Paul Giannone, the Paulie Gee of Paulie Gee’s (left), with a patron at his Brooklyn pizzeria in May 2010. Photo Jeff from Queens, NY, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. No free image of a Mike's Hot Honey bottle could be found.
Mike's Hot Honey
What it took directly
- documentedMike's Hot Honey took from a small pizza parlour in Brazil that set jars of chili-infused honey on its tables"Kurtz was studying Portuguese in Brazil 20 years ago when he walked into a small pizza parlor that placed jars of honey infused with chili peppers on the tables." Chicago Sun-Times (Neil Steinberg, April 2024), from Mike Kurtz
- statedMike's Hot Honey answered the honey Mike Kurtz tasted in Brazil, made hotter and more chili-forward"It's a lot hotter, more chili forward and has a much stronger kick than what I tasted in Brazil" Mike Kurtz, to CNBC Make It (Nov 2023)
- documentedMike's Hot Honey took from Paulie Gee drizzling Kurtz's homemade honey on a hot soppressata pizza and asking him to make it for the restaurant"Paulie tasted it and then drizzled it on a hot soppressata pizza. He quickly asked Kurtz if he would be willing to make his hot honey for the restaurant." CNBC Make It (Nicolas Vega and Raffi Paul, Nov 2023)
- documentedThe first labelled bottles of Mike's Hot Honey took from customers at Paulie Gee's asking for honey to take home, November 2010"Kurtz began his apprenticeship in August of 2010. By November of that same year, demand for to-go bottles of his honey was so strong that he decided he needed to put a label on the bottle so that he could sell it off the bar." CNBC Make It (Nov 2023)
- documentedMike Kurtz took from a chance run-in with Larry Raymond, co-creator of Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce, in his freshman year of college — which, he says, left him inspired"He had a chance run-in with Larry Raymond, co-creator of the popular Sweet Baby Ray's barbeque sauce, during his freshman year of college. The interaction, he says, left him feeling inspired." CNBC Make It (Nov 2023), from Kurtz's account
What it learned to do
- statedMike Kurtz learned from the Brazilian pizzeria's way of steeping whole chili peppers in jars of honey for drizzling on pizza"On a weekend trip to a national park, I hiked into a little valley with some friends and there I found a tiny pizzeria that had jars of honey with whole chili peppers steeping in it for drizzling on pizza" Mike Kurtz, to Business Insider (Grace Dean, June 2024)
- statedMike Kurtz studied under Paulie Gee, as a pizza apprentice at his Brooklyn pizzeria"And by the end of the conversation, he could tell that I was really into making pizza and he asked if I would be interested in coming in as a pizza apprentice." Mike Kurtz, to CNBC Make It (Nov 2023)
- documentedMike Kurtz learned from the pizza blog Slice, where home pizza makers traded tips and where he first met Paulie Gee"He would spend hours exchanging tips with fellow pizza aficionados on a blog called Slice, where he first encountered a pizza maker named Paulie Gee who would soon be opening a pizzeria in Greenpoint, Brooklyn close to where Kurtz lived at the time." CNBC Make It (Nov 2023)
The tradition it sits in
- documentedMike's Hot Honey comes from Paul Giannone's habit of building his pies around local artisans' ingredients"Owner Paul Giannone is known for collaborating with local artisans and incorporating distinct ingredients into his pies. And one such example of that is Mike’s Hot Honey, which punches up the Hellboy." Eater (Kat Odell, Oct 2014)
- inferredMike's Hot Honey comes from Neapolitan-style pizza, the kind Paulie Gee's made when the honey first went on its menu"Neapolitan-inspired pizzas get no finer treatment than at Paulie Gee’s, a creatively-topped pie joint in Brooklyn, New York." inferred — Eater describes Paulie Gee's as a Neapolitan-inspired pizzeria; no source says the honey belongs to that tradition
- documentedHot honey on pizza comes from the centuries-old Italian habit of infusing honey with pepperoncini peppers"I think the most relevant historical link to using it on pizza comes from the centuries’ old tradition of infusing honey with pepperoncini peppers in Italy" Tris Revill, food tour guide, to Speciality Food Magazine (July 2024)
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