Our new national pizza champion reveals some expert pizza making tips as he talks about the winning pizza he named after his dad.
The stage is set, the camera ready to roll. Two pizza makers step up to face the audience. Forty more wait their turn in the wings. Each pizza maker has twenty minutes to make two original pizzas: one for the judges and one for the spectators. The clock begins as the two men reach for their dough.
The competitor on the right also grabs the pecan nuts, vanilla ice-cream, chocolate buttons and caramel sauce that will top his pizza. The other competitor lines up some buffalo mozzarella, tomato, Parma ham, bocconcini cheese, Parmigiano reggiano cheese and homemade pesto for his.
One of them is about to win the national pizza champion title at the first-ever Global Pizza Challenge held in New Zealand. Chefs from around the country had to send in an original pizza recipe using Fonterra Foodservices products to enter. There were six categories: beef or lamb, chicken, seafood, vegetarian, other meat and dessert/speciality.
Can you guess which chef won? He’s the real deal – Italian, as is every inch of his pizza.
Milan-born Paolo Pancotti has worked his way around the world as a professional chef for more than 22 years. This included working for the Marriott Hotel chain in Asia before settling in Napier and recently opening Pizza Pazzi, his very own pizzeria. He says he’s made a few pizzas in his time but this award-winning entry was special. It’s lovingly named “Bestiale” which is an expression his dad uses to describe pizza, food and life. It roughly translates to “awesome” in English.
Pancotti insists he’s not a pizza chef – he’s just worked hard at making this particular pizza over and over again to make it taste better. He sees no need to fuss either, opting for quality over quantity. “I just made a pure Italian style pizza – for me it’s all about quality. That is my view of food in general so I work on quality more than anything else. I try to do things in the best way they can be done.”
This ‘less is more’ approach saw him combine three of the simplest, best Italian ingredients – buffalo mozzarella, Parma ham and parmesan – to create a masterpiece. “They’re basically three awesome products by themselves, which together, are even better,” he says. “That’s why when I do pizzas I always try to match the ingredients rather than put three ingredients together that have nothing to do with each other.”
In other words, it’s the combination of flavours that works so well. “The shaved parmesan cheese gives you the nice bite…the mozzarella is sweet and nice and you can taste the milk in it... the Parma ham is quite salty – which is awesome – then you finish with the pesto.”
The buffalo mozzarella he used came from Clevedon Valley and the basil from his very own garden. But the two ingredients that can affect your pizza the most he says, are the flour and oil you use. He imports his flour from Italy (but not before he tried using twenty-five different kinds of the New Zealand-made stuff) and he only uses Village Press extra virgin oil for its “extra crispness” and flavour.
He also swears by the Hawkes Bay tap water he’s lucky enough to be able to use in his dough (unlike the bottled mineral water he’s had to rely on in another countries in the past).
It took Pancotti awhile to learn about New Zealand ingredients after moving here just five years ago. But now he even has a ‘Hawkes Bay Pizza’ on the menu made with locally sourced lamb, feta and artichoke. So why did he make an original Italian pizza instead of this more ‘Kiwi’ pizza at the competition I wondered?
“Honestly, I don’t know why... I feel it was more for my father to be honest. I’m very close to my father and I wanted something for him.”
Global Pizza Challenge global coordinator Martin Kobald, who was also one of the judges, puts it like this: “It just goes to show that while New Zealand may be a long way from Italy, the traditional home of pizza, the combination of this classic dish and flavours of Kiwi fare can produce outstanding results.”
So what’s next for this pizza making champion? Though he runs his own pizzeria and is the head chef of the restaurant Milk and Honey next door, he still wants to open his own restaurant and take people on food and wine tours around Tuscany, the place he was based for many years.
But first, Pancotti heads on an expenses-paid trip to Sydney to represent New Zealand at the Global Pizza Challenge world final in September. This includes three nights of accommodation, transfers and meals. Here he will battle it out with chefs from around the world for the global pizza champion title including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, America, China, Ireland, Australia and South Africa.
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The category winners were:
→ Beef or lamb: “Mediterranean” by Lese Schwalger of Blitza Pizza in Auckland
→ Chicken: “Best Friend” by Mehrdad Soulati of Eduardo’s in Auckland
→ Seafood: “Kupes Kai Moana” by Cameron Marshall of the Opononi Hotel in Opononi
→ Vegetarian: “East Side” by Chickalena Rose of Epolito’s Pizza in Auckland
→ Other meat: “Adelie” by Shaun Wairiki of Adelie Bar and Kitchen in Auckland
→ Best specialty (tie): “Sophia” by Wayne Hull of Gorgeous New York Pizza in Auckland and “Banoffee Express” by Mitchell Hayles of The Bay Bar and Brasserie in Taupo.