Few things on the planet are better than pizza. This is a quantifiable, established, indisputable scientific fact. It is a warmer of nights, a fixer of feelings, a comfort, a friend, and a true ally. A slice of great pizza is a truly life affirming experience. And the world is certainly home to its fair share of different variations. Whether you prefer the traditionally sparse Italian style from which the phenomenon was born. Or whether you prefer your Australian style, throw-everything-on-it pizza. Or even the various classic American variants, be it classic New York style, or Chicago deep dish. Pizza is for everyone, and everyone is for pizza. So it should come as no surprise to you that competitions exist where people vie to have their pizza rated as the worlds best. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the competitions are pretty hotly contested. But what might surprise you is that the most recent world champion comes not from Italy, or New York, or Chicago. The newly crowned world champion of pizza is from right here in Melbourne.
Johnny Di Francesco, who owns the East Brunswick-based 400 Gradi restaurant took out the Specialita Traditionale Garantita prize for his margherita pizza at the World Pizza Championships in Parma, Italy. With over 600 entries from 35 countries, this victory is certainly no mean feat, and proves Di Francesco knows a thing or two about tossing his dough.
“
The balance of the ingredients and the quality are so important. With a lot of other pizzas it is easy to mask the flavour with toppings so you don’t really get the flavour out of the dough. With a margherita there is no hiding anything that isn’t right,”
he told Good Food on his win. And this is certainly not your average Friday night fare from the local Pizza Hut. This is serious pizza. Getting yourself a taste of the World’s Best will set you back a cool $20.50, which isn’t exactly too unreasonable, but now that it’s the certified best pizza in the world, it’s certainly a small price to pay. But still, it doesn’t matter how good it is, nothing will ever atone for the most unforgivable of sins: late pizza.
Photo: AFP via Getty Images.
