The winner of the Victoria State Final in the Traditional Category of the Dairy Farmers Best of the Best Pizza Challenge is John Ottone of Golden Pizza in East Brunswick.
Triumphant at Saturday’s cook-off in Melbourne, John goes into the National Finals to be held in Sydney in September at Fine Food Australia.
In this, the tenth anniversary year of the Dairy Farmers Best of the Best Pizza Challenge, the competition format has expanded to include two different categories. On the first day, five competitors cooked off to find the best traditional pizza maker, and on the second a different group competed to find the best gourmet pizza maker in the state.
The other Tradtional Category finalists were;
• Albert Dalou – Marselino’s, Reservoir
• Bassam Khattar – Noble Pizza & Bistro, Noble Park
• Joe Daly – Urban Soul Pizza Café, Williamstown
• Andrew Morris – Mentone Hotel, Mentone
Winners of awards for the best pizzas in the day’s various sub -categories were;
• Best Specialty Pizza – John Ottone, Golden Pizza – East Brunswick
• Best Smallgoods Pizza – Bassam Khattar, Noble Pizza & Bistro – Noble Park
• Best Cheese Pizza – Andrew Morris, Mentone Hotel – Mentone
After all the points were tallied across the 3 categories, John was announced the overall winner.
The pizzas were all judged by a panel of three professional cooks on a range of elements including originality, creativity, menu balance, use of ingredients and total appeal.
In addition to Dairy Farmers, the following are major sponsors: Natural Gas, K R Castlemaine, Watson’s Catering Equipment and Spyral Food Equipment.
