best ingredients they can find, pizzas are baked in about 2 minutes time. "
Artisan pizza dough compared to shitty pizza dough is like the difference between high quality artisan bread and Wonderbread.
I love high quality food, but I draw the line at artisan pizza. I prefer excellent “regular” pizza. First there was gourmet, and now artisan…but pizza shouldn’t be like that.