Leeds dubbed the 'pizza capital' as two winners from the city scoop up prizes at the Pizza Chef of the Year Awards

Each year the awards ceremony welcomes the country’s top chefs and food product designers to go head-to-head, showcasing their innovation and technical skills as they create their idea of the perfect pizza.

The event is widely regarded as ‘setting the industry standards’ in the pizza world, with the Pizza Chef of the Year Award being the top accolade.

This year Leeds local Dan Hall, owner of MozzaFella, was awarded the overall best in show for his pizza creation at the awards dinner.

Dan was able to wow judges with his entry in the FuturaPro Pizza and More Cheese Category with a Detroit-style pizza called the Red Top Mk2.

The extra cheesy creation impressed the judges so much that Dan was also crowned the overall winner of the competition- Pizza Chef of the Year.

Speaking of the award, Dan said:

“I’m thrilled to have received this award.

I set up MozzaFella after getting my first pizza oven, with the idea of building a resource hub for people who want to make great pizza at home, and the business has grown from there.

To not just be making a living doing something I love but receiving recognition from some of the most respected people from the industry is a dream come true."

Leeds’ second winner of this year's competition is Mark Baber of Woodfire Dine.

The chef from Rothwell previously won the coveted title of Pizza Chef of the Year in 2019.

Mark’s entry was awarded the winner of the Whitworths New York Style Category with his creation titled 'The Yorkshire Meatballer'- a pizza that combines New York sauce, pomodoro and spicy meatballs.

On this win, he said:

“You just can’t beat a New York Style pizza, but I wanted to give it a new Yorkshire twist to celebrate the brilliant dining scene that’s on offer in our region.

The New York style pizza is characterised by a large hand tossed thin crust to which I added another of my favourite foods, spicy meatballs."

A full list of this year’s winners can be found on the Papa Industry Awards website.

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