By Brian Hernandez
After three days of culinary competition and pizza athletics, the 2026 REAL California Pizza Challenge wrapped up August 25 at the Pizza Tomorrow Summit & California Restaurant Show at the Anaheim Convention Center. Hosted by PMQ Pizza’s U.S. Pizza Team (USPT) and sponsored by REAL California Milk, the event brought together longtime competitors, first-timers and even an international challenger for four culinary divisions: Gluten-Free, the REAL California 3-Cheese Challenge, Non-Traditional and Pizza in the Pan.
The biggest prize of the week went to Boris Berard of ORA – 1929, who traveled from Nice, France, and topped a 25-person Non-Traditional field with a score of 373.45. USPT member Charles “Ray” Cullison of Charlie and the Pizza Factory finished second at 370.00, while his teammate Mark Zabrowski of Much Ado About Pizza took third at 369.90.
Berard (pictured below) won with the Cali Pasteur, a California-inspired lamb pizza, earning a trip to Parma, Italy, to compete at the 2027 World Pizza Championship alongside the U.S. Pizza Team.
Berard has previously been a finalist in the French National Pizza Championship and competed in Las Vegas, but his trip to Anaheim marked a new chapter. Back home, the third-generation baker operates ORA – 1929 from a trailer towed by an electric vehicle and powered by a battery pack, working with organic flour, wild fermentation and sourdough. Now he gets another international stop, and he has no intention of treating Parma like a vacation. “I don’t go there just to say hello,” Berard said. “If I go there, it’s to win, and this is the goal.”
The competition opened with Gluten-Free, where U.S. Pizza Team veteran Sean Dempsey of Dempsey’s Brewery Pub & Restaurant took first with 389.85 points. Giovanni Labbate of Tievoli Pizza Bar finished second at 373.95, with David Solum of Logan & Woodward third at 370.45. Dempsey won the REAL California 3-Cheese Challenge at the 2025 event, making back-to-back Anaheim championships in two very different categories.
“Being able to come back here, competing with a kind of crazy hybrid gluten-free and winning first overall, was pretty cool,” Dempsey said. “Unexpected.”
Solum followed his Gluten-Free podium by breaking through for first place in the REAL California 3-Cheese Challenge, scoring 381.35 to leave Juan Robles of Triple Beam Pizza and Kira Zabrowski of Much Ado About Pizza battling it out for 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Solum’s strategy for a competition designed to showcase exactly three California cheeses was refreshingly simple: build a cheese pizza and let those cheeses do the talking. After years of competing and several near misses, the victory was a long-awaited one. “It feels good to get that monkey off my back,” Solum said, “and hopefully we can just keep rolling with it.”
The final culinary competition delivered another of the week’s best stories. Rocco Labbate of Tievoli Pizza Bar entered his first-ever pizza competition and promptly won Pizza in the Pan with 474.15 points, ahead of Rick Panaro of Wildcard Pizza at 466.65 and Dominic Tedesco of River Ricks at 464.30.
The 21-year-old Labbate (pictured below) had watched competitions before, but when it was finally his turn, he tried to approach the moment like another shift at the family business. “I kind of thought of it like another day at work,” Labbate said. “It’s just another pizza, because everything’s got to be perfect for us. We’ve got to make sure we’re putting in our best work.”
Labbate grew up in the pizza business and credits his father for putting him on that path, continuing another generation of the family trade. His first competition also proved to be more than a one-off experiment: He already has his sights set on competing again in Ohio and Las Vegas. His Pan victory was also part of a larger showing from newcomers throughout the event, with first-time and newer competitors finding their way up the standings against a field filled with experienced pizza makers.
Pizza Athletics brought another dose of competition to the show floor, beginning with Largest Dough Stretch, where Giovanni Labbate of Tievoli Pizza Bar took first, Patrick Clifford of Skorch’d Pizza finished second, and Enrico Aguila of Uncle Rico’s Pizza took third. In the opening round of Fastest Box Folder, Rocco Labbate took first, followed by Aguila and walk-on competitor Mikey V., representing with Horacio Estrella of Tio’s Pizza. The top seven box folders returned the following day for a Grudge Match, where Rocco again took the top spot, Aguila finished second and Chris Battiste of MiaAva East Coast Pizza took third. Fastest Pie Maker rounded out the athletic events, with Giovanni Labbate taking first, Jimmy Terwilliger second and Battiste third.
Behind the scenes, U.S. Pizza Team members, judges, volunteers, sponsors and show staff kept the three-day schedule moving smoothly from the first pizza to the final awards. That teamwork helped make room for what the event is ultimately supposed to do: bring established competitors back together while giving new pizza makers a place to step into competition, test themselves and occasionally surprise everybody.
The U.S. Pizza Team would like to extend a huge thank you to the sponsors and partners who helped make the 2026 California Pizza Challenge possible: REAL California Milk, Marra Forni, Grain Craft, Gi.Metal, MFG Tray, Bee Dolce, Vantaggio D’Oro, the California Restaurant Show and the Pizza Tomorrow Summit. We couldn’t do what we do without their continued support of the U.S. Pizza Team and the pizza community.
With four culinary champions crowned, an international winner headed to Italy and a first-time competitor leaving Anaheim with a championship title, the 2026 REAL California Pizza Challenge is officially in the books. The stories aren’t finished, though. Stay tuned to PMQ Pizza Magazine and the U.S. Pizza Team for winner interviews, more coverage from Anaheim and a complete video wrap-up of the competition.
Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s associate editor and coordinator of the U.S. Pizza Team.
