Happy December, pizza nation! Addressing our readers as “pizza nation” has become a “thing” with me, and I thought I would delve into that further. Oxford Dictionaries defines “nation” as “a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory.” As anyone who has spent any amount of time in the pizza industry will attest, pizza is definitely its own culture. 

One of the things I love to do here at PMQ is to have friends come tour our offices. A couple months back, I invited one of my good friends to stop by and check things out. After showing her our offices and test kitchen, her response was, “I can’t believe pizza is such a huge thing!” 

Well, pizza is a huge thing, as our 2019 Pizza Power Report in this issue attests. It’s the industry standard for trends and statistics in the pizza industry, and we are delighted to bring you this again. Also in this issue: Our pizza styles expert and former Detroit-area resident, Liz Barrett Foster, gives us a tutorial on Detroit-style pizza. Tracy Morin tells us how it’s easy to be cheesy in her article exploring trends around one of the most important components of pizzas. Yours truly delves into the wacky world of wings—including the history of the buffalo wing and, specifically, some of the crazy new flavors restaurants are coming up with.

As a special treat, our art director Eric Summers has painted one of the finest pieces of art ever to grace the cover of PMQ. An homage to Norman Rockwell’s iconic Freedom From Want, he has included members of the PMQ staff. Publisher Steve Green and Co-Publisher Linda Green serve up a holiday pizza feast to, counterclockwise from top left to top right, Chris Green, Tom Boyles, Blake Harris, SarahBeth Wiley Smith, Daniel Lee Perea, Brian Hernandez, Heather Cray, Brandy Pinion, me, and the artist himself, Eric Summers.

December is home of two of the biggest pizza nights of the year—Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Pizza makers of the world: Start your engines!