Best of the Best Competition results
By Tom Boyles

The Best of the Best competition has always delivered some of Australia’s best pizza makers to the final cook-off at the Fine Foods show and this year was no different, except for on particular competitor. There is one contestant who has been to the finals on three different occasions but this was his year. Damon De Ruiter, chef/owner of Roaring 40’s Café in Angaston, South Australia, has beaten nine of Australia’s best pizza makers to win The Dairy Farmers Best of the Best Pizza Challenge National Final this year.

Prior to Damon winning I stood at the National Foods booth chatting with him before he stepped up to compete. As we talked he reminded me about a conversation we had the year before, and to be honest, razzed me a bit about not having followed up on a promise I made to him to ring him and see if there was a story about his business. Pizza shop owners always come up at the show wanting a story on them, and some end up in the magazine. With so many people wanting to get in, sometimes I forget unless they ring me up after I return to the office. I told Damon, “You gotta be persistent…make sure to email or ring me because I think some of the ideas you told me would make a good story. When you email, make sure you type in ‘You B*stard!’ in the subject line so I will remember this year to follow up.” It was meant as a joke between us. Well, persistence paid off for Damon in a couple of ways. First, after three years of making it to the Finals and not being the top winner, his persistence paid off as he held the winning check above his head. I did get that email too…it said: “I WON…you b*stard!” He did and I gave him the ring. Persistence once again paid off as you can read more about him in this issue. I hope you enjoy his story.

Another story that comes from the 2009 Best of the Best is the announcement from Jacqui Sykes of the addition of a Pasta Competition being added to the Best of the Best for next year. Be watching PMQ’s Pizza Australia for more details on that along with details and dates on how to enter the pizza competition too. For now, PMQ wants to congratulate Damon and all of the other category winners from this year’s competition for a job well done. Here are all the winners and we’ll see you next year to see who will be the 2010 Best of the Best pizza maker…and pasta maker too.

Finalists
There were 10 finalists, five traditional and five gourmet pizza makers.

Category Winners
Best traditional pizzamaker 2009 (best seafood and black box pizzas)
• Riccardo Moretti, La Piazza, Bankstown, New South Wales

Best traditional cheese pizza
• Mel Anastasio, Sfera’s Mint Café Bar, Modbury, South Australia

Best traditional smallgoods pizza
• John Ottone, Golden Pizza, East Brunswick, Victoria

Other national finalists
• Pierluigi Donin, Arriva Italian Restaurant, New Farm, Queensland

• Marco Zabardi, Lo Zucchero, Dalkieth, Western Australia

Gourmet Finalists
Best gourmet pizzamaker 2009 (best smallgoods)
• Damon de Ruiter, 40’s Café, Angaston, South Australia

Best gourmet cheese pizza
• Johnny Kondoutsikos, Othello Greek Restaurant, Southbank, Victoria Best gourmet seafood pizza

• Emilia Galatis, Delizioso Café, Subiaco, Western Australia

Best gourmet black box pizza
• Kaz Derbas, Hugos, Manly, Manly New South Wales

Other national finalist
• Ryan Parsons, Parso’s Pizza, Gaven, Queensland