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If you pass through any large American city, Baltimore, L.A., Chicago, New York or any other city with large Jewish populations you'll come across Kosher Pizza places. I know what you're thinking, if the cheese, dough, tomatoes, and oil are Kosher then that is all you need to make Kosher pizza. Ah, not so simple. It's not just the ingredients that need to be Kosher, but the utensils need to be koshered as well (1).

Then there's the water. Water? Isn't water Kosher? Yes, but the best pizza is made from water that comes from the State of New York's reservoirs. New Yorkers who travel to Florida and sample the local bagel and pizza shops are usually disappointed with the fare because Florida water is just not as good for making dough. So even New York pizza owners who have moved to Florida find they cannot make the same great tasting pizza unless they import New York water.

And finally, after making sure all the ingredients, oven (and its temperature), and utensils are kosher, the pizza joint has to be certified kosher by an Orthodox rabbi. Simply placing cheese in the shape of a Jewish star on the pizza does not make it kosher.

Jews who have kept kosher all their lives obviously cannot compare kosher and non-kosher pizza as to which one, in general, is better. My own experience is that kosher pizza chefs, even those who learned the craft from Italian masters from New York area, cannot make their pizza taste phenomenal precisely because kosher ingredients cannot have the same taste just as fake bacon does not taste as fantastic as real bacon. Real pizza and real bacon are not like orgasms, they can't be faked. See my article The Best Way to Make Perfect Bacon.

I am blessed to live in Bayonne, New Jersey which has some of the best pizza parlors in the world. Today, a slice and a coke can easily set you back 3 to 5 bucks. Back in 1970 when I was a teen, a slice and a coke cost about a quarter.