Pizza Today - November 2016 - 47

Expo's Cutting-Edge Pizza Competition / Notes From Emcee John Gutekanst

I

'm big into innovative crusts and
was bowled over during the NonTraditional Division bake-offs
by Tony Vacchio's crust from Zolas in
Ottawa, Canada. He used Indonesian
coconut husk ash dough, which he added
to his regular crust for a beautiful pie.
Louie Bossi from Fort Lauderdale really
brought it on with an "Arso Nero" crust,
which is a Puglian specialty originating
from when the peasants went into the
wheat fields after they were burned to
collect the tiny charred wheat berries.
Ground into flour, it elevates a crust to a
caramel wonder. Matt Molina of Capo's
in San Francisco really had a great castiron pan pizza crust that was simply hard
to beat; in fact, he won the Best of the
Best competition with it.
Rick Means showed a great way to
keep his chicken moist and add flavor by
placing sliced lemon on each slice. It's no
wonder that he and his wife Jane always
win. She made some cool hearts out of
roasted red peppers and mozzarella and
flowers with pepperoni. In 2015 I saw
blowtorches used to brûlé, or caramelize,
bananas by the Brazilian competitors.
Another competitor combined strawberries and mascarpone cream, bacon and
basil for a pie that looked and tasted fantastic. A lot of outstanding seafood pizzas
have scored big time, such as the one

made by Andrew Scudera from Goodfella's Pizza in Staten Island. His crab and
lobster pizza with raspberry and dill was
killer! Luigi Vianella from Venice, Italy,
had a smoked salmon, shrimp and carrot
topping with stracciatella di bufala cheese
and endive.
It's been very interesting to see more
after-oven flavors being used in competition pizzas. It isn't just arugula and fig
jam that that are being used to finish pizzas these days. Sliced chorizo, soppresatta,
spicy salami and even duck prosciutto
were used last March to gently melt on
hot pizzas. I saw some edible flowers, pea
shoots, mizuna, radicchio and watercress
on top of some pies. Some competitors
had very nice fruit compotes to create
that "agrodolce," or sweet and sour, effect
with sour cheeses like Gorgonzola. A
few put some pickles on pizzas, like the
sweet-spicy Peppedew or even dilled
cucumber.
There were some interesting ways that
the Traditional Division competitors
manipulated their limited toppings to
get high scores: using different types of
mushrooms, pepperoni puree, cracklings
and pepperoni roses on one pizza, or
pickled, roasted and fresh sweet peppers
on another. One guy had a spoke-wheel
of roasted ancho chiles around his pie

that melted into the cheese; that defintely
turned my head.
I started competing in Las Vegas in
2004. I remember the work that Pat
Bruno put into making us all feel welcome then because we had to present our
pizzas personally to a group of nine very
intimidating judges. I've made some very
good friends every year at the competition, and it's gotten better and better.
Right now, the competition is streamlined
so that every competitor gets enough time
to shine and plenty of prep help from
Jeremy Galvin and his crew. The judges
are unafraid to ask the tough questions
about dough, sauce and flavor profiles,
and they know which oven produces the
best qualities for the pizza on hand. I am
excited to return in March 2017 as the
emcee of the International Pizza Challenge so I can participate and learn more
ways to make my own pizzas better.
As an independent pizzeria owner myself (Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio),
I know that this business can make you
feel very lonely sometimes. You may have
other pizza shop owners in your town,
but they are your competition. It's great
to come to Pizza Expo and share -and
watch - other pizza makers from across
the world making pies that are way out
of your menu-mix comfort zone. I love to
see a competitor's pizza come out before
the judges, followed by a wave of spectators leaving the stands to taste the pie and
ask questions while it is being cut. In fact,
that's exactly how I got a fantastic sausage
recipe from DeMarco Jenkins of Houston, Texas! (Don't tell him. . .)

INTERNATIONAL PIZZA
CHALLENGE DIVISIONS
Traditional
Non-Traditional
Pan
Pizza Napoletana
Gluten-Free

VISIT WWW.PIZZAEXPO.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 6 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 4 7
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Pizza Today - November 2016

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