If you’ve gotten to a point when not any pizza will do, you’ll be interested in knowing who exactly makes some of the best pizzas out there. And now, we have an answer.

In a gruelling, three-day pizza challenge (yes, you read that right),  40 pizzaioli competed against each other in a ‘pizza tent’ (this just keeps getting better and better) to be in the chance of not only taking home the title of the best pizzaiolo on the island, but to also win an all-expenses-paid professional pizza course at Italy’s Accademia Pizzaiolo (please pinch us we’re pretty sure we’re dreaming at this point). 

And after everything was said and done (and tasted), Alexandru-Andrei Mataine was crowned the Top Pizzaiolo.

The challenge had four different categories which participants were judged on. The Classica category, as its name implied, featured reinventing old classics like the Margherita, the Capricciosa, the Daviola, and the Quattro Formaggi, while the Creativa expected participants to go be innovative as possible, from making their own preferred kind of dough, to using their personal choice of ingredients, to presenting the pizza in any shape they desire.  The Black Pizza Box mystery challenge, on the other hand, had surprise ingredients randomly assigned to the pizzaioli. Finally, a dough kneading challenge tested the participants’ ability to create great dough using just their hands, technique and the most basic of ingredients (flour, water, salt, olive oil and yeast).

The participants, who ranged from aspiring to professional pizzaioli, were each given a total of 20 minutes to impress a team of international judges who definitely know their pizza. The panel included David Michel Mizoni, Director at Train2bake, and Luciano Passeri, the National Director at the Accademia Pizzaioli. While the ingredients varied according to participants and challenges, the mozzarella cheese was provided by Arla, who sponsored the whole thing.

Alexandru serves up his award-winning pizzas at Hugo’s Pizza, if you were wondering where you could get your hands on these beautiful pieces of art.

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).