With the Opening of Cork & Crust, A Five-Star Chef Takes On An Old Favorite — The Pizza

CHEF KRISTIN BUTTERWORTH. PHOTO COURTESY OF CORK & CRUST

On Sundays in her childhood, Kristin Butterworth remembers opening her grandmother’s front door in Johnstown and being met head-on by an enticing fragrance; It was two things at once — bread dough rising on the radiator and tomato sauce hours into a simmer on the stove.

“That was every Sunday, a core memory,” Butterworth says. “Before coats were shrugged off, before hellos, before we left for church as a family, there was the smell. She would make bread for the entire week for the entire family. When we came back from church, she’d start cooking the pasta. It was a ritual that brought everyone together.”

Even now, decades later, Butterworth says the smell of tomato sauce can snap her back instantly. “You smell it,” she says, “and you’re 8 years old again.”

At Oakland’s Cork & Crust, where Butterworth now leads the kitchen, that sensory memory is never far from the surface. Located on the ground floor of The Oaklander Hotel, the highly anticipated pizza-and-wine bar opened on Monday

Butterworth herself is a three-time James Beard Foundation semifinalist who has worked at the highest levels of American luxury dining for more than two decades. Her resume includes leading the kitchen at Lautrec at Nemacolin, where, at age 27, she helped earn the restaurant Forbes Five-Star and AAA Five-Diamond level accolades.

She most recently worked as the executive sous chef with Sea Island Resort in Georgia, and also spent time The Windsor Court in New Orleans and Patrick O’Connell’s Inn at Little Washington.

Her new work at Cork & Crust is not a retreat from that fine-dining world; “In many ways, it is a return,” she says.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CORK & CRUST

From Southwestern Pennsylvania to Italy — and Back

Butterworth’s path to cooking was established early, and articulated often to her parents, when she was barely out of elementary school.

“I didn’t know French fries came out of a bag until I was in college, or the concept of ranch,” Butterworth says. “As a kid, I didn’t recognize this as values or intentional eating. It was just dinner; quality food [was] foundational at home”

After enrolling in the culinary program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Butterworth was placed in northern Italy at a culinary school housed in an old castle near Turin. Perched on a hill overlooking a village, the castle and surrounding area were “exactly what you imagine a quintessential Italian town looking like,” she says.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CORK & CRUST

The program was immersive to the point of overload. Butterworth and her classmates visited prosciutto producers along the Po River, where curing rooms were designed to let salty air pass through the meat just so. They toured a Grana Padano facility and learned how every byproduct was used, from cheese to butter to whey; nothing was wasted. They went to the Lavazza factory to understand coffee culture and roasting. Meals were typically accompanied by wine.

“It was jam-packed with as much education in wine, food and culture as it possibly could be,” Butterworth says. “That was really when it clicked. Italian food is about time. About respect. I always knew I wanted to be a chef — but that’s when I understood what kind.”

That understanding carried her through years of working in upscale kitchens, until life intervened. She became a mother, lost her father and took on the care of her mother.

“At a certain point,” she says, “being close to family becomes the priority.”

Pittsburgh was calling her home.

Her arrival at Cork & Crust after spending close to two years at Sea Island in Georgia came together through long-standing relationships, and a bit of serendipity. Butterworth had known Perry Ivery, general manager at The Oaklander, for years. When an opportunity surfaced for a new restaurant at the upscale hotel, it came with creative latitude for Butterworth and a chance to cook at the same elite level of fine dining, but for more people.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CORK & CRUST

Building a Pizza From The Inside Out

Opening a pizza restaurant in Pittsburgh is not a neutral act. The city’s Italian heritage runs deep, and pizza is everywhere. Butterworth knew Cork & Crust had to earn its place in the hearts of discerning diners carefully.

“We started with one question,” she says. “How can we be unique?”

Pizza, Butterworth will tell you, is deceptive. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone thinks they know it. And everyone will notice if you get it wrong.

Neapolitan pizza, in particular, posed a problem. Traditional versions don’t travel well. They are meant to be eaten, immediately, straight from the oven. But Cork & Crust needed the pizza to work not just for guests in the dining room, but for hotel boarders ordering a meal upstairs, or for anyone ordering a takeout to bring home.

So Butterworth engineered a durable hybrid, the “Neo Neapolitan.”

To get there, she stripped everything back to its bones. Before any toppings were considered, the team spent months eating nothing but cheese pizza. Dough, sauce, cheese — nothing else. The goal, Butterworth says, was to make a pizza that could stand entirely on its own.

“The toppings shouldn’t carry the pizza,” she says. “The pizza should carry itself.”

The resulting Neo Neapolitan is somewhere between a Neapolitan and a New York in terms of pizza style. The crust has the airy puff and blister of a pie from Naples, combined with the bend and structure of a New York slice.

The dough ferments for 24 to 48 hours and incorporates black garlic molasses instead of sugar or honey, lending subtle depth without sweetness. The sauce is uncooked, made from fresh tomatoes, basil, salt, sugar, roasted garlic and garlic oil, and designed to cook only once in the pizza oven itself. The cheese blend is a 50/50 mix of Grande mozzarella and provolone, chosen for melt, balance and stretch.

Only after the cheese pizza passed muster did toppings enter the picture.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CORK & CRUST

The Joy of Obsessive Details

This is where Butterworth’s fine-dining pedigree reveals itself.

Cork & Crust’s Spicy Pepperoni layers pepperoni with jalapeño and house-made hot honey, finished with basil. Butterworth uses a 38-millimeter Ezzo cupping pepperoni, chosen because it curls and crisps without burning, to add texture as much as flavor. The hot honey that finishes the pie is made in-house with local honey, jalapeños, garlic and chili flakes, then reused on the pizza itself, so nothing is wasted.

The Spicy Pepperoni may get top billing, but it’s not the only star of the menu. The Holy Shiitake brings pesto, mushrooms and pickled onions into an umami-bomb, while Nonna’s Rebellion makes a case for leoncini ham, pineapple and hot honey jalapeños sharing the same slice.

On the table, instead of parmesan shakers and generic chilli flakes, guests have access to curated finishing touches: Italian chili crisp, proper parmesan and thoughtfully selected olive oil.

And if you came for pizza only, the rest of the menu would like a word. The Gnocchi Con Pesto is made with lemon ricotta, basil, toasted pine nuts and parmigiano reggiano while the Yinzer “Ravioli” swaps pasta for potato pierogi in a cracked black pepper cream with charred pearl onions.

Then there’s the Cauliflower Pitcata, a vegetarian dish that’s one of Butterworth’s favorite dishes, and one that satiates diners as much as any meat-based entree. A thick slab of cauliflower is roasted until deeply caramelized, then finished with lemon-caper butter, basil pesto, chili flake and blistered parsley.

“It’s very simple, but it highlights the quality of the products we’re using,” Butterworth says. “That’s really the focus.”

The beverage program mirrors the kitchen’s quality-first philosophy. Cocktails pull from Italian aperitivo culture with Negroni variations, spritzes and citrus-forward builds, while the wine list leans Italian without rigidity, offering prosecco, nebbiolo, pinot noir and cabernet alongside familiar California producers

For Butterworth, the meaning of luxury has evolved over her 20-plus years working in fine dining.

“I think luxury is feeling taken care of,” she says. “It doesn’t need to be caviar and champagne. This chapter is about creating memories for everyone.”

And if it starts with the smell of bread and sauce? All the better.