Two hundred pizza chefs across the globe are in the running for the Best Pizza Chef Awards, to be announced in Milan, Italy, on September 30. It’s a relatively new spin-off of the Best Chef Awards, founded by Joanna Slusarczyk and Cristian Gadau in 2017.
The group of candidates for the 2024 awards, sponsored this year by the Italian flour brand Molini Pizzuti, is comprised of the top 100 candidates from last year’s list as well as 100 new pizzaioli selected earlier this year. The 2024 list includes 24 U.S. pizza chefs, while the 2023 list boasted 13. That means a total of 35 American pizzaioli will vie for this year’s top honor.
Franco Pepe, owner of Pepe in Grani in Caiazzo, Italy, won the Best Pizza Chef Award in 2023.
In contrast to the annual 50 Top Pizza awards, the Best Pizza Chef Award is determined by votes from professional pizza makers around the world as well as an international panel of 60 experts—food journalists, critics, bloggers, photographers and other notable people with a knowledge of and love for pizza.
The process is a bit complex, Antonio Ruotolo, director of the project, told PMQ. “But at the same time, it’s a fair and easy process that puts the spotlight on the pizza chef and gives them a voice with their vote. We also noticed that, for them, it has been an even greater pleasure because their position is determined, above all, by the votes of other pizza chefs.”
The 100 new candidates for 2024 were chosen in large part by a survey of the above-mentioned experts. Additionally, voters reviewed the 2023 survey and were asked, “Do you think your favorite pizza chef is missing from this list?” The voters got a chance to recommend two additional chefs for the 2024 edition.
Voting takes place via a secure online survey, with each member receiving a unique link to cast their votes, according to the Best Chef Awards website. “For the Top 100 list, each person can vote for 10 pizza chefs, choosing from a drop-down list and using a point system ranging from 10 to 100.”
There are also seven Special Awards for different categories. “For the special awards, each voter can vote for two pizza chefs—the first will be awarded 100 points, the second 50 points,” the website states. Special Awards include: Best Pizza Science; Best Pizza Art; Best New Chef; Best Pizza Pastry; Best Pizza Experience; Best Fried Pizza; and Best Margherita.
In the end, the list of 200 candidates for this year will be trimmed down to 100 outstanding pizza chefs and ranked from No. 1 to No. 100.
All 200 pizza-chef candidates for 2024 got a vote but could not vote for themselves, Ruotolo said. The 60 experts, who also get a vote, “are chosen in a meticulous way,” he noted. “They are equally distributed around the world to represent a fair, global point of view and must also show that they are actively moving around, trying pizzas.”
The Best Pizza Chef designation started out as a special award given at the Best Chef Awards held in Amsterdam in 2021 and again in Madrid in 2022, Ruotolo said. In 2023, the Best Pizza Chef Award was a virtual contest, with Pepe emerging as the winner out of 100 candidates.
Many, if not most, of the 200 candidates for the 2024 Best Pizza Chef Awards are well-known industry figures—think Tony Gemignani, Sarah Minnick, Chris Bianco, Dan Richer and Mark Iacono—while others are rising pizza stars. In the latter category, you’ll find Marisol Doyle of Leña in Cleveland, Mississippi, featured on PMQ’s cover in November 2023 and also honored this year by the New York Times, and Sunny Sun of Sunnyside Pizzeria in Atlanta, who graced PMQ’s March 2024 cover as part of a feature story on the Women in Pizza organization. Another candidate: Dareen Akkad, owner of What the Crust in Cairo, Egypt, who was also featured in that Women in Pizza story.
Other PMQ cover subjects who will be competing for this year’s honors include Giorgia Caporuscio, owner of Don Antonio in New York (May, 2024); Derrick Tung of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square in Chicago (March 2019); Anthony Mangieri of Una Pizza Napoletana (April, 2024); Ann Kim of Pizzeria Lola and Young Joni in Minneapolis (November, 2011); and Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow of San Francisco’s Flour + Water Pizzeria (January-February, 2024).
Additionally, chefs Brad Kilgore and Brad Daniels are in the running for Pizza Freak Co., a frozen-pizza brand based in Philadelphia.
Related: Two famed chefs turn frozen pies into a candidate for the world’s best 100 pizzas
Here’s a look at the 200 candidates for the 2024 Best Pizza Chef awards. Again, keep in mind that the full list consists of 100 candidates who made the contest in 2023 as well as 100 new candidates for this year.
2024
Aaron Lindell, Quarter Sheets, Los Angeles
Alejandro Diaz, Jose Maria Cardenas and Santiago Huen, Miami Slice, Miami
Brad Kilgore and Brad Daniels, Pizza Freak Co., Philadelphia
Brad Shorten and Cecily and Billy Federighi, Kim’s Uncle Pizza, Westmont, Illinois
Chris Ancona, Roberta’s, New York
Daniele Uditi, Pizzana, Los Angeles
Derrick Tung, Paulie Gee’s Logan Square, Chicago
Giorgia Caporuscio, Don Antonio, New York
Jeremiah Bullfrog, Square Pie City, Miami
Joe Beddia, Pizzeria Beddia, Philadelphia
Justin De Leon, Apollonia’s Pizzeria, Los Angeles
Marisol Doyle, Leña, Cleveland, Mississippi
Mark Iacono, Lucali, New York
Massimo Laveglia, L’Industrie, New York
Michael Masera, Filaga Pizzeria, New York
Pete Terns, Middle Brow, Chicago
Salvatore Carlino, Lucia, New York
Scarr Pimentel, Scarr’s Pizza, New York
Sean Lango, Secret Pizza, Las Vegas
Sunny Sun, Sunnyside Pizzeria, Atlanta
Tony Conte, Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana, Darnestown, Maryland
Vince Krone, Ken’s Artisan Pizza, Portland, Oregon
Will Unseld, Fini Pizza, New York
Wylie Dufresne, Stretch Pizza, New York
2023
Ann Kim, Pizzeria Lola and Young Joni, Minneapolis
Anthony Mangieri, Una Pizza Napoletana, New York
Chris Bianco, Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix
Dan Richer, Razza Pizza Artigianale, Jersey City
Floriana Pastore, Signora Pizza Food Truck, Las Vegas
Joe Powers, Jay’s Artisan Pizzeria, New York
Jorge Vargas, Union Pizza Work, New York
Juan Gabriel Perez, Posto, Boston
Roberto Caporuscio, Kesté Pizza e Vino, New York
Sarah Minnick, Lovely’s Fifty Fifty, Portland, Oregon
Sean McDonald, BarMonette, Santa Monica, California
Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow, Flour + Water Pizzeria, San Francisco
Tony Gemignani, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco
