The Big Show: Tony Reflects On Thirty Years Of Pizza Expo

by Joe Bonadio

If you’ve never been to Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, the biggest pizza industry trade show in the world, there are a couple things to know. First: this event is much, much bigger than you are imagining. I visited for the first time in 2019, and was absolutely gobsmacked by the entire thing. It’s simply massive. The unbelievable profusion of pizza-contiguous products being hawked, the buzzing throngs of people jockeying for position at the continuous pizza demos, the endless variety of pizza being served left and right—Pizza Expo is unlike any trade show or food event you’ve ever been to.

Second: you really should go. For three days, Las Vegas becomes the literal center of the pizza universe. The competitions draw hundreds of the best pizza makers in the world, and everyone that is anyone in the pizza industry is there. It’s a fascinating look at a side of the business that most people never see—and frankly, it’s a blast.

Tony Gemignani has been attending and participating in Pizza Expo religiously for over three decades. Tony first attended as a lark on a random trip to Vegas with his brother as a 20 year old, and since then it’s safe to say the pizza maker has become a fixture at the event. Whether in the role of competitor, pizza acrobat, presenter, judge, operator or author, Tony has long been a formidable force at Pizza Expo. I caught up with him just after his return from the event last week, and lightly edited, our conversation is below.

Joe Bonadio: Hey Tony, Welcome back from Vegas.

Tony Gemignani (TG): Thank you.

Joe: How many people from your group competed at Pizza Expo this year?

TG: Well, this year we had Natale, Rebecca, Oscar and Adam competing. And then you have some competitors now coming from Slice Houses and things like that. So now you have the Tony’s and Capo’s side, and then you have the franchise side. Natale (Cardamone, Tony’s General Manager) was new to competing this year, and he did really good. All of them did really well.

Joe: Wow, I didn’t know Natale was going to compete.

TG: Yeah, he wanted to compete last year, but he didn’t. But he got there this year for the first time, and he did really well. You know, it’s hard. It always was, but now there’s almost 800 competitors. There might be as many as 80 or 100 in just one category now. It’s gone way up, from like 20, 30, 50. The number keeps going up every year, so it’s harder and harder to win now. Rebecca (Scaramuzzino, Tony’s Manager) got sixth place, and she was barely a quarter of a point from going to the finals.

Joe: Yes, I saw her just afterwards.

TG: You know, what was interesting was, the people that weren’t first that qualified weren’t the ones who actually won. So she could have had a very good shot if she made it to the finals, because it’s just a different thing.

Joe: Well, it’s a lot less people competing.

TG: It’s a lot less people, and then it’s probably one set of judges.

Joe: So at first it’s like a hundred people you’re up against, and then you get down to the finals.

TG: Yeah, so your dough is different; you’ve got to have one extra day of dough. Some people didn’t do as well as others, so it was interesting to see that.

Joe: How many people are you competing with in finals?

TG: Five. The top five—and Rebecca was sixth.

Joe: That’s a completely different ball game.

TG: Did you see that Adam got Best Grandma?

Joe: I saw that, that’s pretty cool.

TG: Yeah, it is. So whoever competed, they would put certain guys in subcategories. So there would be like Sicilian, Grandma, Detroit. Adam got Best Grandma, and the guys he beat out were really good. I believe it was John Gristina from New York, and when I saw who got second and third place, they’re solid guys. So that was cool.

Joe: Sounds like a hard win for him.

TG: Yeah it was just a busy subcategory—I don’t know how many grandmas there were. Maybe a dozen or more, so it was good. His pizza was solid. You know, everybody’s pizza was solid.

Joe: What was this, Adam’s third or fourth year competing?

TG: Maybe fourth or fifth.

Joe: Okay, that’s what I thought.

TG: So yeah, it was good. Every year is different. You know, we may come back next year and Adam gets last or Rebecca gets last, or first. I mean, it really depends on not just how well you do, but who your judges are—and if they get what it is you’re doing. You could do the best pizza you could ever do, and still not score well.

Joe: It’s also who you’re competing against.

TG: True. But everybody in competition, everyone is really good. Unless they’re there for the first time, and nobody knows who you are. But all the people there are solid pizza makers. And like I said, there’s almost 800 people competing, and in specific categories like pan division, traditional, non-traditional—the numbers in those divisions are probably 80 to 100 now.

Joe: That’s insane…

TG: It’s tough. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Joe: So you took me to Pizza Expo for the first time in 2019. Just before COVID.

TG: Right before COVID you went? Wow.

Joe: And I remember just being amazed by the scale of the whole thing. But so much has changed since then, in the pizza business generally, and for you. How much has Pizza Expo changed?

TG: One, the Expo has changed with the different categories like gluten-free and vegan options. Also, social media is a big factor. And the competition’s gotten bigger, and of course there’s always new equipment and stuff. It’s always evolving, just like the industry is always evolving.

I’ve gotten busier. This was my busiest year, I had a crazy schedule this year. I also had a schedule after the Expo was over, a paid demo which I’ve never done. Nobody was in the convention center but my people for the demo, so that was interesting.

Joe: Your profile is a lot higher now.

TG: But you know, I can decide to say yes or no. I just had a few sponsors that wanted me at their booths this year and stuff and it was just like crazy. Even Julie was like….shit. You know, we were starting early, like 4:30 a.m., and going to like 11 p.m. every day. And then there was the John Arena Foundation event that I cooked at, which was actually great. We did a fundraiser, and we also cooked at the Ruvo Center. We actually made pizzas with Parkinson’s patients. We did that on the first day at the Pizza Rock party.

Joe: What was that like?

TG: It was really nice, because you saw mother and daughter, father and son, husband and wife married for 40 years. This one couple, his name was Tony, and he had Parkinson’s. She was there with him. That was my team: they made pizzas together. She was Sicilian, and she talked about her Sicilian family. And he would just agree with her. They were a very cute couple. They each made a pizza, and it was really nice.

Everybody from World Pizza Champions was there: Leah, Laura, Anthony D’Souza, Smokevich. Ken Bryant, and I think Adam was there. Of course John Arena was there, and he led the seminar that we did. We all teamed up and made pizzas. There were probably 10 or 12 team members that came out to the Ruvo Center. They did exercises to get their hands going, and then they pushed out dough and kind of had fun. They were able to bring a pizza back home with them, too.

Joe: That’s cool.

TG: Yeah, it was cool. It was very touching. It was just nice to see different people. A couple of days later we did another event at Good Pie, a fundraiser. We donated I think just over $30,000 to the Ruvo Center on the last day of Pizza Expo. We also did a Make-A-Wish check as well that was nearly $25,000. So I think we gave away just over $50,000 to the two charities, John Arena Foundation and Make-A-Wish Foundation. So I was just all the way from the beginning to the end, before the beginning to the end actually. The Pizza Rock party was insane. That was Monday night.

Joe: Is this the biggest event you’ve done?

TG: It was the busiest one I’ve done, yeah. It was busy. I tracked it by paid attendees, people who were in my paid seminar. It did well, and all the free seminars were sold out. Matt Molina came…

Joe: I saw that!

TG: We did a cast iron together. I did a grandma Detroit cast iron demo, and brought him. We talked about him winning, I don’t know how many years ago….eight, ten years ago.

Joe: He didn’t compete?

TG: No, he’s not allowed to compete: he won Best Of The Best. Yeah, he always reminds me that we’re on the same trophy together.

Joe: I’m sure he does. So let me ask you this. One of the things that would probably surprise people who haven’t been to Expo is how much innovation you see. Did you see anything that surprised you this year?

TG: You know, I barely walked the show, which sucks. My last day was the only day I could walk the show, but I just got bombarded with stuff, so I didn’t see much. I was at the show before anybody, and left after everyone was gone, and I barely saw anything. Isn’t that crazy?

Joe: You saw a bunch of people looking at you.

TG: I did. I sold out of books, so everything was good there. We picked our new members for the World Pizza Champions too. There were eight or nine new members chosen to become members of the WPC. Yeah, I really didn’t have a chance to see much. But I saw Grande, Stanislaus, Hormel, Marra Forney. Pizza Master, Caputo, I saw all my guys. Oh yeah, one thing I did see! I saw a pan in the shape of a baseball home plate. I’m getting it sent to me, and I’m going to present it to the Giants. And say: would you like to do a limited edition per game, maybe 10 or 12. Or maybe after a player’s number. And we do a pan pizza that’s in that shape. I haven’t got the pan yet, it’s being made. They’re sending it to me.

Joe: Coming soon!

TG: Yeah, I thought it was cool. It’s kind of creative, and I’ve never seen it at a baseball game or anything.

Joe: And you make a hell of a lot of pizzas over there.

TG: Yeah. Those guys are going to love to pushing those out! I actually don’t know how to do it yet.

Joe: Well, you’ll figure it out.

TG: Yeah, I’m just thinking about that, and it’s going to be weird. But yeah, overall, this Expo was a successful one. They’re all different. But it’s like you’re going through a marathon, and my body was beat up. I do cryotherapy.

Joe: I saw that on social. I’m like, what the f**k is this? They’ve got you doing everything now.

TG: Well, I was reading about I believe Steph Curry doing cryotherapy, and I was hearing that a lot of athletes do cryotherapy. And when I went to Dallas, to a retreat for the WPC, we did the cold plunge. And I was like….it was crazy. I’ve always wanted to do cryotherapy, and I figured if I can do the cold plunge, I can do that. So when I got back, I checked out this place called Arctic Restore. I walk early in the morning, at like 5 a.m., and I’d go by this Arctic Restore place, and I’d think You’ve got to do it. So I went in there and met Jessie, and I knew her. I said Hey, you got Best of the Bay Area. I saw you at the award ceremony, and I put two and two together. You’re down the street from my house! I can’t believe this is here.

So she told me about everything. She told me it’ll be great for your body. It’ll recover, and your knees will be better. And I told her, I get pretty beat up. So I do four treatments there, and one of them is cryotherapy. Another one is these giant boots that you go into, Nordic compression boots, red light treatment, and sauna. So I do these four things, and I feel pretty good after. I keep going back, and I made sure I scheduled a session before I went to Expo, and one when I got back, which was yesterday. And everyone’s saying, How do you have all this energy on the floor? How do you do it? Because they see me day after day and one guy asked me how many demos I did. And it was like seven or eight. And a few people were just like, I don’t know how you’re doing it. And I think that helped me a little bit.

Joe: Well, you’ve always had a lot of energy.

TG: Yeah, but now I’m 52. I’m not like 32 or 42 anymore.

Joe: Tell me about it! (Laughter)

TG: You know, it’s been 30 something years that I’ve been going to Expo. I mean, my feet are shot when I’m there. I’ve been going since I was 20 years old. I’m 52.

Joe: Wow. That’s insane.

TG: Yeah, I’ve been going for 32 or 33 years now. And you know, 30 years ago it didn’t beat me up like it does now. So now I have to not only mentally prepare for it—you know, get your schedule down, get everything ready. But my body also has to be ready for it.

So I was trying to work out, and just trying to prepare. Yeah, it sounds funny, but at a certain point you’re like, I’m just a freaking mess. Everybody was. I asked Oscar, how did you feel? He told me he could barely recover. I talked to Nick Bogatz, and I don’t know what he did, an IV treatment I think? And not because he’s a drinker, he’s not. He did it because he was just that beat up. You’re just beat up after an event like that.

Joe: Thanks again, Tony.