Around 10 years ago, John Arena, a master of all pizza styles, New York native and co-owner of Metro Pizza in Las Vegas and Truly Pizza in Dana Point, California, spent a couple of days in PMQ’s test kitchen. While the industry has evolved in dramatic fashion over the past decade, the essentials of excellent New York-style pizza dough that Arena shared with us are timeless: flour, water, salt, yeast and olive oil. “The flavors,” he said at the time, “are going to come from fermentation, the length of fermentation and the development of amino acids over a two- to three-day period.”

He also noted that you don’t need New York water to make a good New York-style pizza! Watch this video flashback to learn Arena’s secrets to making the kind of pizza dough that picky New Yorkers anywhere will recognize and love.