Nancy Silverton, L.A. artisanal pizza pioneer of Pizzeria Mozza<\/a>, won the 2026 James Beard <\/a>Lifetime Achievement Award last month. In a 2017 interview with Los Angeles Magazine<\/a>, Silverton said that with L.A. being such a diverse city, there are many different kinds of pizza available, creating a multicultural culinary landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLos Angeles pizza is like the city of Los Angeles itself, a fascinating mixture of cultures, a blend of highlights those myriads of cuisines have to offer,\u201d Silverton said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen pizza topped with sashimi, carnitas and cubes of lamb that would normally be on a shish. Like L.A., it is not as easily defined as pizza is in Chicago or New York or Rome pizza. In that sense, there really is no L.A. My own pizza is just that. My own.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearly a decade later, that idea seems to hold true. To this day in L.A., you won\u2019t find only one kind of pie. Try Pizzeria Sei<\/a>, ranked No. 2 in the U.S. by 50 Top Pizza\u2019s 2026 with its Tokyo-style Neapolitan pizza, Masa of Echo Park<\/a>\u2019s Chicago-style deep dish, Little Dynamite<\/a> for its Detroit-style square slices, Ozzy\u2019s Apizza<\/a>\u2019s New Haven thin-crust, or Dtown Pizzeria<\/a>\u2019s award-winning Wagyu tenderloin pizza with caviar.<\/p>\n Los Angeles food aficionado Luca Servodio, a co-host of the L.A. Food Podcast<\/a> and the creator of social media food review account The L.A. Countdown<\/a>, said L.A.\u2019s pizza scene is defined by the different perspectives that chefs from all over the world bring to their pizzas.<\/p>\n Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t really divorce talking about L.A. pizza from the diversity of our city. Just looking at who are some of the best pizza makers in Los Angeles today,\u201d Servodio said. \u201cIt\u2019s not fusion necessarily. It\u2019s just people from different backgrounds with different culinary backgrounds, applying their mindsets to pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n Servodio describes pizza as his \u201cfirst true love,\u201d and he takes on a yearly challenge of eating 100 different types of L.A. food, which he posts on The L.A. Countdown. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the L.A. Countdown, and because he started in 2021 with a pizza tour, Servodio decided to embark on another 100 pizza tour of L.A. Servodio said over the past five years he has seen a lot change.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Los Angeles has grown in pizza legitimacy, we\u2019ve also gotten a lot of chefs from other cities move here,\u201d Servodio said. \u201cIt just keeps happening, and so now Los Angeles isn\u2019t just a destination for up-and-coming pizza makers who get their start here, but also for people from other cities who want to try their skills on a new market.\u201d<\/p>\n Servodio said the popularity of the food in L.A. could be attributed to a demand for comfort food post-pandemic, and many former pop-ups have gone brick-and-mortar after seeing the success of pizza shops across the city.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was this dormant demand for excellent pizza, and the fact that one or two spots started to open, it\u2019s just unleashed an entire universe of pizza demand,\u201d Servodio said. \u201cPeople realize, well, every neighborhood needs a great pizzeria, and actually, most neighborhoods can sustain two or three great pizzerias.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Servodio, \u201cL.A. style pizza is less a tangible thing and more of a spiritual thing.\u201d Servodio said L.A. pizza is not a particular style, but determined by ingredients the pizza is made from. While it may not be distinct, he said he knows an L.A. pizza when he eats it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think L.A. style pizza is defined by: is this pizza maker doing something unique and interesting with respect to the ingredients they\u2019re using?\u201d Servodio said. \u201cAnd then are they respecting those ingredients in a way that produces something that is extremely delicious to eat?\u201d<\/p>\n When he\u2019s reviewing a pizza, the self-described \u201cdough nerd\u201d judges it across five different categories: dough, flavor, toppings, concept execution and vibes. But to make his final determination, he ponders the very L.A. questions of \u201cHow long would I be willing to drive in order to have this pizza again, and would I be willing to wait in a line?\u201d<\/p>\n At the end of the day, Servodio said, one reason he thinks pizza has become so popular in the city is that people want to invest in \u201can experience that they know they\u2019re going to get some joy out of.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPizza is fundamentally one of the most joyful foods out there,\u201d Servodio said.<\/p>\n![\"Nancy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Butterscotch-Budino-Credit-Brad-Torchia_2-1200x1039.jpg\")
Nancy Silverton in Soho House West Hollywood\u2019s garden with her
butterscotch budino.Credit: Brad Torchia<\/p>\n