The Pizza Show: Las Vegas

Just as I remembered, my neighbor does not disappoint me. I love him. The

pizza

show

is back and there will be even more

pizza

this season. This is the epitome of the pizza program. We're going to go to the west coast, so let's go to Philadelphia Philly Taco Wow, not bad I'll bring you back to Brooklyn and

show

you a little day in my life from there we'll go to Detroit we'll go to Napoli Sicily Rome this is it so good man it doesn't end first we are going to Las Vegas, the largest pizza convention in the world, we thought you loved pizza, just wait, I'm in Las Vegas at the International Pet Expo, the largest pizza fair in the world , but with more than 7,000 attendees. and over 500 exhibitors, this is the premier destination for any major player in the pizza industry.

It's everywhere, whether you run a small independent pizzeria, a large chain or are just a pizza enthusiast, you need to be in Las Vegas for what many people call a Superbowl Pizza as it was the Superbowl of peace if or the great game of which Pizza Pizza Expo is everyone's chance to go crazy with their Pizza Not only is it my first time at the Expo as a pizzeria where I was also asked to give a speech on how independent pizzerias can compete with the big chains, but before Going on stage I'm looking forward to seeing everything this pizza fair has to offer.

Bill Oakley is the exhibition director. He'll give me a tour of Pizza Expo I. I'll visit my tomato supplier Stanislaus the Kings of Napoli, pizza ovens, Stefano Ferrara, and hang up with Mark, one of my best friends in the pizza business, he's crazy, he's crazy, but this show isn't just about business, it's also the home of the Pizza world. games where you can watch the best boring acrobats in the country do their thing. I'm meeting a pizza legend, Tony Gemignani, to learn more about the competition. I love it. You know, when it comes to Pizza Expo, when you walk into it, it's just.

Entering an arena is like gladiators, I mean, it's crazy. I mean the Pizza Expo because it's like the second Christmas because I can really see all these people that I love and we come here, we pick ourselves up and we go out and conquer the world again well you can find a little bit of everything at the Expo there is one thing that unifies it all pizza here we are at the pizza convention there are so many pizzas everywhere you look Pizza Pizza Pizza enjoy your feet on the side first three letters the first two letters is this I'm fine oh that's what I wanted I wanted the neck you know the necklace the cord that's thank you very much I'm excited we're at the expo the doors open at 10 o'clock people started flooding in with Italian music at just the right moment, it's like food having to be for the Expo hasn't officially started, what?

You are doing? See, you're coming to Pete's Expo. How excited are you, yes actually, I'm sure you're busy. Man, it's been pretty hectic here these days. I will show you that dynamic that I call and I hope that this year we will have records for exhibitors, we will have a record number of attendees, it just ended, you know, a huge and incredible show when you enter the exhibition floor it starts on one side it goes through each booth where there's something you haven't seen something you're interested in go talk to those pizza bags over here my boys would be going crazy right now POS everyone and that's you know, that's where things are going, you know, obviously, you do keeping track of your customers, you keep pulling the tickets and because you're playing kind of games here just watching everyone, I kept in touch with them, touching them, there's Tony right now, he's doing his thing. make pizza clap right now stretch spin spin so a lot of people when you stretch they're doing a perfect job here but they're actually destroying their crust here Tony is thought of as the rock star this show I see yeah you know play them from making pizza to the stunts yeah and that's another thing here today we're going to have the world pizza games here and you know the freestyle division is off the chain so now we're going to head over to what we call Gold Coast and we have three of the hosts and some from here you can see from one side of the show to the other at the other end, we have our international pizza challenge there. area where we have the competition school for traditional and non-traditional down here we have a World Pizza Games up in the front right corner we have our demonstration area and in the front left corner we have another international pizza challenge it will be the Nemeton contest that will take place out there and I suggest you take that shot that in the city Italians you better believe it 100%.

I say there are more teenagers in Las Vegas right now than there have been in a year, no joke. come to attend and buy you are also here to exhibit if you are making traditional Napoli style pizza there is an oven manufacturer that reigns supreme Stefano Ferrara truly the Ferrari of Naples style pizza ovens the Ferrara family are third generation oven manufacturers and today The company is run by Stefano Ferrara and his son Simona Ferrara, so how many years have you architects been coming here? But six years have passed since the first edition of the exhibition, the Stefano Ferrara ovens in Brooklyn, all legendary. open a Napoli style pizzeria, this is the oven they must have, yeah how did they get to this level?

Typically HMO OT product pecan Granny twist, so a kaposin search table delight was even a tempie on TV, right? There is no genus Ladera. - the night passes for food 3d no no no Johnny for demagogic a Christian for not having a suitable place to burn a ball so much for mr. Ferrara Mendocino zombie crystal and I'm your partner receive Adubato in Japanese Aviva beam this is what the classic oven looks like if you pop a vanilla Italian on the tip, yes, divided into the storia di Napoli is the history of pizza, so, which is the company?

I mean, you know, being the son, let's say it's a difficult job, you know, following in my father's footsteps, you know, I have a lot of things to learn and every day I know it much more and better. you're doing a great job, you're representing your fan, awesome way to meet you on tv, my favorite box here shown, I'd say probably this box here, not sure anyone can have a big enough oven like to put the pizza or make a pizza for a box this size, but this is kind of a masterpiece just to have a little fun.

We've been around since 1994, but every Pizza Expo since '94 we continue to grow and improve, we make a full line. of fully cooked chicken wings, chicken bites, we've launched some new sauces to complement those products, we provide a lot of samples, so we're really highlighting our sauces, as well as the poultry, the poultry is delicious and hot, we I would love to get them. Our product in customers' shopping centers What is a pizza pants? All about Pizza Clothing Pizza Clothing Cooler than it looks Wow, nice to meet you What is this crazy place? The good thing about the pizza expo is that you always meet some friends in the showroom for special guys fresh off the plane, yes, from Italy, today you know, what is this called, almost again it's like a zeppole, yes , this example, when the same port leaders have Rosano tomato, you can see that we have a beautiful pasta. done there porosity said marinara Peter what do you say mom Donna these guys are very happy pretty girls from what I hear or support I love the way it sounds the ports are fake Oh they are all made of wood this electrician made that trinket after walking through the show floor, it was nice to take a break at my tomato supplier Stanislaus Stanislaus is a family owned cannery in Northern California that specializes and cans real Italian tomatoes hands down, they have the best boot on show and the cheese tortellini with antipasto is perfect my favorite will be my favorite Tomatoes look that has yeah a little bit of everything uh I've been working my way through the program all these different boots but it's crazy how many others Stanislaus is like being able to go through the hotline and relax.

I came out with some olive oil food, some amazing tomatoes, it's a nice stand. They come to relax in the program. Stay away from the madness. What does it mean to you to be here like this at the pizza convention and to be so big? It's found, we have a philosophy and we're not, we don't come here to sell, we come here to you know, meet old friends, meet new friends, you know, build new relationships, it's great to know that you have all these independent pizza places all over parts. the country and you know there are still, you know there are like us, if the little guy is successful, we are successful because we are in this together the moment you walk into the Expo, there is a face that you see everywhere, the softer whether you are with your pizza, lighter and airier or a pizza lover Tony Gemignani 12-time pizza champion, owner of pizzaiolo pizzeria and author, he is a true celebrity on the show Tony is the chef and owner of more than 15 restaurants and pizzerias in all over the Bay Area and Las Vegas.

I'm adding the rock pizza. It's a pizzeria that has nine different pizza ovens and is known for its variety of styles there's pizza with rock soda, your baby, it's rocks, yeah, new baby, we have three, you know, it's like Tony's Pizza San Francisco on steroids, You know, vaulted ceiling, there's a truck. We have nine ovens with eleven different types of pizzas, so depending on what oven you're cooking, it's the type of flour we use, it's kind of a pizza playground, yeah, it's like a wet dream for a pizza. man, I seem to love pizza, I have respect for the craft in my hands, I live it, it's in my boxes, I mean I live, eat and breathe pizza, so this is like the old trip to Vegas where we're from, yes, old. -school no one would touch it I mean I come from San Francisco the chefs would be everyone now don't go to the old Daggett's go to the Strip I'm going to prove I can get downtown or no one would go and I'll ruin it out of the kitchen I think you're the first celebrity to pizza, you started with the pizza championships, tell me more about that, what is it that really started in the 80s?

Pizza Expo Pizza today they always organized the competition, there was the pizza Olympics, a pizza Olympics and the world peace games and you know, that happened at the beginning of my career. I competed. I want a sufficient number of different world titles and in 1998 it ended, so Italy continued. I was still this guy from the US who was competing, so I said you. I know I'm going to Italy and we call it the dream team and I ended up winning twice and they banned me from competing in Italy. I was a five-time world pizza champion. I mean, look, it's like I'm falling, it's so funny. to see these guys kick down these doors look when they're going to compete they can be in a suit don't worry it gets serious it gets serious it's a choreographed routine three minutes you have a hit tricks you have to do two at a time three at a time you're doing multiple things like antennas and stuff and if you don't land them you know you're high you can get out of shape it's like you're not doing a frisbee you're not juggling a ball that this thing manipulates it gets bigger it gets softer it's what you listen - while you're throwing if you're listening though you'll hear it happen that's when you grab things because it's all that's all this is fast yeah, there's a lot of different you's You know you'll see tricks that don't seem difficult, they're usually the hardest ones so I have a team called world pizza champions and different members come to compete, so we have one particular team member Justen Watts, who is a former champion acrobat.

He won on his day and will return to the Masters division to see if he can beat the Korea-Japan Masters, another American and will face the guy who wins it. Know? Will Justin get a chance? You, me, yeah, Mike, when? he gets to that level, yeah, it's just that they're really good, I'm telling you, it's like they're so good. I went to Justin's hotel room to watch him practice for the big competition tomorrow. Damn, I have a big competition tomorrow. shows that it's the acrobatic masters division, which is basically this match, some music, but yeah, you'll see the best of the best, you're not doing tricks like this, I hope I can take home a win, we'll see that this mass has been out.

For a while this is just for practice, so it's actually a lot gentler than what I'll be wearing tomorrow night. It will be rock hard to the point where I can't roll the dough without a rolling pin, so these are a couple of my tricks, oh man, like I said, this dough isn't that good either, so I'm going to try one and I might try it tomorrow and depending on how I feel, yeah, I think I saw what you would do, no. so create these routines yourself, yes, yes, and there is a routine that you have done in the past that has won you a lot or is your favorite, so I have a few, one would be last year here in Las Vegas. a hangover routine, the movie Hangover, so I basically had my own daughter on my chest like little Carlos.

Wow, so atbeginning of the show I took it out, it's fun, so you get quite creative with this, yeah definitely take it to the next level. Did you ever hope that you would like to travel the world just spend pizzas in a million years? I said I used to say when I was in high school that I was going to be an amazing famous pizza maker, but I never would have thought it would actually come true, so who would you say will be your biggest competition tomorrow? Any of the Korean guys are very tough and are bringing new material.

They are very acrobatic, which I'm not really. I do dough tricks well, but they bring a different level to everything. Well, we went to Korea and visited mr. pizza and we got to watch them practice downstairs and just look at you here man I think you have a chance yeah we will see Justin competing in two categories of the world pizza games this year the pizza triathlon and the masters freestyle division . Stunt Toss in the Morning Justin took home first place in the triathlon, but tonight he's competing in the biggest competition of all: he's got space to use and 250, this is the pizza game world championship, so at the preparing the food you could see people turning around.

The pizzas in the back are kind of a practice, so it will be calm before the storm, in a few minutes people will be flocking through the doors and I'm actually very excited to be sitting in the front row to see the things everyone is doing this year. It's going to be fun because we have six finalists in the competition, six previous ones who are master acrobat champions, they will come in and compete for the final rights to the master acrobat champions, the judges are watching. For the form, they look for creativity, they look for the synchronization of the music and the movements that these children make.

I really like involving the audience because you know the judges listen to the audience, so that plays a factor in these. These competitors also do the same trick over and over again. Can you come up with new tricks? You know, everything that comes together is nothing like you've ever seen before. Think of a whole new group. Trotter, what a pizza dough with music. one point five points winner tonight first place all day in the front row of a garage we do it after cheering on Justin as an audience member it was my time to go on stage every independent she chooses I'm about to give my speech is the first time I speak publicly in front of so many people.

I'm a little nervous, but it's my people, this is pizza, you know, I worked pretty hard on it and I'm excited to get out there and you. I know, I'm just talking about what I do 2:54 some people here and my name is Frank Piniella I'm the owner and operator of the best pizza in Williamsburg Brooklyn so the big question is what should all the independents know about the big chains and my answer is there is nothing you need to know about the big chains the big chains basically compete with each other they don't compete with us we all know that the quality of the food is important but that personality behind the pizzeria is something the big chains don't even think about , I try to do the little things in the community that my grandfather used to do in my house and I try to treat the pizzeria like it was my house, you don't have to be afraid to charge for everything you have to do.

It's using the best ingredients, so when people come up to you and tell you why this cutie is 50 cents more than the next one, you could turn around and hand them the Arella pizza boots and tell them that's why it's a lot of work, but please do not do it. Don't forget, keep your eye on the prize, keep your eye on the quality and as time goes on at the big chains it won't even matter anymore, so I just finished my speech. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It's crazy. Being in a place where everything is centered around pizza, everyone is trying to improve the industry in their own way.

I really felt like I left here when a better man said things are ending here too, so I guess he's done. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here.