Pizza Making Turns Into A Sport

Some people do a lot more with pizza than eat it. In fact, there are several people across the world who not only love to make it, they love to enter competitions that revolve around it. Here in the United States, people can enter local and regional competitions to try to get onto the United States Pizza Team, which competes once a year in Italy at the World Pizza Championship.

Each competition is made up of several smaller competitions. There are contests for the Largest Dough Stretch, Freestyle Acrobatics with Pizza Dough, Fastest Pizza Making, Best Pizza, and the Pizza Triathlon, which is comprised of those contestants who compete in all three events that focus on manipulating the dough. Not everyone has to compete in everything if they do not wish to. At the World Pizza Games, they also have a Fastest Box Folding contest and the Longest Spin contest.

Largest Dough Stretch

Each contestant gets 5 minutes to stretch or toss an 18-ounce ball of dough to the largest size they can manage without tearing. Competition dough uses a special pizza dough recipe made with cold water and half the amount of yeast used in normal dough. This adds elasticity. Contestants only get the dough and dusting flour. Holes can be repaired if within the 5 minute time limit. Before time is up, the dough must be stretched out on the floor for measuring. It must be oval or round. Judges measure both the narrowest and widest areas and average the two numbers for the final measurement.

Freestyle Acrobatic Pizza Tossing

Freestyle is broken into two components. In the first part, contestants must score well while showing their mastery of compulsory moves. They are judged on knowledge, smoothness, and ease of movement. They must do a basic toss, the whip, toss a crust beneath their leg, and roll one over their back. Each trick must be demonstrated, and then shown at speed.

The second half is based on their freestyle performance. To their own music choice, contestants are judged on the originality of their routine as well as new tricks, new ways to toss, and more. Presentation makes up part of the score, evaluating how entertaining they are, choreography and how well they connect with the audience. The last part of the score is how difficult their routine was. Each contestant gets 10 8-ounce dough balls for this contest; half for the first portion and half for the second.

Fastest Pizza Maker

This contest measures how many crusts the contestant can prepare in a short time. The goal is to cover as many of the 12 inch screens as possible with a stretched crust. Only dusting flour is available to the contestant to manipulate the dough. Each contestant gets 5 10-ounce balls of dough. Once all five are done, the clock is only stopped if the contestant covers all portions of the screen that the judge points out.

Pizza Box Folding

This contest measures how long it takes contestants to fold 5 12-inch boxes properly. The judges record each contestant to the hundredths of a second when timing them. Boxes that fall off the table during the rush of competition must be picked up by the contestant and placed back on the table before time is done.

Longest Dough Spin

In this competition, the contestant tries to spin an 18-ounce dough over his or her head using a single hand like traditional pizza makers as long as they can. The dough is rolled out ahead of time for the contestant into a 14 inch round. No one is allowed to touch the dough until the contest starts. Both hands can be used for the initial toss, but then it must be maintained with only one hand. Once the dough falls lower than the contestant’s head, the timer stops.

Pizza is often wrongly categorized as fast food and although some pizza recipes are high in calories and fat, other pizzas can be healthy. Making your own pizza means you decide what goes into it. You can find the very best pizza recipes at our site to make a tasty yet healthy dinner.