A laser focus on local ingredients inspires pizzas with a California attitude

“We’re so passionate about the place where we grew up, whether it was food, wine, craft beer, music, the beach … we thought it would be really awesome to celebrate that at the restaurant,” he said.

So State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria was born in 2018 in Los Altos, California, and now numbers two full-service restaurant locations and a slice shop, all specializing in pizza. “We try to source locally and seasonally as much as possible, looking at the Bay Area first, Northern California second, all of California after that, then domestically and internationally if we have to,” said Smith. The pizzas primarily use California cheese and dairy products, and the restaurant serves wine from independent California wineries, California craft beers, even sodas and other soft drinks produced in the state.

Building award-winning pizza from the crust up

The only imported ingredient is the flour for the pizza dough. But it wasn’t always that way, said Smith. He started making pizzas at other restaurants back in 2002, not thinking much about the crust. The New York style was the standard. “But my thoughts on pizza evolved, and we ended up creating a lighter, airier product that’s more California-style, inspired by Spago and Chez Panisse,” he said. “I really got into dough making and fermentation.”

He’s really into topping innovation, too, and spotlights his talents by entering pizza making competitions. He is a four-time finalist in the Real California Pizza Contest, and has also competed in the 2023 Tournament of Champions Pizza Contest and placed second in the Traditional American Division at the 2024 Caputo Cup in Naples, Italy.

An early winner among customers at State of Mind was the Elotero, a Mexican street corn-inspired pizza topped with garlic, California extra virgin olive oil, creamy mozzarella, chorizo, jalapeños, "corn ricotta," micro cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. “It's taken a lot of iterations, but it’s become one of the longest running seasonal pizzas,” said Smith.

The Elotero was inspired by his love for Mexican street corn. “I wanted to capture those flavors and that tradition of street corn on a pizza, but I don't like corn kernels on a pizza, so I started playing with ways to get the same flavors in a different vehicle, and landed on corn ricotta,” Smith said.

To create the signature ingredient, he sources corn from a farm in the East Bay and roasts it in the pizza ovens at about 600 degrees until it’s really black on the outside. Once the corn cools, he husks it, cuts the kernels off the cob, and purées the kernels in the food processor with salt, a little lime juice, smoky Espelette pepper, and ricotta cheese. “We can then pipe the corn ricotta on the pizza,” he said.

It took a few tries to get the texture right, he added. Both the corn and ricotta can vary in moisture content, so it’s important to keep an eye on the mixture in the processor and adjust accordingly. And the Elotero pizza has gone through several variations itself. “We changed the protein multiple times over the years, starting with bacon in the beginning, and then roasted pork,” said Smith. Now we’ve settled on our house-made chorizo and it’s a top seller.”

Fire on the Mountain was another award winner: a pizza topped with garlic, extra virgin olive oil, fresh mozzarella, cauliflower, Impossible chorizo, Fresno pepper, cilantro, pepitas, and orange crema. Smith entered it as a meatless pizza using an alternative protein.

“I’d wanted to put cauliflower on a pizza for a long time because I think it’s an underutilized vegetable,” he said. He roasts the cauliflower to deepen the flavor and combines it with other bold ingredients. The orange crema is a blend or locally produced Mexican crema, orange juice, and lime juice. The result is a “fun and unexpected pizza, kind of like the fall version of the Elotero,” said Smith. “It’s another pizza we can’t take off the menu.”

Impossible Foods is a California company close to State of Mind’s locations, and Smith was an early adopter. Although he’s an advocate of whole, unprocessed ingredients, using the product in Fire on the Mountain is a conversation starter, he said. “It’s another way to talk about sustainability and alternative proteins, and we have guests that would riot if we got rid of this pizza.”

State of Mind is a hybrid restaurant format — guests order at the counter but their food is brought to the table by servers and cleared by bussers, and the staff checks in on customers often. Wine and beer are available. The pizzas run $18-$28 for a 14-inch pie. At Smith’s quick-service slice shop, prices are $5.25-$6.50 for a generous slice off a 20-inch pie. “We’re not the cheapest pizza in town but we’re really proud of the ingredients we use,” he said.

Every pizza tells a story

California cheeses are another conversation starter. “I love all the unique cheeses we have access to for finishing, for flavor, for blending,” he said. “My style of cooking is using cheeses as counterpoints and that has become a signature of the menu.” He’s also experimenting with aerating cheeses and creating sauces and creams with them, staying true to the cheese but presenting it in a different way.

State of Mind menus list the names of the cheeses and the creameries they come from, and staff is trained to talk about them, describe their California terroir, and share their stories. “Creating these organic conversation starters through the choices we make on the menu is something that I love,” Smith added. “Restaurants are not here just to get you fed; they’re here for interaction between guests and staff and to build community.”

Although the chef enjoys experimenting with interesting cheeses and seasonal ingredients, State of Mind’s No. 1 seller is the cheese and pepperoni pizza. “People want the classics and what I do is a service,” said Smith.

His favorite “boundary-pushing” pizza right now is a pie topped with roasted eggplant, roasted yellow tomatoes, red sauce, and fresh mozzarella, finished off with a “controversial” local Gorgonzola cheese and a little mint. “People have very strong opinions about blue cheese, and question the combination, but I encourage them to try it,” he said.

Coming up next: a butternut squash-topped pizza drizzled with blue cheese crema.