Arla: The Hunt For Britain’s Best Pizza Returns

The competition is back, bigger and better: Arla Pro’s national pizza competition for professional chefs, operators and pizzaiolos, with a £5,000 cash prize up for grabs

Pizzaiolos, chefs and professionals making and serving pizza across Great Britain are being invited to enter Britain’s Best Pizza competition once again – back for the second year where Arla Pro are joined by a new and exciting judging panel. The premise of the competition is simple: enter by providing some basic details online, and a mystery diner could be coming to visit your business. If you reach the final round then esteemed pizzaiolo Marco Fuso, along with Italian food influencer Elisabetta Basile (@theitalianfoodaholic) and Rich Baker from Flat Earth Pizza (our 2023 winner!) will pay you a visit to sample your pizza before deciding the final winner.

Pizza is one of the nation’s favourite dishes and has seen exceptional growth that is set to continue, with 80% of UK consumers saying they intend to eat pizza as frequently, if not more frequently, in the next 6 months (1). Arla Pro understands that pizza operators are hugely diverse, ranging from street food vendors to quick service outlets, through to pubs offering pizza or full-service Italian restaurants. Every type of business is encouraged to enter the competition – and it’s this diversity that makes it one of the most exciting new culinary competition launches in recent years.

When asked to reflect on the 2023 competition ahead of the 2024 launch, Donna Eaton, Head of Marketing at Arla Pro UK, said: “We were excited and inspired by the wonderfully creative submissions that we received in the first year of the competition – so much so that we’ve brought it back for 2024. Again; operators will be judged in their own restaurants,

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using ovens and equipment that they’ve crafted to their personal needs – but this year we’re proud to welcome Italian food influencer Elisabetta Basile and Rich Baker from Flat Earth Pizza, our excellent 2023 winner, to our judging panel. They’ll join Arla Pro friend and partner Marco Fuso in the hunt for Britain’s Best Pizza. We can’t wait to kick off the 2024 competition and taste the best pizzas that Britain has to offer!”

Award-winning pizzaiolo Marco Fuso, joined by Elisabetta Basile and Rich Baker, will be visiting the top 3 finalists later in the year to conduct the final round of judging. With many years of experience and expertise under the belts of our esteemed judges, they will be putting their heads together to determine the competition winner.

The panel will be judging each entrant on everything from the taste and texture of their dough and their use of toppings to deliver complementary flavours, through to the businesses sustainability credentials, customer service and overall experience.

Along with the esteemed title of Britain's Best Pizza 2024, the winner will receive a £5,000 cash prize for their business, along with a pizza training masterclass from Marco worth over £2,000.

Arla Pro, the foodservice division of Arla Foods and Europe’s largest dairy company, has created the competition with the goal of celebrating the UK’s best pizza creators. Specialising in dairy products and solutions created in partnership with chefs, including mozzarella and pizza topping cheese available in a range of formats, Arla Pro is proud to supply innovative ingredients to help pizza businesses flourish.

CLICK THIS LINK TO ENTER AND FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE COMPETITION

(1) Sources: VYPR 2023 & Technomic 2023

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