A Toronto-based pizzaiolo has officially been ranked among the top 10 in the entire world.
It’s that time of year again; the birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and the world’s best pizza chefs have all congregated in Las Vegas for the annual International Pizza Challenge.
Undisputably the pizza industry’s biggest annual event, the convention-meets-competition sees dozens of international pizza specialists gather in one place to compete for ultimate greasy, cheesy glory.
Throughout the three-day event, competitors in a variety of different pizza-based divisions, such as traditional, pan, non-traditional, Neapolitan and best cheese slice, all culminate with the top-ranking pizzaiolos facing off in the finals.
For Ontario-based pizza fans, the competition already holds a particularly special place, after Hamilton pizzeria, Cowabunga, pulled in a first-place win in the cheese slice division last year.
This year, Toronto pizza fans have just as much to celebrate, as Chef Paulo Guerra of Bloor West Village’s Gatto Wood Fire Pizza rakes in a ninth-place ranking in the traditional division.
“I wasn’t expecting anything. I didn’t know where I’d finish, but I put a lot of work into this, so I’m happy,” Paulo, who closed out the preliminary round with a score of 41.52 (the first-place contestant finished with 43.73), tells me.
Despite finding obvious success in the pizza biz, earning top marks for his pies both at the International Pizza Challenge and at the 2024 Restaurants Canada Traditional Pizza competition, where he placed first, Paulo shares that he actually doesn’t have a formal background in pizza making or the restaurant industry.
“I was really nervous coming down here,” he tells me. “I don’t have a lot of pizza experience and I have another full-time job outside of restaurants, so, you know, it’s more like a passion project, or whatever you want to call it.”
Though Paulo’s happily surprised with his finish at the competition, he does share that, upon seeing the final results, he felt certain that he has what it takes to push himself over the hump and into the top five. Maybe next year?
All in all, though, ninth place out of some of the top pizza makers in the entire world is nothing to snuff at, especially when such chefs are entirely out of their element, with many, like Paulo, seeking out local restaurants who were willing to allow the competitors to use their spaces for pizza production.
This isn’t the only hometown hero arising out of the weekend. Descendant Pizza’s Sotirios Tzakis, a past winner at other pizza competitions, came in with a fourth-place finish in the pan division preliminaries on Wednesday, March 26.
Only the top five winners from the preliminary stage advance to the finals, so while the still-impressive ninth-place finish may have been the end of the road for Paulo and Gatto’s Pizza, Toronto still has a chance at the podium in Sotirios.
If you’d like to taste Paulo’s pizza for yourself, you can visit Gatto Pizza at 2312 Bloor West.
