How to Teach Your Kids About Good Pizza

Posted by Adam Kuban, November 18, 2009 at 5:30 PM

In a recent New Yorker book review of Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation, Macy Halford boils down the book's central tenet:

So how do you put the philosophy into practice? First, become fluent in the language of groupthink, and use it to invite your child to examine things critically as a member of a team: "'Can you believe they have the nerve to call this pizza? This doesn't even come close to __________' (fill in the blank with the name of your favorite pizzeria)."

I think the Slice family, of which you are all part (awwww, warm fuzzy feeling), is far too large, diverse, and opinionated to succumb to groupthink, no? [Hat tip to Girl Slice]

6 Comments Favorite this! (0)

Tags: books, pizza criticism, The New Yorker

6 Comments:

But, as you'll no doubt see in a few years, teaching your children about good pizza, by taking them to quality pizzerias and by making pizza with quality ingredients at home, plants a seed that grows into a young adult with good taste and a discriminating palate. These skills are then generalized, not only to pizza, but to other foods, to art, film, music and life in general. And, in the case of my son, to microbrewed beer.

famdoc at 7:16PM on 11/18/09

@famdoc: I totally agree. Our 1st born son is a borderline pizza snob. After seeing the pizza served in the school cafeteria, we knew we had done our job well based on what he had to say about it by appearance and smell alone.

BrianPrestonCampbell at 8:29PM on 11/18/09

I'd rather see parents letting children form their own opinions. I remember hearing a family of bigots on Howard Stern many years ago, and even the children were spouting that garbage.

So what if your kid prefers Pizza Hut to some fancy-pants $20 pizza? Let 'em make up their own minds.

ratbuddy at 8:32PM on 11/18/09

@RatBuddy: If my kid preferred Pizza Hut, I would abandon him in a wicker basket on the River Nile. I give my kids love conditionally. They only get love if they see things my way. But, I only whoop them once in awhile. No sense in making them fearful of me.

famdoc at 8:44PM on 11/18/09

good pizza generally is good because most people would recognize it to be good. I don't think groupthink has anything to do with that notion; every time i take NYC visitors (including one from Korea, a wasteland for pizza!) to Grimaldi's, they all go wild. a friend of mine found papa john's to be the paragon of pizza until i introduced her to the broad swath of NYC pizza excellence.

counterpoint - groupthink may come about with trends and followings for specific types of good pizza. it's only natural. what's wrong with that? why else would a cult following be a cult following? they keep the good places in business. :-)

pizzasnob at 12:32PM on 11/19/09

I nominate famdoc for a "Look Who's Talkin'" shoutout. Though I think his metaphor could use some work, because the way his hypothetical is going, his Pizza Hut-loving son would then become Moses, adopted by a Di Fara-loving family, before angrily demanding that they let his chain pizza-loving people go.

NYminknit at 2:45PM on 11/19/09

Add a comment:

Previewing your comment:

HTML Hints

Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>

Comment Guidelines

Post whatever you want, just keep it pleasant. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.

If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.

Pizza by Location

Browse the Archives

On Twitter

Slice - slice.seriouseats.com