A bakery that started making pizza two years ago beat a chef trained by a 13-time world champion by one-hundredth of a point, in a division that limits competitors to dough, red sauce, cheese and spices. The largest pizza-making competition in the United States built that division around blind preliminary judging, a 30-minute clock and the smallest possible ingredient list. National Cheese Pizza Day on Sept. 5 might be the best excuse all year to find out what makes the plainest pie on the menu so hard to get right.
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Seven hundred thirty competitors entered the International Pizza Challenge across eight divisions over three days in Las Vegas, from Neapolitan to pan to non-traditional pies loaded with toppings of the maker’s choice. The cheese slice division operates under a different set of constraints.
Each competitor works alone, with 30 minutes to assemble, bake and present a pizza. Preliminary rounds are judged blind, and competitors select three slices from the finished pie for the judges. The division requires dough, traditional red tomato sauce, cheese or a cheese blend and spices. Par-baking is permitted on-site under official supervision, while after the pizza enters the oven, only an olive oil drizzle, grated cheese or dry or fresh herbs and spices can be added.
No other toppings, cheeses or finishing work are allowed. Every flaw in the dough, every shortcut in the sauce, every misjudged oven temperature shows up on the plate with no way to cover it. The stripped-down slice leaves little room for a competitor to hide mistakes.
Ingredient simplicity is getting attention
The competitive philosophy lines up with changing ideas about what makes food worth eating. The share of Americans who include a limited number of ingredients in their definition of healthy food rose from 9% in 2022 to 16% in 2026. The share who included minimal or no processing in that definition rose from 20% to 26% over the same period. The Specialty Food Association’s Trendspotter Panel reported a greater focus on ingredient transparency and simplicity at the 2026 Summer Fancy Food Show in June.
What 3 days in Las Vegas revealed about a cheese slice
The 2026 cheese slice results illustrated how seriously competitors take the division. The overall title went to a small husband-and-wife bakery from Ontario, Canada, by a razor-thin margin. Kevin Moreira of Boa Bakery scored 45.42. Boa Bakery only added pizza to its menu about two years ago, and Moreira also took first in the Daiya Dairy-Free division at the same competition, making him a double champion, both times using a version of the pizza the bakery serves customers every Friday.
One-hundredth of a point behind him sat Tony Scardino of Professor Pizza in Chicago, a city far more associated with deep-dish and tavern-cut styles than with the stripped-down cheese slice. Scardino trained under 13-time World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani at the International School of Pizza in San Francisco before opening his own shop. Third place went to Gennaro Buontempo of Frank’s Pizza & Pasta in Baltimore, at 44.34.
The regional breakdown spanned all five U.S. competitive regions, with cheese slice champions from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey to Conway, South Carolina to Los Gatos, California. The division debuted in 2024, when Andy Huynh of Cowabunga+ in Hamilton, Ontario, took the inaugural title.
In 2025, Chris Ostapenko of Slice on Broadway in Pittsburgh took the overall cheese slice title. Three different winners from three different operations in three years. All three won by proving the same thing. When the ingredient list is that short, every decision in the dough, the sauce and the oven carries.
A competition format with growing reach
Competitors in the World’s Best Cheese Slice division now come from across the United States and internationally, with regional subdivisions recognizing top finishers in the Midwest, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. The format is growing at a moment when the broader food industry is paying attention to similar ideas.
Brands and makers are paying closer attention to ingredient transparency and simplicity, and the ones leaning in are standing out. When 730 pizza makers compete in what organizers call the largest pizza-making competition in the United States and one division tells them to work with the smallest possible set of ingredients, the format itself makes a statement about what the craft demands.
The cheese slice asks everything of the person making it and offers nothing to hide behind. National Cheese Pizza Day is a good day to find out who can.
Mandy writes about food, home and the kind of everyday life that feels anything but ordinary. She has traveled extensively, and those experiences have shaped everything, from comforting meals to small lifestyle upgrades that make a big difference. You’ll find all her favorite recipes over at Hungry Cooks Kitchen.
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