- The biggest show of the year, the championship for the best pizza in the world.
- Notably, the convention featured a significant number of vegan and plant-based pizza exhibits.
- Preparing delivery-only meals for celebrity restaurant brands.
Over 11,000 industry fans and experts visited the International Pizza Expo and Conference, which recently featured some of the best pizza in the world – and then some as reported by Fox News.
Championship
Pizza competitions took place across a show floor that was larger than eight football fields.
All the big players were in attendance, world-renowned restaurateur and pizza chef Tony Gemignani told Fox News Digital at the event.
“The championships are here, whoever makes the best pizza in the world, from the acrobats to the best bakers — it’s everything in one, the biggest show of the year.”
Contestants slung pizza dough behind their backs and between their legs on the floor, among many other jaw-dropping stunts.
He told Fox News Digital that judges evaluate each contestant’s routine in five areas: creativity, dexterity, transitions, drops and difficulty.
New poll
“Anywhere there’s a pizzeria, you’ve got some kid, spinning dough,” said Cybulski.
“They’re practising year-round every time they have downtime in the pizzeria.”
The chef added, “As I get older, the music gets younger [at the convention], but it’s really fun … If you can take that dough and spin it, we want you on stage.”
The Freestyle Acrobatic Dough-Tossing event was among other cash-prize competitions hosted by the World Pizza Games at the expo, including Largest Dough Stretch, Pizza Triathlon, Fastest Dough, Fastest Pizza Box Folding and the Tandem Team contest.
Website ranks pizza
“While we’re competitive, we’re also brothers and sisters together helping each other,” said Cybulski.
Gemignani, a 13-time World Champion Pizza Acrobat, told Fox News Digital that the “future of pizza” was on display at the International Pizza Expo.
Although Gemignani said “pepperoni is always going to be number one,” he also said that “when it comes to the evolution and the renaissance of pizza, it’s a healthy eater out there.”
Notably, the convention featured a significant number of vegan and plant-based pizza exhibits.
The expo also featured a zero-emissions robot from Coco that, while making pizza deliveries for Los Angeles and Austin restaurants, is remotely operated by people in other countries such as Mexico.
Another delivery vehicle shown was the all-electric, one-seater “SOLO” from Electra Meccanica, which can hit 80 miles per hour and has a range of 100 miles.
Online ordering
Virtual Dining Concepts has partnered with brick-and-mortar restaurants across the country to generate extra revenue by using their existing kitchens to prepare delivery-only meals for celebrity restaurant brands like “Powerbomb Pizza,” which are then fulfilled by companies like Doordash and Uber Eats.
Gemignani expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation “I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone, especially after the pandemic. I mean, we all know it’s still going on, but seeing the camaraderie and all these pizzaiolos and manufacturers here — it’s just an amazing sight to see as a restaurant owner.”
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Source: Fox News
