Pittsburgh Pizza Elite Compete at Pizza Expo
A handful of Pittsburgh pizza makers embarked on a journey to Las Vegas to compete in the International Pizza Challenge, let's see how they did.
Welcome to the Epicenter of Pizza
The Pittsburgh pizza scene is host to some of the premier pizza makers in the country. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it forever, but we have the most eclectic, delicious variety of pizza in this fair city. If you can dream it, you can eat it. That’s the Pittsburgh motto.
Over the past few years more and more Pittsburgh pizzaiolos traveled to Las Vegas for Pizza Expo. Pizza Expo is an extravagant experience. It’s one part educational conference overflowing with knowledge from the best pizza makers in the world. And it’s half Super Bowl with hundreds of pizza makers going head-to-head to win various pizza competitions.
Getting information out of Pizza Expo is tough if you’re not there, but I did my best to chronicle how the Pittsburgh squad performed.
No Rules, Just Great Pizza
Big congrats to Ed Stalewski for winning his division in the non-traditional category of the International Pizza Challenge. The rules in this category are that there are no rules. From the rule book: Non-Traditional Division. There are no restrictions on dough, sauce, toppings or styles.
Ed Stalewski has built a cult following on Instagram for churning perfectly manicured Grandma style pizza, Sicilians and Detroit pizzas for an audience of 11,000. This year he decided to take his talents out of Hampton township and compete with pizza artisans from around the world.
Oddly enough, for a guy that does deep dish like no other he opted for a tavern style pizza. The very style of pizza that Pizza Today is trending up across the nation. Is this the next Detroit-style pizza?
And he won the Northeast Region of the Non-Traditional Division at the International Pizza Challenge. His score of 13.55 was .6 points ahead of second place in the division and .7 away from 3rd overall, across all divisions. The pizza was a tavern style pizza. From Ed’s Instagram: Pizza featured a Chicago cornmeal crusted dough, whole milk low moisture mozzarella, hearty robust tomato sauce, giardinara, homemade Calabrian sausage, pepperoni roses, & finished with mozzarella di bufala, garlic oil, homemade basil pesto, and peppadews.
To put this in perspective, perennial favorite Eric Von Hansen of Caliente was also competing in that division. In the past, Eric has decimated in these competitions and typically placing pretty high up, even winning the whole dang thing with his Quack Attack Pizza. He won the North East division last year in this competition. This year he scored 12.24 points.
Here is where I get on my digital soapbox.
Ed’s rise to fame is evidence of the promise that the digital age brought to our society. Like, 2005 internet. When the idea was connecting communities and opening the floodgates of knowledge. He was able to build a community online and soak in the knowledge of pizza experts around the world like a fermented Sicilian dough ball fermenting in a pan covered in oil. His pizzas slowly helped him rise to the top. The advent of pizza technology, like the Ooni, has empowered thousands of pizzaiolos to make artisan, award-winning pizza without having to invest in heavy-duty equipment. We really are living in pizza paradise.
Iron Born Battles it Out in the Pan Division
Oddly enough I first met Pete Tolman at my first Pizza Expo in 2018, just a guy in a penguins shirt hanging out in the same lobby as me. What are the odds?
Pete puts together decadent pizzas, so competing at the Pizza Expo is his time to shine. The rules for the pan division are: Styles that fall into this category include, but are not limited to, the following: Roman, Chicago, Detroit, Grandma, Ohio Valley, Old Forge and Sicilian. There are no restrictions on dough, sauce or toppings, except that the pizzas must conform to a pan style.
Pete competed ended up with 38.50 points. Third place was 45.71, which is probably a disappointing gap for someone of his talent. I will say that pan pizzas have exploded in popularity these part two years and is probably the most competitive genre of pizza. Look at our own landscape - Alta Via Pizzeria offers up a Detroit-esque pizza, Driven in Federal Galley is churning out Detroit Style pizza and a Jet’s opened up in Green Tree.
Pete brought a riff on his “Spicy Pie” with more Spanish flavors to the competition. This pizza has a romesco sauce thickened with the pizza dough bread, pistachio, stracciatella and orange zest. If I’m judging that it’s getting a 50/50. This is a dream pizza and that orange zest has me drooling. Imagine biting into a refreshing slice of pizza in the hot summer sun…Bummer it didn’t perform better, but here’s hoping Pete puts it on the Iron Born menu.
Mercurio’s Pizza Tag Teams the Pizza Expo
Michael Mercurio, Joe Mercurio, Nick Mercurio and Anna Crucitt of Mercurio’s competed in the Pizza Expo in the STG/Neapolitan Division of the International Pizza Challenge.
Michael and Joe competed in the solo division while Nick and Anna competed in the new tandem division. As of this writing, I’m waiting on the solo pizza results, but it looks like Nick and Anna won 3rd place!
The tandem division is new to the pizza competition this year. It involves two people making pizza together. One person dressing the pizza, sliding it onto the peel, helping to stretch the dough to the perfect size (because they measure your Neapolitan pizza to make sure it meets the criteria).
You don’t think of pizza as a team sport, but very few pizza shops are run by a single person. It’s a team effort and hopefully we’ll see more team competitions in the future.
Slice of the Expo
I viewed a majority of the expo through the lens of Rico Lunardi’s stories on instagram. It was fabulous to see him supporting the Pittsburgh pizza crew and competing himself.
Another Expo Devoured
Watching Pizza Expo from the sidelines is a bummer, but traveling out to Vegas isn’t the most convenient thing in the world. For those that couldn’t make it, enjoy this recap video I made of my visit to the show in 2018.
Pizza ya later!
-Dan Tallarico, Pizza Journalist