Chef's Blog

The Accidental Wino

“Hands down, the Maitake mushroom pizza at Solbar is the Napa Valley’s best up-valley option for great pizza, and it’s the only pizza available on the Silverado Trail, as far as I know. The dough at Solbar is based upon a biga-style starter, which cultivates and propagates the yeasts, developing a more complex flavor within the crust. Traditionally, Italian bakers use a biga starter for making ciabatta bread, and Solbar’s pizza crust definitely features some ciabatta-like characteristics within the crumb. The pizza dough is made without sugar, ensuring a relatively light color, even after the dough has finished cooking. In terms of the pizza toppings, I also admire the simplicity of the maitake mushrooms and the cave-aged gruyere, which both lend an earthy-nutty component to the pie.”