Watch Quinta Brunson and William Stanford Davis of ‘Abbott Elementary’ Make Pizza for the First Time

Published April 27, 2026 Updated April 27, 2026

Welcome back to the Pizza Interview, a series from New York Times Cooking where the Q&A has a catch: Our guests have to make pizza.

“Abbott Elementary,” the award-winning mockumentary-style comedy, just wrapped up its fifth season. Set in an underfunded Philadelphia public school, the series was created by and stars Quinta Brunson as Janine Teagues, an unapologetically optimistic second-grade teacher. William Stanford Davis plays Mr. Johnson, the school’s no-nonsense, scene-stealing custodian.

Watch the full video below (or on YouTube), and read ahead for excerpts from the interview and outtakes, which have been edited and condensed.

William Stanford Davis and Quinta Brunson talk about the fifth season of “Abbott Elementary,” while making pizzas at the New York Times studio kitchen.Credit…Victoria Chen

Have you ever made a pizza before?

QUINTA BRUNSON Never made a pizza before.

WILLIAM STANFORD DAVIS [shakes head] Same thing she said.

Do you like to cook?

DAVIS I like to cook. Yeah, I do.

BRUNSON I like to cook. I’m newer to it, but I’m really having a good time.

What’s your go-to recipe?

DAVIS I make a mean chili. My chili is award-winning.

BRUNSON I would say my award-winning thing is my baked chicken wings. They’re delicious. Everyone loves them. I have to eat them a lot because it’s the easiest thing for me to make while we are filming. It’s the thing I know how to do best.

DAVIS I used to watch my grandmother, and she cooked everything. So that’s why I kind of got to start when I was a kid. And I worked in a truck-stop restaurant.

BRUNSON Stan has had so many jobs. I didn’t know that. I feel like I learn a new job of yours every single season. Or every time we talk!

DAVIS Almost as many as Mr. Johnson.

“My favorite pizza place is any random New York pizza place,” Quinta Brunson said.Credit…Taylor Miller for The New York Times

What’s your favorite pizza place?

DAVIS Oh wow, there’s so many in L.A. I like Joe Peeps.

BRUNSON My favorite pizza place is any random New York pizza place. I really feel that way. Whenever I come here, I just order from any hole in the wall, and it’s the best pizza I’ve ever had. I don’t have a favorite L.A. pizza place. Does Italy count as a favorite pizza place?

Growing up, what was your family’s pizza order?

DAVIS I liked sausage and pepperoni more than anything else. Just plain and simple.

BRUNSON My family’s pizza order was just plain because we didn’t eat pork or beef. And it was too many kids to decide on toppings so my parents were just like: “Plain. You’re just getting pizza, and don’t ask for no fancy stuff on it.”

Have you ever worked in the food service industry?

BRUNSON Yes, I worked at the restaurant Friendly’s. I was a hostess. They didn’t let me serve. But look at me now, serving every day. I really wanted to serve because I wanted the tips, and I thought I’d be good at it.

DAVIS I worked at a hotel restaurant in college as a dishwasher, and whenever someone didn’t show up, I’d have to help in the kitchen. And I worked at a couple other places to make a living, and then I worked at the truck stop. Made biscuits and gravy. I made chili. Did a lot of breakfast stuff.

Have you ever cooked for each other?

BRUNSON No, never cooked for each other. Lisa [Ann Walter, who plays Melissa] cooks for all of us mostly. She’s the cook of our show. I don’t trust myself to cook for everybody because if they get sick, that’s on me. That’s a real, number one fear of mine is getting people sick from cooking. Even though it’s never happened before.

If you were to show each other around your hometowns, what’s the first thing you’d eat?

DAVIS I’m from St. Louis. It’s known for barbecue. That’s probably where I would take her first. And we have some really, really great Chinese restaurants. Really great. In fact, the ones in Philly kind of remind me of that.

BRUNSON I love that! Philly has great Chinese food. It’s one of the first things I get when I touchdown in Philly. I would take you to a hoagie spot first. It wouldn’t be somewhere fancy. I really like holes in the wall. I just like a corner store. I had one two days ago, I’m still thinking about it.

What’s your hoagie order?

BRUNSON Turkey, cheese, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard, mayo, lettuce, pickles. America’s been on this protein craze, and I realize I used to have a hoagie like every day in school for lunch. It used to be $2.50, now they’re $10. But anyway, I was like, this is so much protein in a hoagie! I never thought about it, I wasn’t thinking about protein back then. Basically I’m just saying Philadelphia is ahead of the curve.

Is there a specific food that reminds you of being in elementary school?

DAVIS We had these amazing, we used to call them buns, they were like these giant biscuits. And the spaghetti. They used to serve spaghetti, and we really liked that on spaghetti days. School lunch. Then, on Fridays in elementary school, it was always fish.

BRUNSON Of course the typical boxy pizzas. But even more so, the boxed milk. So gross. That’s probably what reminds me of elementary school the most.

Quinta, how have you thought about the use of food on “Abbott Elementary” to help develop the story and characters?

BRUNSON We have a writer in our room, Brian, who says he doesn’t enjoy food. So when we order lunch in the writer’s room every week, we have to order from the most boring places in the world because he doesn’t enjoy food. So that’s where that trait came from for Gregory. But, fun fact, the network said: “That’s too weird. No one doesn’t like food. Whoever doesn’t like food is, like, a serial killer.” And we all looked at Brian like, “You see why this is a problem?” So, Gregory is not into a lot of different foods, and it was born from Brian’s not liking food.

DAVIS He definitely doesn’t like pizza.

BRUNSON He doesn’t like pizza. No, he would hate what’s happening right now. He doesn’t like a lot of ingredients together. And then you have Melissa, her character loves to cook and loves food. Similar to Lisa, it’s a way of showing love for her. I think there’s other ways we did the storytelling well, too, where Janine, when she was learning how to cook, we see that’s not a way that she was shown love in her life. So learning to be able to do that helps a person become self-sufficient and brings them closer to the people around them. And then you have the kids’ lunches. When our show went to the mall this year, the lunches were not up to par because they had to travel a longer distance, which is very unfortunate and helps tell the story of public schooling.

If the cast of “Abbott Elementary” owned a restaurant, what would everyone’s role be?

BRUNSON Real life. I would make myself the server. And live the dream I was once denied.

DAVIS I would be the maître d’ because working in the kitchen is tough.

BRUNSON I’d put Lisa in the kitchen. Sheryl [Lee Ralph] will be the hostess. Janelle [James], hmm.

DAVIS She’d be the parking lot attendant.

BRUNSON That might work because I think she could run a mean parking lot. I kind of don’t want her serving people, I don’t know if we’d be a successful business.

DAVIS And then what would Chris [Perfetti] do?

BRUNSON Chris could be in the back. He would help in the kitchen. And I would put Tyler [James Williams], I think he’d be a good server. You know the other day I went to a bathroom, and they had the bathroom person. And it was a really nice, refined woman, and she made me feel so serious about going to the bathroom. And I feel like, Tyler [laughs] could do that. She was just so pleasant, and she took it so seriously.

If you were a food dish, what would you be? Can you answer for each other?

DAVIS She would be a Philly cheesesteak or a hoagie.

BRUNSON I hope you take this the right way, Stan to me is like a great plate of ribs. Like, hearty, filling, delicious.

DAVIS Spicy.

BRUNSON A little spicy, a little sauce to it. I just love ribs.

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