Last week I was invited to Rimini on the east coast of Italy to judge a Pizza World Championships - Pizza Senza Frontiere. What an inspiring and surreal couple of days it turned out to be.

Pizza chefs had flown in from all over the world, from Taiwan to Nigeria, USA to China. I was seated at my judging table at 9am, and the first category was announced: Pizza & cocktails. So at 9am, I took my first sip of a grappa spiked take on an Indian Lassi and my first bite of a salt cod and smoked hummus pizza with finger lime and edible flower garnish… Things progressed from there.

Pizza after the pizza came out, orange and saffron with smoked mozzarella, reindeer sausage and porcini, blue potato and deep-fried pigs ear. Some combinations were incredible, some perhaps a little over-ambitious. I personally was all up for the creativity and pushing the pizza envelope. Still, I could feel my more traditional Italian co-judges quietly cursing the whackier side of the competition.

I got into quite a philosophical debate with one Italian judge about what IS pizza? If it’s flat and round but uses kumquat puree instead of tomato and aged feta instead of mozzarella, is it still pizza? If it’s baked like focaccia in a square using cornmeal but has tomato, basil, and mozzarella, is that a pizza? Either way, I’m pretty sure the grappa lassi had kicked in.

After 16 rounds of pizza tasting and trying to keep my scoring consistent and measured throughout the day, it came down to the awards presentation. Now Italians love a ceremony, 3 hours of thank yous, speeches, some tears, and a grand total of 58 (GIANT) trophies handed out, and it was all over.

It truly was wonderful seeing the world of pizza being taken so seriously, with so many chefs caring so much about their craft. It reminded me that pizza means a lot to a lot of people, and in the end, pizza should be fun and make people happy!

Watch our reel from the trip here!