was special is an understatement!
On June 7th I left for the contest with high hopes and just plain ol excitement, I knew I was going to see my Chef friends from the East Coast, Dublin Ireland and of course all our friends in Napoli, the surprise was meeting all the new members of the World Pizza Champions team, Bruno Di Fabio New York, Diana Coutu Canada, and Randy Hueffmeier from Minnesota.
This trip was also special because the Food Network was in Naples with us to film a show of "Glutton For Punishment" starring Bob Blummer, the show will air early next season so keep an eye out for it! oh ya and I will be blasting the heck out of the air date too! Check out Bobs show at
www.gluttonforpunishment.tv
The challenge was to Teach Bob how to be a pizza acrobat a daunting task to say the least, but he had a GREAT! coach and our team founder Tony Gemignani 9 time World Champion Pizza Acrobat. Now I work really hard, and Tony, Bruno, Joe all of us take enormous pride in what we do but I have to take my "Chef Coat" off to Bob and the entire crew from Glutton For Punishment on how hard they work to get every shot! Vera is AMAZING, she had every detail down to the nano second, and we all learned very quickly I might add to "leave the flash off" :)
quite down or just leave the shoot!!!! Vera your great! Will behind the camera? ya he rocks too, and Francesca and Roberto pulled that equipment around like it was nothin, hell we had the easy job baking and competing!!!!! cant wait to see you all in Sonoma for the Grape Stomp
Tony G and Nancy P arranged a tour of the Buffalo Mozzarella in Salerno on Monday, so we all packed up early and drove south from Naples down the Amalfi Coast to Salerno and arrived at the Mozz facility about 10am, they were in full swing producing the freshest most unbelievable Buffalo Mozz you have ever tasted, the actual Buffalo are only 3 min
utes down the road, so from milking to finish product is about 3 hours! just amazing here are a few pictures
Monday after the tour we drove a few miles to one of the best Pizzeria's in Italy owned by Vincenzo Manzi and his family, you really have to be there to feel the generosity, love and brotherhood of the
Manzi Family, the pizza was great and yet another round of filming for Bob and the crew heres a few more 
pics!Monday night after a great dinner we headed to the Kitchen at the Tennis Hotel www.tennishotel.it
to prepare our recipes for Tuesdays competition, and here is where it really gets fun, you have 6 different Chefs in one kitchen, just about to go head to head in the worlds best Pizza competition and everyone is helping everyone!!! Tony jumps in and starts to make dough for the team to compete in the original Margherita contest and we all start sharing whatever we have "or have forgotten" with everyone else. This is what makes the WPC the best Pizza team in the world the fact that no matter what goes on in the competition we still remain a team even in the heat "NPI" of the battle :)
The competition on Tuesday went great! my two entries were flawless!!! and I was hoping the judges would agree. The entire day was filled with seeing all our Italian Friends, baking, and all the acrobatic challenges including Bobs big show. Manzo and I did the Billy and Glenn show, color commentary for Will during the acrobatic events and yes we are working on a pilot show for future Food Network airing ;) hey dreams come true every day, why not this one lol
Jason nailed the individual freestyle, Bruno predicted and then delivered his wins in the largest dough and the fastest!!!! you Rock Bruno and Christopher "Brunos Son" rocked the house with his largest! first place and his acrobatics, made me miss my kids even more than I already did, Christopher your a pro in my book pal!!!!
On Tuesday night after the competition we all went to down town Naples to Vera Pizza, Ernesto Cacialli's pizzeria, and in my opinion the worlds best pizzeria! check out these pictures, close your eyes and you might even taste it!
Wednesday was spent reaping the benefits of all the hard work that went into the competition, we had a chance to hang out poolside and relax a little and catch up with all our friends. The competition awards night is filled with local talent acts that were just awesome, and the Pizza? well that is the best part, all the local pizzerias start cooking and the crowds start arriving. I will try to give you a feel for what is going on here, the crowd reaches about 3ooo people, there are ten wood fired ovens with pizzioli's firing 5 to 8 pizzas at a time, now remember theses ovens are at about 800 degrees, and the pizzas cook in just one minute so they are cranking them out really fast and the lines are still 30 people deep at every oven THE ENTIRE NIGHT!!! yes its a party, lots of great TAB beer, wonderful people form Naples and all the competitors from all corners of the Globe, the best of the best are invited here to compete and it is an honor to just be here, of course its also great to come in 1st in North America and Canada but hey who's counting.
Bob was awarded his WPC Team Jacket! all of the team members that won collected there trophies, Tony Gemignani was recognized for his lifetime acheivments with a beautiful trophy and well deserved it was, in fact both Tony and Nancy Pugliesi worked tirelessly to represent the World Pizza Cup in this contest, form the bottom of my heart you guys are the best.
For a list of all the awards go to www.worldpizzachampions.com
I cannot thank everyone enough for the support in getting to Naples here is just a few, Pop's I love you! Ray and Cheri no words describe my gratitude for all your hard work and support, Michael well pal without you we would not be where we are! you are amazing. All my friends VJB winery, Henry Belmonte, Jeremy Forcier Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc. Dereck O'Connell
And my sponsors, Pepsi, Castino restaurant supply, Alcatraz SeaFood, Bank Of The West, Stinger Sportwear, La Nova Wings and Revention POS systems THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS!!!
I will leave you with a few more pics of the awards night,
Ciao
