Canadian Pizza is having a very big year.
Canadian Pizza is having a very big year.
Our Chef of the Year competition is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The 2015 winner will represent a culmination of a decade spent building Canada’s only national pizza competition dedicated to pizza skills and promoting our nation’s talent on an international stage. Bearers of the Canadian Chef of the Year title, which is sponsored by Saputo and Moretti Forni, gain access to the finals of the International Pizza Challenge, held annually in Las Vegas, and bragging rights on their home turf.
Winners can increase revenues in their pizzeria by marketing their victory using a variety of strategies, including offering their award-winning pizza as a menu item, contacting local press to increase media exposure, holding a staff meeting to celebrate, encouraging front-counter staff to spread the news and sending a thank-you to suppliers and customers for their support and patronage.
The Chef of the Year competition is an important and longstanding industry showcase of skills that Canadian Pizza magazine is proud to organize.
As its organizers, we have recognized that it’s time for the next step in this contest’s evolution. What started as a recipe competition became a contest for which the chef’s ingredients were shipped and assembled. Now it’s time to bring in the chefs.
This year’s competition will be held at the Canadian Pizza Show on Oct. 27 at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ont. This is a new feature for the show’s third running, and, for the first time, competitors will be making their pizza onsite. For the first time, spectators will be able to watch and taste a sample for themselves. These are big firsts!
The new format changes some aspects of the competition. The number of entries we can accept is now limited, as there are only so many pizzas we can taste and judge in one day. Competitors from across Canada, who formerly needed to ship only their ingredients, will now need to ship themselves as well.
There will be one division, Open, and competitors may enter a pizza with any combination and number of toppings they choose, as well as any type of crust and sauce.
A maximum of 15 entries will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Contestants will have 20 minutes to bake and present their pizza to the panel of judges. Each entrant will be given a bake time and an additional 10 minutes of preparation time.
In the past, I have received the majority of the Chef of the Year entries about a week before the deadline. It’s very important for interested contenders to remember that this contest is now first come, first serve and that it will close when the 15 entries are reached. For full contest details, visit www.canadianpizzashow.com .
If you have any questions, please e-mail me at laiken@annexweb.com or contact me by phone at 416-522-1595.
We are very excited to be taking the Chef of the Year competition to the next level to better showcase the amazing culinary talent in our country. We also are ecstatic to be able to run it within the Canadian Pizza Show, an event we are working each year to build and improve to serve the pizza industry better. We hope you are excited too!
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