“If you wish to eat the best pizza in the world you have to go to Italy” – well, NOT exactly! The best pizza isn’t made in Italy but in Serbia! A Serbian chef officially won 1st place. Was it pizza with ajvar that took the gold? Or with kajmak? Pizza with ćevapi or čvarci? Or something completely new and different?
The world’s best pizza chef isn’t an Italian pizza guru but a Serbian woman from Pirot.
There were 300 contestants from 20 European countries on the 2016 International Pizza Championship (Campionatul Roman de Pizza) held in Bukurešt, Romania. And Sonja Stojanović beat them all.
Better yet, she won 2 medals – gold for the “Black box” challenge and silver for the classic Italian pizza.
So, you all must be wondering how does this Serbian pizza which won 1st place with the palates, stomachs and hearts of the jury look like?
Let’s hear it from the No.1 World’s pizza chef Sonja Stojanović herself:
“I got three types of cheese, bacon, two slices of ham, corn and basil. I made a pizza with all of these ingredients, baked it, and then added garlic.”
The so-called Black box challenge is a category in which the jury puts groceries of their choice in a black box, and the contestants have to make a pizza, the dough of which they’ve made by themselves, using those groceries.
She won 2nd place for the “Frutti di Mare” classic Italian style pizza, during the tasting of which the very strict lady president of the jury actually closed her eyes so that she could enjoy it to the full.
However, the thing that blew away the jury, and the other contestants, was a new pizza Sonja “brought to the table”!
When the jury asked Sonja for an alternative innovative pizza she presented them two autochthonous pizzas – pizza with Pirot lamb and pizza with čvarci! The jury was amazed with the taste and aroma of both of the pizzas. They’ve even asked her what’s the secret of the “lamb pizza”. Sonja told them that the hard cheese was made from the milk given by cows from Pirot which graze on mt. Stara planina. She also told them that the lamb smells and tastes so nice because the animals are healthy, again because they graze good grass.
Sonja also added that she intends to compete with this pizza with lamb from Stara planina, as well as with one with “peglana kobasica” (a special kind of sausage).
This creative pizza chef from Pirot has found the winning formula by infusing the Italian specialty with elements from Serbian cuisine. Thrilled that her delicacies gained world recognition, Sonja said that this is yet more proof that traditional Serbian food is the best promotion of Pirot and Serbia.
If you wish to taste the best pizza in the world, go to Sonja’s restaurant “Mamma Rossa” in Pirot. You have a wide selection as during 24 years of pizza making, Sonja and her husband have created their unique brands: pizza with lamb and blue tomatoes, pizza with lamb and mushrooms, pizza with čvarci and pizza with smoked ham, mushrooms and Pirot pressed sausage (peglana kobasica) .
There’s no chance you’ll regret it! And yourselves award them 1st place!
Featured photo: www.sustinapasijansa.info
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