World Pizza Championships 2019: South Yarra chef named best in Australia

It’s official. This is Australia’s best pizza, according to The World Pizza Championships. It was prepared in 12 minutes and has just six ingredients, but the real question is — does it have pineapple?

Michele Circhirillo making the award-winning pizza. Picture: David Crosling

Michele Circhirillo is expecting to make a lot of Di Parma pizzas this week.

The $25 creation, which comes topped with tomato sauce, fior de latte (cow’s milk mozzarella) prosciutto di Parma, air freighted Buffalo mozzarella, rocket and Grana Padano (similar to Parmesan) has just been named the best pizza in Australia.

“It was always popular, but I guess it will be even more so now,” Circhirillo said.

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The founder and head chef of 48H Pizza e Gnocchi South Yarra and Elsternwick said he was “still floating” after the win at the World Pizza Championships in Parma, Italy.

“This was my third time at the competition and winning was wonderful.”

It was also hard work.

Competitors in the Pizza Classica category were able to choose their type of oven and flour for the dough.

Circhirillo used a woodfire oven and flour types 00,0 and 1.

He said making the dough in preparation for the competition was the most challenging element.

“We had to make it over three days in the hotel room,” he said.

48H Pizza e Gnocchi South Yarra’s owners (L) Fabio Biscaldi and Michele Circhrillo with the winning pizza. Picture: David Crosling

Circhirillo nursed the dough like a new born.

“We had no fridge. I was up every two hours to check it,” he said.

“If it wasn’t rising fast enough I would put it in the bathroom with the heater on high.

“If I needed to slow it down I put it on the balcony to cool it a bit.”

The effort was worth it, with Circhirillo able to take eight batches of dough to the competition site when he checked in at 9am.

South Yarra eatery 48H Pizza e Gnocchi has won the award for best Australian Pizza. Picture: David Crosling

Even so, by the time his cooking time rolled around at 4pm only two were usable.

In previous years the pizzaiolos had 20 minutes on the day to prepare their entries.

This year, with 763 contestants from 41 countries taking part, that time was slashed to just 12 minutes.

The top prize at the prestigious event went to a pizza created by vegan pizzeria Purezza.

The British business is the first vegan pizzeria to enter the competition, which has been running since 1991.

You can try the Di Parma at 48h Pizza e Gnocchi Bar at 373 Malvern Rd, South Yarra and 15 Gordon St, Elsternwick.