by Steven Doyle
Last night as part of the visiting celebrity chef series at Cane Rosso, Matt McCallister stormed the Deep Ellum Neapolitan pizzeria with a few surprises. If you have been following the Cane Rosso files for the past year you would understand that owner Jay Jerrier is unforgiving with two specific pizza ingredients. Specifically, ranch dressing and pineapple.
Knowing this, McCallister with his bright sense of humor decided to make two varieties of pies. One would contain pineapple.
Do not expect to see this pizza on the menu any time soon. The Hawaiian contained smoked pit ham, caramelized pineapple, hearts of palm and was finished with arugula. The pizza was of course delicious. Jerrier said that McCallister had special dispensation for including pineapple, and also mentioned that he actually enjoyed the pizza himself.
The next pie was actually our favorite, and was a much simpler concoction of foraged wild onion pesto, black trumpet mushrooms, fresh mozzarella & grana padano. This pie smacked of the chef’s handiwork.
The trumpet mushrooms are McCallister’s favorite and he said that he braised the ‘shrooms and actually used the liquid that ran off to make a glaze for the trumpets to give the flavorful mushrooms even more punch.
The chef series continues next week with a visit from David Uygur of Lucia fame, then Jon Alexis from TJ’s Seafood Market.
