I do not agree with a majority of President Donald Trump’s actions, but one thing he gets right is the way he eats pizza. I am referring to the 1995 Pizza Hut commercial where Trump promotes the stuffed crust by eating it first. I am here to tell you that this is the correct method for eating your pizza: crust first. 

This is part of my method of eating pizza, which I call the “best-for-last” method. I feel it is a common rule for eating that gets thrown out the door all too often, especially when it comes to eating pizza. The method is fairly simple; you choose the best part of your meal and save that for last so you are left with the best aftertaste. This also means you should eat the worst part first so that you can forget about the bad parts as quickly as possible. 

Now of course, some of you may wonder why we must save the best for last. I have come to this out of habit, but it isn’t without good reason. I believe that part of appreciating food is recognizing what your own personal preferences are and letting the last taste in your mouth be your favorite part of the meal. For example, when I am presented with a full array of dishes such as Thanksgiving dinner, I try each dish, identify my favorite and leave that dish for the last bite of the meal. In my case, I usually go for the mashed potatoes — which can even supersede the pumpkin pie if made extremely well. Ultimately, my goal with any meal is to end on a joyous note by taking in my favorite dish last. 

Ultimately, my goal with any meal is to end on a joyous note by taking in my favorite dish last. 

I simply apply this to the act of eating pizza and start with the worst part, the crust.

Many may question the statement that the crust is the worst part of the pizza. Some may even say that the crust is their favorite part of the pizza. If that were the case, then why not just eat a plain baked crust? Because no one is eating the pizza for its crust. The sauce, cheese and various toppings are what make the pizza different from a flatbread, and the crust is nothing more than the remnants of that flatbread. Additionally, I would argue that no one ever leaves the sauce and topping part of the pizza uneaten unless it is not to their taste or they are too full. On the other hand, many people will eat only up until the crust or, in extreme cases, even cut off the crust and leave it. If any part of the pizza is to be deemed the worst, it is easily the crust. That is why we must start there.

When we first get a slice of pizza, we must examine the whole slice to appreciate the Italians for this delicious cuisine. Then, we can dive right into the crust. I know many of you hold your pizza by the crust, but in the modern age of pizza on paper plates, we can simply hold the pizza from the bottom by lifting it with the plate. Now, we devour that crust. Even if it is the worst part of the pizza, it is still deserving of appreciation. 

The next step is a little more tricky. We must look at the remaining part of the pizza and determine the most delicious part of the slice. This is hard because different people will have different priorities. For example, with a plain cheese slice, you can look for the best-cooked part of the cheese. It is a good pizza when cooked evenly, but there will still be a part of the cheese that has cooked more, and is showing the beautiful brown crisp on the best bite of your slice. This best bite should be our last. 

Now, start consuming the slice. It is not essential to start at the tip of the pizza, but I suggest you do. It may look delicious, and even like a good candidate for the last bite, but it is always the most floppy, and will most likely have missing cheese or toppings that fell off when removing the slice from the rest of the pizza. Starting at the tip, we make our way up the slice, continuously sliding the slice down the plate so that we can eat the pizza right off the edge of the plate, all the while supporting the slice with one hand from the bottom. 

Of course, choosing the right bite for you can be a difficult task. I myself struggle with the decision from time to time. Say you are looking at a slice of pepperoni pizza and you see a spot where there is more pepperoni concentration. If you are a big pepperoni fan, this is definitely your spot, but if you prefer a balanced bite, this may not be your best choice. Now, I would recommend choosing a combination of both, where you find the densest area for pepperoni but you also locate an adjacent patch of cheese so that you can save both for your last and slightly larger bite. Topping distribution and cheese coloration are great places to start if you are struggling to locate your last bite. 

The final step is taking the last bite. This should be a part of the pizza that isn’t too small, but isn’t so large that you need to shove it into your mouth. This should be the most pleasant bite for you, and may vary from person to person. Before you finish this last bite, take a minute to appreciate what you have in front of you. Centuries of history and innovation have brought this slice to your taste buds, and now you are about to eat it in the best way possible. Now take the bite. 

I would like to mention that there are, of course, outliers to this method. Not all pizza is the same. The method I have described here is for pizza that you might find at a pizza shop in New York City. Eating in a restaurant is going to be a different experience. However, we can still apply the same theory of eating the best part last. Instead of eating it off of a paper plate and biting off of the pizza until the last bite, we can use a knife and fork to cut off the crust and eat that first, and then cut up your slice while making sure that you are saving the best part of the slice for the last bite. Additionally, one exception to this method (even with a classic New York slice) is when the tip of the slice is too floppy to sustain its toppings for the duration of eating the crust. In this scenario, feel free to bite off the tip first so that the slice doesn’t completely fall apart while you are eating it. 

I’m sure many people are still skeptical about eating pizza in this unfamiliar way, but this method comes from the intention of savoring the pizza in the best way possible. Using the antiquated method of holding it by the crust just doesn’t make sense in a day and age where we are given paper plates to hold the slice. The crust may once have been necessary for consuming pizza when it was first invented, and for that, we can still appreciate that it exists. However, we must devour our old tools and find new methods of savoring one of the best meals in the world.