How to Eat Deep Dish Pizza

Picture this: here you are, ordering a deep dish pizza. It finally arrives to you. It smells amazing—luscious tomato sauce, aromatic oregano, melted cheese, everything else—and it looks absolutely incredible. The deep red sauce, the golden crust, the immense circumference. In fact, it looks so good it’s… intimidating. Suddenly you are apprehensive. Where do you start? How do you eat deep dish pizza?

A perfect slice of Chicago-style deep dish pizza featuring some veggies.

Note: Not for the faint of heart 

You must accept that eating deep dish pizza is going to be an experience. That’s part of the charm! The first step is to prepare yourself. Mentally you need to be in a place of wonder and excitement. Get out your napkins. Have a drink of water. You may want to take your pulse.

Start by cutting your deep dish pie into four sections.

Make the Cut!

Now that you’ve let the savory appeal of the deep dish pizza wash over you and saturate your mental state with cheesiness, you need to pick up a knife and get started. It must be a sharp knife—there is a lot of cheese you’ll want to sever and portion into your slices. Start by making two cuts right through the center of the pie and dividing it into quarters. Then repeat, partitioning the delicious circle into eight (or more, you be the judge).

There’s nothing better than sharing deep dish pizza and beer.

Plate it up

Get your spatula—the best option here is the squarish spatula with an offset handle—and loosen the flaky, buttery crust from the pan (of course, you may disregard this if you got carryout and your pie came neatly packaged in a pizza box!). Then the fun starts: scoop a piece as deftly as you can onto your plate. Not to doubt you, but you probably won’t execute this flawlessly the first time. Practice makes perfect!

Go ahead, use that fork and knife and devour your slice of deep dish pizza.

Use all the tools you’ve got

You can eat deep dish pizza with a knife and fork. Yep. There’s nothing in the rulebook that says that this is sacrilege. It’s not a cop-out and it’s not putting on airs. This isn’t deserving of the ridicule that our European friends are often subject to by eating literally everything with utensils. It’s completely appropriate here to slice off a chunk with your knife, and lift it up with your fork. That being said, all the tools you have at your disposal are fair game. This includes your hands! Give it a try if you want—pick it on up. (We should warn you, though, that you won’t be able to fold a slice of deep dish pizza à la New York…)

If the crust on your deep dish slice is thick enough, eat it with your hands!

What’s important

Did you enjoy taking part in a classic Chicago tradition? Follow our pizza-eating guide or not, that’s what matters. Every bite is a success if it pleases you. Any path to your mouth should lead to a supreme taste experience. Anyway, enough reading—let’s eat.