For years now, I have been watching Pittsburgh pizza community attending the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. This is a multiday event held every year in March, gathering pizza makers and vendors celebrating all things pizza. There are competitions, demos, seminars, networking opportunities, and exhibitors selling products. In talking to many of the Pittsburgh pizza community, they finally convinced me it was time to attend the Pizza Expo. I do not own a pizza shop, but I thought it would be a great experience, especially as someone who is an outsider looking in on the industry. This is technically a Pizza professionals and amateurs trade event. I attended as an industry adjacent person, and I’m glad I did.
Attending the International Pizza Expo was an incredible experience. If you’d rather watch a recap of my experience at the International Pizza Expo, check out the YouTube video below. If not, keep reading.
I wanted to attend for a few reasons. First, I love pizza. I order pizza several times a month. I grew up in a family where Friday night was pizza night. Second, Pittsburgh has an unbelievable pizza scene and many of them attend to compete and work with vendors. Third, I wanted to support all these great Pittsburgh pizza makers. Fourth, I wanted to learn about another part of the industry that most content creators and influencers do not get to see. Fifth, I wanted to eat a lot of pizza and find some partnerships with the larger companies exhibiting.
The Pittsburgh Influence at Pizza Expo
The Pittsburgh influence at the International Pizza Expo is present throughout the show. Many Pittsburghers can be seen at the booths demoing equipment by making pizzas and pasta across the Pizza Expo. I found Rico Lunardi of Slice on Broadway doing a pizza demo at the Galbani cheese booth. He was recently named an ambassador for Galbani and I was able to get a sample after he was done with the demo. Anthony Badamo of Badamo’s Pizza was making pizzas at the Polin Ovens booth. It was awesome to see one of the pizza oven companies have a great Pittsburgh pizza maker slinging pies for Pizza Expo attendees all week. On the last day of the Pizza Expo, Sean Jefairjian of A Slice of New York was over there too making pizzas to use up some of the dough and ingredients he shipped to Las Vegas for the competition. I learned on the last day a lot of vendors and people are just trying to use up ingredients and have fun making pizzas with others. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Sean during Pizza Expo. We had a great time and some would find it hard to believe he’s not always as brash as he is in his videos. Just hanging out and watching pizzas get made and then eating them was probably one of my favorite parts of the Pizza Expo.
Pittsburghers weren’t just making pizzas. Ryan Peters, also known as Peters Pasta on social media, was making pasta over at the Arcobaleno Pasta Machines booth. He uses these pasta machines from this Lancaster, Pennsylvania company to extrude pasta shapes and roll out sheets in many of his videos. This was extra special because not only did he make the pasta, but I got to eat the pasta too, which, if you’ve seen his videos, doesn’t always end in eating. However, it was certainly fun to see him again making pasta in person.
Pittsburgh is also the home of four members of the World Pizza Champions Team. Nick Bogatz and Eric von Hansen from Caliente Pizza are on the team and lead many workshops. Michael Mercurio from Mercurio’s and Pete Tolman of Iron Born are also on the World Pizza Champions Team.
Expo Floor
The expo floor is overwhelming. So many brands feature their ingredients, premade & frozen foods, equipment, and packaging & advertising. There were about 25 aisles of vendors. Some had elaborate displays, and others had just a table and a product. There were so many food samples along the way. I ate so many pieces of pizza, chicken wings, and meats and cheeses. I’m going to break it down by category.
Pizza Ingredients
If you really want to know what goes into your pizza, it starts with the ingredients. You can separate into five groups: flour, sauce, toppings, seasonings and premade. Flour is important to your dough. The location and level of refinement can make a big difference in the flavor, consistency and how you will feel after eating the pizza. One of the most commonly used is 00 flour, which stands for the size of the grain of flour. There were so many tomato sauce vendors. The type of tomatoes going into the sauce is important. Many believe you have to use San Marzano tomatoes grown in the San Marzano region in Italy. You can see which are truly canned San Marzano vs which are just tomato sauces. There were so many toppings to try. Many of the toppings vendors have their ingredients available through food delivery services rather than directly from the company to the pizza shop. This was one of my favorites to try and learn about. The quality of the cheese or the meat used can stand out. I know a lot of Pittsburgh’s top pizza shops purchase a lot of their cheese from Grande or Galbani and many of their meat-based toppings from Greco, which has a large Pittsburgh presence. Rico Lunardi from Pittsburgh brand Slice on Broadway was just named an ambassador for Galbani. I also tried pizzas that were made using Numu Dairy Free Mozzarella. I noticed seasonings were a mix of larger distribution companies and smaller groups doing artisanal seasoning mixes. Lastly, there was premade. This is where you might see your less artisanal or fast service shops look for their ingredients. This would be things like premade dough or crust and premixed sauces.
I also met one of my favorite advertising characters and heroes, Poppin Fresh himself, the Pillsbury Doughboy. I cannot express how excited I was to meet a character, even if it’s just a person in a costume. I have had the Pillsbury Doughboy laugh as my text alert on my phone for 20 years. This was also an example of how there were larger brands there trying to sell their ingredients.
Pizza Equipment
This goes beyond pizza ovens and mixers, but that is a large part. There were so many different types of ovens on display. Electric ovens are starting to make a big jump in popularity because they can be easy to retrofit into a space and are becoming better at retaining heat for pizzas. I got to spend time with some of the Pittsburgh pizza makers like Anthony Badamo from Badamo’s Pizza and Sean Jefairjian of A Slice of New York, who were making sample pizzas at the Polin Ovens booth. Many other Pittsburgh pizza makers stopped by there throughout the expo. Ooni and Gozney had big displays for home and backyard ovens as making pizza at home is becoming more popular. This category also includes conveyor belt ovens, which are great for consistency but may not provide the char, texture, and flavor you’d get from a regular oven. I saw a couple of booths for Pizza robots and vending machines, but neither were operational when I passed by. Mixers are a big deal as many people want a Hobart, but they are very expensive. There are so many other brands out there. It’s also important to see the type of mixer you might want. A spiral mixer might be used for different doughs versus an orbital mixer. This category also includes pasta extruders like the great ones I saw from Arcobaleno. I stopped by their booth many times to hang out with Ryan Peters of Peters Pasta. There were also cheese shredders, meat slicers, and an assortment of tools.
Premade and Frozen Foods
I was surprised to see just how many vendors there were for premade and frozen foods. However, it makes sense. Many restaurants want to offer menu items that just don’t make sense to make from scratch. This would be a lot of appetizers. There were your bigger brands like Tyson Foods and Sweet Baby Rays and much smaller groups like Pig Wings and Wingredients. I did love eating so many of these different appetizers. I ate so many chicken wings throughout the expo, just because so many pizza places sell wings. I tasted multiple types of drinks, from smaller craft beverages like Sprecher Craft Soda to regional teas like Tractor to large national brands. No meal is complete without dessert, and I made sure to try a whole bunch of premade desserts that can be easily reheated for sale.
Packaging and Advertising
This was interesting to see, as most of the packaging and advertising booths were very lifeless. The only one I saw that was lively and innovative was Pizza Bib. These are boxes with cool prints on them, and the top can be converted into a bib. Caliente uses these mostly at their stadium pizza locations. They had a Rocky Horror themed booth, and they had regular performances of the Time Warp.
Demos
I only caught one of these. There are demos by Pizza Expo which are about how to do specific techniques in cooking and how to prepare for competing or opening a restaurant. There are also demos by the vendors on how to use their specific products. This is where I got to see Rico from Slice on Broadway make pizzas and sandwiches using Galbani cheese products and many of the other Pittsburghers making pizzas in ovens. Eddie Stalewski of Eddie’s Pizza 412 did a demo at the Ooni booth since it primarily bakes using their ovens.
Workshop & Education
Education about the Pizza industry is another big part of the Pizza Expo experience. The schedule has lots of workshops, seminars, and product demos. I took a workshop led by Will Grant, also known as Sourdough Willy, on how to make different dough for your pizza shop. I don’t have a pizza shop, but I wanted to experience one of the educational sessions to further seeing the Pizza Expo from the industry point of view. I’ve taken dough classes before, so much of this class was a refresher, but I did learn a couple of new tips. I was glad I took a workshop so I could experience it. The seminars and demos at Pizza Expo include topics like specific cooking techniques, how to prepare for competing, and opening a restaurant. Vendors also demonstrate how to use their specific products, which I often saw walking around the expo floor.
Competition
A big part of the Pizza Expo is the competition. Pizza Makers will compete at different events to be the best in their trade. Pittsburgh sends many representatives to compete in events like Best Cheese Slice, Non-Traditional, Box Folding, and Dough Tossing. Each person has their own goal of what they want to achieve. There is definitely a desire to win, but also just a hope to place high in the rankings or be voted best in a region. Talking with some of the competitors, the preparation for their events is detailed and precise. I learned how some pizza makers shipped their dough to Las Vegas in ice to slow the rising. Some were making their dough and sauce in Las Vegas using their specific ingredients shipped in. Pittsburgh had a lot of competitors. Unfortunately, I missed many of them competing due to scheduling conflicts or changes in the times or order. That said, Pittsburgh did very well in the competitions.
Top honors in Best Cheese Slice by Chris Ostapenko of Slice on Broadway. First place in Pizza Acrobatics by Matt Hickey and Pizza Triathlon by Perry Bogacz of Caliente Pizza. There were also honors for Best Traditional Pizza in the Northeast by Gus Francos Pizza and a Top 5 finish by Sara Boyer of Iron Born for Non-Traditional Pizza.
See all the results here.
Special Events
I attended the Slice Out Hunger Las Vegas Pizza Tailgate. This yearly event is held outside Pizza Rock in Downtown Las Vegas. Slice Out Hunger is an organization that fights food insecurity and provides hunger relief by connecting pizzerias to needs in their community. They have two sessions and each session has 10 pizzerias making pizza. The pizza makers are people who are well known for their artisanal pizzas or may be popular on social media. For a donation, I was able to eat unlimited pizza for a little over an hour. This event featured pizza makers from around the country slinging specialty pies baked in Ooni Ovens. I was excited to I think I ate the equivalent of two 12 inch pizzas.
