The Only Deep-Dish Pizza Anthony Bourdain Approved Of Was From This Chicago Spot

Anthony Bourdain never held back when it came to foods he couldn't stand, and Chicago deep-dish pizza earned some of his harshest judgments. A New York pizza purist, he called it an "abomination" during his "Close to the Bone" speaking tour in 2015 and lamented to Thrillist about such a great city being identified by one of its "weakest" suits, all of which made it seem like his opinion could never be swayed. And that would seemingly remain the case until an episode of "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations," where he ventured to the suburbs of Chicago to eat at a pizzeria called Burt's Place.

While cruising around the Windy City, Bourdain prefaced his visit to the Morton Grove establishment by saying that deep-dish was a "midwestern mutation of a pizza" and "a crime against food." Even so, he ended up sitting down with his friend and "Chicago Tribune" food critic, Louisa Chu, who explained it's all about the fresh ingredients and caramelized crust at Burt's Place. And once Bourdain took a bite of his spinach, mushroom, and bell pepper slice, it seemed like he finally understood.

"I gotta admit, I like this stuff a lot," he said, even if he couldn't help but throw one last dig towards deep-dish at the end. "I think my problem was just calling it pizza," as Bourdain said. "[But] whatever this is, I like it."

There are multiple styles of deep-dish pizza, with the most prominent being the classic Chicago-style deep-dish. Held together by a thick, sturdy crust, it's loaded with several layers of cheese, tomato sauce, and whatever other toppings you desire, with the end result being a pie that Chu called "practically a casserole inside of a pizza."

So then, what exactly makes Burt's Place one of the best pizzas in Chicago? As Chu also mentioned, it's the late owner Burt Katz's innovative take on the crust. Katz developed a version of Chicago-style deep-dish that some now refer to as "the Quod" in honor of his first restaurant, Pequod's Pizza. Featuring a more pillowy crust, this style prominently features caramelized cheese around the edges, which adds a sweet, nutty, and slightly bitter flavor to the pizza. And combined with the carefully sourced ingredients, it's no wonder that Burt's Place managed to win over a very skeptical Bourdain, even as "a New Yorker with a deep cultural aversion to pizza that is not New York pizza."