The California Milk Advisory Board is looking for the most creative professional chefs in America to showcase their innovative use of Real California Cheese in winning pizza recipe concepts.
This year’s contest will feature three new, innovative categories: The Big Cheese, On the Menu, and Innovative Wildcard.
Twelve selected finalists will compete at a live bake-off event in Napa, Calif. on July 29th with $30,000 in cash prizes available.
An innovative pizza recipe already on your regular menu or a recipe available as a seasonal item or special Limited Time Offer. Dairy must be a key ingredient, as each recipe must contain Real California Mozzarella and a minimum of one other Real California cheese or dairy products.
A new creative take on America’s favorite…the cheese pizza. This all-cheese recipe must feature Real California Mozzarella and a minimum of two other Real California cheeses.
This pizza is your chance to wow the judging team with an original cheese-centric recipe that must include Real California Mozzarella, a minimum of one other Real California cheese or dairy product, and a healthy helping of kitchen creativity.
For a list of the more than 250 varieties and style of Real California Cheese and the approved brands that produce them, please refer to the California Cheesemaker list.
Judged by a panel of professional chefs, the 12 selected finalists – 4 in each category – will prepare their pizza recipes on July 28-30, 2025 at the Culinary Institute of America at Copia in Napa, California.
The chefs will all compete on an equal basis. The pizza tasting and evaluation process will be conducted blind. The top entry in each category will be selected as the Category Winner.
The Grand Prize Winner will be selected by the judges based on the best overall score.
Category winners will each receive $5,000. The overall Grand Prize Winner will receive an additional $5,000, for $10,000 total.
Finalists who are not category winners will receive $1,000 each.
Chefs can choose from a selection of more than 250 varieties and styles of award-winning Real California Cheese to create the most innovative, interesting and inspiring recipes! Refer to https://www.realcaliforniamilk.com/cheese-makers for approved Real California Cheese brands and varieties.
The contest is open for recipe submissions from March 20, 2025 through May 16, 2025. Eligible entrants are:
There will be two rounds to the Real California Pizza Contest.
PRELIMINARY ROUND
All entries will be scored by an esteemed panel of champion pizza chefs, with the top four entries per category advancing to the final round. Judging criteria includes:
FINAL ROUND
The 12 selected finalists – four in each category – will compete for $30,000 in the live bake-off event at the Culinary Institute of America at Copia facility in Napa, California on July 28-30, 2025.
The pizzas will be tasted and scored by our esteemed panel of champion pizza chefs. A single chef in each category – The Big Cheese, On the Menu, Wildcard – will be selected as the Category Winner. Following the main competition, the judges will select an overall Grand Prize Winner from all of the finalist pizzas made at the contest.
Category Winners:
$5,000 each
Grand Prize Winner:
$10,000 total
Remaining Finalists:
$1,000 each
Bay Area native, Tony Gemignani is a 13-time World Pizza Champion, four-time Guiness World Record holder, author of PIZZA BIBLE and The Pursuit of Pizza: Recipes from World Pizza Champions, prolific philanthropist, and renowned San Francisco restaurateur. A steadfast supporter of North Beach, Gemignani’s flagship restaurant, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, and eateries such as Capo’s, Slice House, Toscano Brothers Bakery, and Giovanni’s Italian Specialties, are rooted in San Francisco’s historic Italian neighborhood. Gemignani continued his investment in the community by launching San Francisco’s first-ever Pizza, Bagel and Beer Festival to a sold-out crowd spanning Filbert & Stockton Streets; the annual event will continue for its third year in 2025. In 2023, Gemignani launched a franchise program for Slice House by Tony Gemignani, which has since grown to nearly 150 locations open or under development across the country and has been honored as 2024’s #1 Overall Brand by Pizza Marketplace’s Top 100 Movers & Shakers. In 2024, Gemignani debuted an exclusive culinary collaboration with Princess Cruises to create five unique pizzas, offering the Best Pizza at Sea. Over the years, Gemignani has worked closely with charities such as Family House, George Mark Children’s House, the Marin Food Bank, the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club, Slice Out Hunger, the Salesian Boys & Girls Club, and more. In 2024, he donated over $55,000 as a part of hosting fundraising events. A staple of the Bay Area culinary scene for over 30 years, Gemignani is proud to boast partnerships with the Golden State Warriors, San Francisco 49ers, the San Francisco Giants, and the Las Vegas Raiders to bring his delicious pizza to sports fans throughout their stadiums, in addition to serving at the iconic Sphere in Las Vegas.
Originally from Fremont, Calif., Tony grew up cooking alongside his mother, who taught him how to prepare fruits and vegetables harvested from the family farm. This philosophy of creating recipes around fresh, seasonal ingredients has stayed with him throughout his culinary career and is reflected across his menus. After graduating from high school, Tony worked as a pizza maker at his brother’s acclaimed Pyzano’s Pizzeria in Castro Valley, where he quickly began growing his impressive skills.
Tony’s career continued to evolve and resulting in his earning a variety of awards and accolades for his pizza making and throwing skills. He is the founder of the World Pizza Champions, the first and only Triple Crown winner for baking at the International Pizza Championships in Lecce, Italy, and his most prestigious title to date, the 2007 World Champion Pizza Maker at the World Pizza Cup in Naples, Italy, where he was the first American and non-Neapolitan victor.
Tony has been inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records four times for most consecutive rolls across the shoulders, largest pizza in the world, longest pizza in the world, and most people tossing pizza at once. In 2016, he became the first American to win first place in the Pizza In Pala division at the World Pizza Championships in Parma, Italy. In 2021, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana was awarded first place in the United States in Italy’s 50 Top Pizza Competition and was awarded tenth worldwide in 2022. Tony’s vegan pizza, The Mission Impossible, took home the title for #1 Pizza of the Year by the 50 Top Pizza USA 2024, while Tony’s Pizza Napoletana was awarded 2nd place and Pizza Rock was awarded 28th place. Additionally, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana was ranked within the top 50 pizzeria’s on the worldwide list and was the only one in California.
In addition to receiving many prestigious awards, Tony has also appeared on a variety of popular TV shows and networks, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Good Morning America, The Food Network, and more. He has also been featured in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, and Robb Report, among many other notable outlets. To share his talent and passion with aspiring chefs, he collaborated with acclaimed cookbook writer, Diane Morgan, to write his first cookbook, PIZZA, which was showcased on Emeril Live and The Rachael Ray Show. He also wrote his first children’s book, Tony and the Pizza Champions, his definitive book on pizza, The Pizza Bible, in collaboration with acclaimed cookbook writer Susie Heller and Steven Sieglman, and The Pursuit of Pizza: Recipes from the World Pizza Champions, which he co-authored as one of four profiled champions. Tony also appeared as an expert instructor on the Master Class GOAT series, which highlights the greatest individuals of all time, as they dig into their craft in a never-ending search for perfection.
Tony lives with his wife and their son just outside of San Francisco in Alamo. When he’s not making pizza, he enjoys playing soccer, badminton, swimming, pickle ball, and golf. The highlights of his weekend are watching his son play soccer, kung fu, and basketball. Tony is also an avid collector of sports cards, toys, comic books, and vintage cars. He has a 1950 Chop Top Mercury, a ‘50 Oldsmobile Rocket 88, and a ‘58 GMC truck, which he shows at a variety of car shows in the Bay Area. To celebrate his Italian American heritage, Tony is a member of the Fratellanza, Colombo and San Francisco Italian Athletic Clubs. At home he enjoys gardening and farming. He grows tomatoes, rosemary, peppers, Genovese basil, and arugula in addition to Merlot, Cabernet, and Sangiovese grapes that he plans to start bottling.
Glenn Cybulski is an award-winning executive chef and certified pizzaiolo with over 100 national and international culinary awards in rustic Italian cuisine and American comfort food. He is widely regarded as one of the top pizzaiolos in the U.S. and has extensive experience in public speaking, culinary writing, and restaurant consulting. Glenn is the co-founder and Executive Director of Chefs Feeding Kids, a nonprofit organization focused on reducing childhood hunger across the U.S.
Cybulski is also an instructor at PMQ Pizza Magazine’s School of Pizzeria Management. He is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist at the International Pizza Expo.
His restaurant experience includes working with Terry Collins of Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza in 2006, where he designed the crust for the “Thin Crust DeLight” pizza. He has consulted on the Travel Channel’s show Food Wars and has owned and operated five restaurant concepts over the last 25 years. He now focuses on his restaurant consulting work and Chefs Feeding Kids, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Born and raised in Hayward, California, Laura Meyer’s first job was working at Pyzano’s Pizza, her local pizzeria. At just 17 years old, the pizzeria was where Laura met her mentor, Tony Gemignani, and her career as a pizzaiola began. After high school, Laura went to earn her Bachelor’s Degree, when she discovered her passion for culture and food while studying abroad in Italy. Upon graduating, Laura moved to San Francisco to take the helm at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana as kitchen manager alongside Tony himself.
In 2013, Laura won first place in her first competition in Parma, Italy, becoming the first woman and first American to win the Pizza in Teglia category. The following year, she won Best Non-Traditional Pizza at Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. In 2019, she won first place at the Caputo Cup in Naples, Italy for Best American-Style Pizza, once again becoming the first—this time winning in a newly created category in one of Italy’s oldest pizza competitions. Throughout her tenure at Tony’s, Laura’s rising success earned her recognition as SF Chronicle’s Rising Star Chef, an Eater Young Gun, and one of Zagat’s 30 Under 30, and was named Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016.
With an insatiable quest for learning, Laura took on the role of teaching assistant and administrator at Tony’s International School of Pizza where she taught countless chefs and operators for ten hard working years. A newly developed passion for teaching led Laura to speaking opportunities at Pizza Expo, and a role as a contributing writer to Pizza Today magazine. Amid the pandemic, Laura dipped her toes into the waters of entrepreneurship, opening Focaccia da Laura, a focaccia pop-up. Given the success and prospects of Focaccia da Laura, Laura made the decision to depart Tony’s wing after nearly 20 years to open Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, California in March of 2023. This year, 2025, Laura is expanding upon the pizzeria with the addition of the Mercatino expanding her brand within the downtown Berkeley pizza scene. In addition, Laura, along with other leading females in the pizza industry, have started a new nonprofit, Fork to Future, with the aim of uniting and educating fellow women and other under represented communities within and surrounding the pizza industry.
Sponsored by the California Milk Advisory Board — from the nation’s #1 dairy state!
