The man standing next to me grabbed a steaming slice, took a bite and asked of no one in particular, “Who said we don’t have good pizza in L.A.?” Well, that’s not exactly true, but the pizza that Marc Vetri made at a backyard dinner party, in the shadow of palm trees and the Hollywood sign, could hold its own with just about any pies in the city. And that’s without his preferred temperature in the wood-burning oven, plus firewood of unknown provenance. Vetri was in town from Philadelphia to celebrate the release of his second cookbook – Rustic Italian Food – with an array of representative dishes and a side of live music. He crafted dough and piled on ingredients for two types of pizza, my favorite being the Lombarda, an Osteria-style specimen topped with molten cheese, tomato sauce, a fresh-cracked egg with yolk that ran over the airy, blistered crust, and the kicker, irregular but flavorful chunks of coarse sausage.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.