The slice of life: an inside look at the International Pizza Expo

Natalie B. Compton spends three days at the biggest event in the industry’s calendar, where the big cheeses of the community explore new gadgets, compete in ‘pizza Olympics’ and, of course, taste the best of the best

The Largest Dough Stretch final at the World Pizza Games (Mikayla Whitmore/Washington Post)

I wake up in my Vegas hotel room with a swollen face and what you might call “mush brain”. It’s not one of my worst hangovers, but it also isn’t the kind you typically wake up with in this city. I had eaten too much pizza. New York slices. Neapolitan. Tavern style. Vegan. Sicilian. Experimental.

How much mozzarella can the human body handle? I’d spent seven hours the day before exploring the question as I walked the marinara-coloured carpet of the International Pizza Expo, the world’s largest convention for the pizza industry. One of the selling points – or perils – is being surrounded by an endless supply of pizza. Delicious, just-out-of-the-oven bottomless pizza made by the most talented names in the business. Unfortunately for me, willpower isn’t my strong suit.

Six thousand miles from Naples, the birthplace of pizza, the expo has brought thousands of people from every corner of the global pizza industry to Vegas for 39 years. They come for typical conference experiences – seminars, networking, gadgets and ingredients from more than 400 exhibitors. Some come to battle in pizza-making competitions or the “World Pizza Games” – everyday pizzeria tasks turned into sports, like fastest pizza box assembly or dough stretching.