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Paris Embraces Pizza
By Liz Barrett / Photos by Greg Giblin
When PMQ crossed the Atlantic to Paris last March, the U.S.
Pizza Team and PMQ's Pizza Magazine publishers Steve and
Linda Green weren't expecting to find a city that has embraced
one of America's favorite foods to the extent that Paris has—but
Parisians eat pizza 10 times more frequently than hamburgers
and boast a per person consumption rate that equals 83% of their
American counterparts. "The most important similarity I noticed
between New York and Paris is that they both have some of the
greatest pizza in the world," says PMQ publisher Steve Green.
Not unlike the United States, Paris also has its own trade shows
dedicated to the art of pizza. While in France, the U.S. Pizza Team
competed against some worthy adversaries at the Paris Pizza &
Pasta Expo—more evidence that Paris takes their pizza and their
acrobatic pizza spinning and stretching seriously! John Howe
won gold in the fastest pizza making category, with David Smith
II taking bronze; Ryan LaRose won the bronze in largest dough
stretch and pizza acrobatics; and LaRose, Patt Miller and Chris
Green brought home the silver in the team acrobatics category.
Gathering all of the Pizza Team members together in one
place to compete always serves to strengthen the camaraderie
shared between them. "These guys are some of the tops in the
world," says Nino Coniglio from Il Bergante in New York. "They
teach you so much, and they're so friendly and really helpful."
"It inspires you to look around for different ingredients and
different ways of cooking your pizza," says Michael Amheiser,
owner of Pizza Dock in Frederickstown, Ohio.
"That's the fun part about it," says David Smith II, owner of
Pizza Palace Plus in Emporium,
Pennsylvania.
"No one has any secrets,
and they're willing to
show you: 'Hey, this is
what I do.'"
In addition to acrobatics
and culinary competitions,
the show floor
offered a bevy of new
technological ideas for
the pizzeria operator.
(Footage of these products
in action can be
seen on Pizza TV in the
video "Viva la Pizza.")
Cony Pizza (www.vceinternational.it) offered
showgoers the ability
to make pizza into a
cone shape to provide
ease of mobility and fun
snacking for consumers.
Calzonissimo Pizza (www.calzonissimo.com) showed a
similar product, using a machine that turns round pizzas into
four calzones for on-the-go pizza that stays warm and doesn't
make a mess.
Resto' Clock Pizza Vending Machine allows pizzeria
operators to cook a batch of pizzas and store them in the machine's
refrigerated unit. When a customer punches in an order,
the pizza is reheated in four minutes and is dispensed through
the front of the machine.
Outside the show, Parisians clamored to see the Pizza Team.
"We were hearing 'Bravo! Bravo!' and it seemed like people were
really enjoying themselves,"
says Coniglio. "I was enjoying
myself, too, because I like
making people happy." "Here
in Paris, the crowds are pretty
substantial," says Chris
Green, U.S. Pizza Team Trainer from Oxford,
Mississippi. "And we spin all over the world."
"The Paris people love the pizza spinning,"
says Scott Childers from East Coast Pizza in Riverview, Florida.
"We tore the town up—the cops even had to shimmy us off the
streets because we were drawing too big of a crowd."
PMQ and the Pizza Team certainly left a lasting impression on
Paris, one that the Parisians won't soon forget—and, according
to those who were there, the feeling was definitely mutual.