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Chicago is a food town. For outsiders, deep dish pizza comes to mind. Well, sorry, nobody who lives there really eats it. If you’re going to Chicago as a meat lover, you should really be eating a Chicago-style Italian beef, or just “beef,” as it’s referred to in the Windy City. When it comes to deep dish pizza, I can attest as a former Chicagoan, locals don’t really eat the stuff. It’s for tourists. If you want a good pizza, get the square-cut, thin crust, tavern-style pizza with some good local sausage. Still, deep dish pizza is what the outside world knows Chicago for, and so, Anthony Bourdain had to dip into it in an episode of his show, “No Reservations.”
While Bourdain had called deep dish pizza “an abomination,” his friend, fellow cook, and TV colleague, Louisa Chu, brought him to a Chicago favorite that may have changed his mind. Burt’s Place in Morton Grove, just on the edge of Chicago, is a local favorite known for its attention to detail. Although the legendary owner, Burt Katz, died in 2016, his legacy lives on. And it seems yo be a darned good quote-unquote pizza that even a dyed-in-the-wool New York-style fanatic like Anthony Bourdain could give his blessing to.
Why Anthony Bourdain loved Burt’s deep dish in Chicago
In the episode, Anthony Bourdain says, “I’ve always felt that the so-called deep dish pizza was a crime against food. It wasn’t pizza at all, I believed, instead some kind of Midwestern mutation of a pizza.” Louisa Chu adds, “Generally speaking, it’s giant and filling. I mean, we’re talking about, practically, you know, a casserole inside of a pizza.”
Bourdain was skeptical, but Chu promised he’d understand if he tried it. “That’s really nice,” Bourdain exclaimed after trying it. “I get this. I understand it now … Burt’s sort of taken the best qualities of an Italian-style pizza and married them with a Chicago-style deep dish pizza.”
Owner Burt Katz was there, watching Bourdain try the pizza. “That’s why a lot of people bring their kids in here, because kids don’t eat the crust and parents get all the crust,” he told Bourdain, with Chu commenting that the beautifully caramelized crust has “top-notch quality, fresh” fillings. In Bourdain’s estimation, Burt’s deep dish pizza may be more akin to a casserole, but maybe the crust is where it’s at. “I gotta admit,” Bourdain said, “I like this stuff… a lot. I think my problem is just calling it ‘pizza.’ Whatever this is, I like it.”
Dining and Cooking