Tina Fey Waxes Poetic About Gino's East Pizza in GQ

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Nov 28, 2011 8:00PM

Tina Fey has waxed nostalgic about her love for Chicago's culinary staples before (affinity for Jimmy John's notwithstanding). Now she offers yet another opinion on Chicago's great pizza debate in the pages of GQ.

Fey wrote a blurb about Steve Carrell, chosen by the magazine as one of its "Men of the Year," when she shares an anecdote from when the two filmed Date Night that harks back to their Chicago improv days and late nights commiserating over a pan of deep-dish.

"Steve gave me the most excellent birthday present: eight frozen Gino's East deep-dish pizzas. Like Steve, Gino's East pizza got its start in Chicago, where people know pizza. Like Steve, they are stuffed full of goodness. Whether you get the mainstream cheese version, a meat-filled blockbuster, or the more thoughtful and indie spinach, Steve and these pizzas never fail to delight."

Of course, we're on record here as defining Chicago-style deep dish as a casserole in a bread bowl. Fey stops short of declaring deep dish as the superior pie over East Coast-style pizza.

"And there's no point in comparing Gino's East with thin-crust East Coast pizza. They're two completely different things, and both are fantastic."

It's that passive non-refusal that makes her America's Sweetheart.