Jim Lahey was a hero to us and many other home cooks during the pandemic shutdown. That’s no exaggeraton. He’s the baker behind the ‶no-knead bread″ method that had us all making delicious crusty bread in preheated Dutch ovens. Mind you, he’s also the baker behind the overnight cool-rise pizza dough recipe for home cooks that we’ve been using for the last decade.

We’re not foolish enough to suggest that Lahey invented the crusty Dutch oven bread or the wonderful pizza dough. But he did carefully craft recipes for home cooks. His fame rests on the propensity of the New York Times food section to spread them far and wide. Never underestimate the power of Big Media.

The original bakery at 73 Sullivan Street in Soho closed long ago, though Lahey maintains a store nearby. What used to be his Chelsea pizzeria is now a full-service bakery at 239 9th Avenue. But the current mother ship of the Lahey Sullivan Street Bakery fleet is located in Hell’s Kitchen (533 West 47th Street, New York, NY; 212-265-5580; sullivanstreetbakery.com). The facility bakes literally around the clock 24/7/365 to supply fresh rolls, breads, and Roman-style pizzas to New York.

Go for the history, leave with the bread

The Hell’s Kitchen shop gave credence to Lahey’s story that he became enamored of good breads during a stay in Rome. He was studying to be a sculptor, but he came home also determined to be a baker. Like him, we became addicted to pizza al taglio during a long-term stay in Rome.

We were especially curious to see how the pizza squares translated to New York. Lahey may even offer a greater range of breads than we recall in Roman bakeries. And his choice of pizza squares was equally broad.

Since we walked over at lunch time, we decided on three slices to split back in our Airbnb. One was a purist slice with just tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese. All three elements — the mild cheese, the perfect pizza bread, and the tangy tomato sauce — sang. In three-part harmony, no less. Our second choice was a slice of mushroom pizza. The flatbread was covered from edge to edge with slices of mushroom that had been sautéed with onion. Bread in the forest. We were hungry for fresh vegetables, so we opted for a zucchini slice as our final choice. It was a triumph of kitchen engineering. The squash had been grated and drained (maybe pressed). It retained all the zucchini flavor but didn’t make the pizza mushy.

Bravo, Jim Lahey.