Be Sure to Watch the Bake-off Finals & Awards Presentation
Linda Ortega
Jordan Lawson
Buffy Wimmer
Lars Smith
Efren Ríos
Justin Wadstein
Phillip Ma
Ricky Webster
Domenica Catelli
Anisha Blodgett
Joe Mialki
Lars Smith
The 2020 Real California Pizza Contest is seeking the year’s top professional chefs, pizzaiolos and accredited culinary students to create and share their best pizza recipes in three categories.
For a list of the more than 250 varieties and styles of Real California Cheese and the approved brands that produce them, as well as clarification on which Hispanic-style cheeses from California qualify for the Cal-Mex pizza category, please refer to the CA Cheesemaker list.
We recognize some of these cheeses may not be available in your location. You are encouraged to enter the contest anyway, substituting the cheese you use in your development process for the cheese from this approved list in your official recipe entry. The California Milk Advisory Board will supply the specified approved cheeses from finalists’ recipes at the bake-off.
The 2019 Real California Pizza Contest was a huge success, and we’re planning on an even bigger contest for 2020. First, we’ve gone international – inviting the winner of the “Campeonato Mexicano de la Pizza” (Mexican Pizza Championship sponsored by the CMAB) to participate in our final bake-off. The categories have evolved to capture chefs’ creativity on the latest food trends – plant-forward ingredients and Cal-Mex flavors. We recognize the financial strain the COVID 19 situation has put on the foodservice industry. Operators are struggling and working hard to support their staff while keeping operations running. We had already broadened our prize package this year – so that every finalist is a winner and receives prize money. We are certain that our finalists will put these awards to good use. See contest tab for details.