On National Pi Day, Pizza Maker Has Fun with Numbers on its Pies

Quick: How is the Pi formula used in the calculation of the cost of a pizza?

You don’t don’t have to be a math genius who can figure the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of the pizza without picking up a slide rule. You just need to grab an irrational amount of money – Pi is, after all, an “irrational” number in math-geek-speak – and get ready to eat to eat a (ahem) pie.

The national artisan pizza chain, Blaze Pizza, has figured out a creative way to have some fun with 3.14,  the “value of Pi,” on National Pi Day, observed every on March 14, often abbreviated as 3.14. Any custom-built artisan pizza sells for – wait for it – $3.14 from opening until close. The offer’s good on eat-in orders only.

Blaze Pizza has two Michigan locations – in Novi at 26401 Novi Road and in Royal Oak at 112 S. Main St.

The pizza is not your great-uncle Alfonso’s pinsa.

“Think Chipolte, but for pizza,”  says Joshua Levitt, a spokesman for the artisan pizza-maker. “ ‘Pizzasmiths’ help guests custom-create a pizza any number of 40 fresh toppings, in an assembly-line format.”

The 11-inch pies are then tossed into an 800-degree open-flame oven, where they’re fast-fired and are ready to eat in three minutes.

The dough is made from a recipe developed by “The Pizza Whisperer” – critically acclaimed executive chef Brad Kent,  a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY – that requires a 24-hour fermentation process to produce the signature light-as-air crisp crust. Kent is

Blaze Pizza is headquartered in Pasadena, CA, and is an independent company formed by Wetzel’s Pretzels co-founders Elise and Rick Wetzel. They’ve attracted an influential group of investors, including LeBron James, Maria Shriver, Boston Red Sox co-owner Tom Werner, and movie producers John Davis, Maverick Carter and Paul Wachter.