J. Kenji López-Alt

Pipo knows that pizza is the best food, so she and her family have pizza every night. Her parents tell her that if pizza is the best food she needs to prove it - by trying other foods. So Pipo goes around to the other families in her apartment building to try other potential best foods - bibimbap, tagine, red beans & rice, dumplings, etc. They’re all wonderful, and she still loves pizza, so she learns that there doesn’t have to be only one best food.

A lovely story with lovely show more illustrations. Each page is filled with little details, from the decor of apartments that really feel lived in to the ingredients and dishes and mess that make the delicious food. The story is really sweet, I love that the solution is not that pizza is not the best (because it is, duh) but just that food is a wide world of so many delicious things and we can enjoy them all equally. The idea that a family has to have pizza for dinner every night because their kid says so is very silly. show less

Apizza-loving girl pits her favorite food against other multicultural offerings in her neighborhood to determine the best food ever!

At Pipo’s house, every night is pizza night. “Pizza. Is. The. BEST,” she says. “Peking duck?” her mother suggests, but: “Peking yuck,” Pipo avers. “French onion soup?” No! “French onion p….” Then her parents challenge her to try different foods, approaching the question scientifically. “I do not need to. I do not want to, but I will try show more other foods. I will do it for science,” she proclaims. Pipo visits her neighbors to gather “data.” First, she visits Eugene and tries Korean bibimbap. It smells stinky, and it tastes spicy! She loves it—but “is [it] better than pizza?” she wonders. Pipo goes on to sample Farah’s Moroccan tagine, red beans and rice in Dakota’s kitchen, and hot, juicy dumplings from Ronnie and Donnie’s food truck. All these foods are new to her and very tasty! Through this around-the-world culinary journey in her own neighborhood, Pipo discovers that while pizza is best, “it’s not the only best.” (Her recipe is appended.) Bold, bright colors, dynamic illustrations, repetitive refrains, and catchy, well-paced text make this book utterly rereadable. And while the theme is a little obvious, it may still help convince picky eaters to try new foods. Pipo has pale skin and straight black hair, and the cast is appropriately, robustly diverse.

A delightful culinary ode to the multicultural world we live in. (Picture book. 4-8)

-Kirkus Review show less

I'd give it ten stars if I could. If I could, I would give this book ten stars. It isn't a recipe book per se. It tells you HOW to make great food ... and WHY the techniques described work. Once you understand the science of WHY, you will become a better cook no matter what your present level of skill. I have a cookbook collection numbering about 1,500. This tome (it's big and heavy and rich in detail) has immediately joined my top five and, as the introduction noted, after ten minutes with show more this book you will become a better cook. You don't have to be a science geek, or even a great cook, to benefit from and to love this book. Lopez-Alt tells what works and why, and what doesn't. This book is what happens when a science geek loves to cook, and is cool enough to share his experiments with the world. I love this book. This -- and Page & Dornenberg's "The Flavor Bible" -- will become my go-to gift for weddings, birthdays and housewarmings for anyone who loves good food. It's really THAT good. I anxiously await the author's next book. show less

Oh my goodness! This book is positively delightful! As a woman married to an engineer (who always wants more data), I couldn't relate to a book more. What is really the best food? Is it pizza? Others say no....but how can they be wrong?

I love all of the introductions to food and cultures: dumplings, pozole, red beans and rice, bee-bim-bop. This book encourages children to get out there and try new foods! It is fantastic in that way. BIG time. And in the end, the discovery that is FAMILY that show more often makes our favorite food the best food. Memories attached to food. All of it plays a part. show less