Giuseppe Cutraro (pictured), a Neapolitan native from the Quartieri Spagnoli and owner of Gruppo Peppe—eight locations across Paris and Lyon—has won the 11th Pizza DOC World Championship 2025, the globally recognized competition dedicated to professional pizza-making.
Born in 1988, Cutraro secured the overall title with his winning entry in the Pizza Classica category: a refined yet simple provola e pepe pizza featuring oven-roasted San Marzano tomatoes and finished with a confit tomato.
Reflecting on his journey, Cutraro said, “Pizza changed my life. I travelled the world through pizza, and it’s pizza that shaped me and made me the man I am today. I’m proud to have broken the stereotype of the Neapolitan man from the Quartieri Spagnoli with no destiny and no future — you create your own, you roll up your sleeves. At 18, I was living alone in a basement in New York, dreaming of a day like this. I am a contemporary Neapolitan pizzaiolo; for me, pizza belongs to the people, and it must remain so. But we are in 2025 now, and I’ve chosen to give a modern touch to tradition.”
PODIUM RESULTS AND GLOBAL PARTICIPATION
Behind Cutraro on the overall podium were:
- 2nd place: Vincenzo Abbate, winner of the Pizza Contemporanea category.
- 3rd place: Daniele Gagliotta, winner of Pizza a Ruota di Carro and former 2024 CMPD champion.
- 4th place: Pierre James Quirin from Strasbourg, winner of Pizza Margherita DOC.
This year’s championship broke all previous records: over 1,000 pizzas baked by around 600 competitors, representing Italy’s regions and more than 30 countries, including the USA, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, South Korea, the UK, Sweden, France, Spain, Poland, Tunisia, and many more across Europe and the Americas.
PIZZA DOC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: AN EDITION OF RECORDS
The event, held from 11–13 November at the NEXT – Nuova Esposizione ex Tabacchificio in Capaccio Paestum (Salerno), was organized by the Accademia Nazionale Pizza DOC, led by president Antonio Giaccoli, who emphasized the milestone: “The eleventh edition of the Pizza DOC World Championship is a record-breaking one. We have managed to become the World Pizza Championship with the highest number of competitions globally, held by more than 600 competitors. This achievement immediately becomes a new starting point for all of us. Seeing people participate from 30 foreign countries shows that we are doing things right. The Academy and the Pizza DOC World Championship help promote Made in Italy and the role of the pizzaiolo around the world.”
Key industry partners included Mulino Caputo, Latteria Sorrentina, Solania, Carbone Conserve, Sa.Car Forni, Mecnosud, De Luca Hotellerie, Divise e Divise, Sorì, and more than 70 additional companies showcasing products at the DOC Expo.
THE COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS ACROSS ALL CATEGORIES
•Pizza Classica:
- Giuseppe Cutraro
- (ex aequo) Simone Magliulo, Andrea Mazzucca
- (ex aequo) Alberto Paolino, Gannaro Arrichiello
•Pizza Margherita DOC:
- Qurin Pierre James
- Morelys Carrero
- (ex aequo) Salvatore D’Ambrosio, Cristian Nasti
•Pizza Contemporanea:
- Vincenzo Abbate
- (ex aequo) Andrea Lecca, Giuseppe Pasquale Ciaburri
- (ex aequo) Cosimo Chiodi, Daniele Gagliotta
•Pizza a Ruota di Carro:
- Daniele Gagliotta
- (ex aequo) Pietro Musto, Salvatore Lo Faro
- Espedito Ammirata
•Pizza in Teglia:
- Vincenzo Marco Della Rocca
- Antonio Gargiulo
- Fabio Strazzella
•Pizza in Pala:
- Felice Mellone
- Davide Montalbano
- Paolo Valles
•Pinsa Romana:
- Gianluca Piersanti
- Luigi Ontella
- Gabriele Ferrarese
•Pizza senza Glutine:
- Rosa Anna Citro
- Paolo Valles
- Fabio Cartone
•Pizza Fritta:
- Isabella De Cham
- Giovanni Barbieri
- Mario Dattilo
•Fritti:
- Vito Iuorio
- Ferdinando Gilvetti
- Simone Magliulo
•Pizza Gourmet:
- Giuseppe Cutraro
- Carlo Cardone
- Durman Esquivel Quesada
•Pizza Romana a mattarello (new):
- Vanessa Savi
- Giuseppe Pompamea
- Mattia Di Giavannantonio
•Pizza Parigina (new):
- Fabio Ciano (Cianò Parigine)
•Pizza in Team:
- New Sud (Fabio Strazzella, Alex Muscaritolo, Angelo Buzzacchino, Gabriele Ferrarese)
- Team Las Vegas (Antonio Mazza, Vincent Cavaleri, Cosimo Chiodi, Gianluca Abbate)
- Cilento Pizza (Giuseppe Bonviso, Giuseppe D’Alessandro, Alberto Paolino, Gabriele Passarelli)
- Team Romania (Iannis Antonelakis, Vlad Holicov, Simone Castaldi, Alessandro Cardone)
•Pizza a Due:
- Tamer Mohamed Ali
- Mohamed Moustafa E
- Veronica Matturo
•Brand di Pizzeria:
- Manuè Ristorante Pizzeria (Bergamo)
- Da Zero (Milano)
- (ex aequo) Rossanos, Al Sotto Porzio (Napoli)
•Pizza DOC School:
Winner: Istituto “Ancel Keys”, Castelnuovo Cilento
•Free Style:
- Francesco Valente
- Alex Muscarutolo
- Rodny Lopez
•Pizza più larga:
- Susana Sanchez Cruz
- Walter Di Natale
- Giovanni Lisa
•Pizza più veloce:
- Alfio Cavallaro
- Luigi Pappacena
- Giovanni Lisa
•Trofeo Panuozzo DOC:
- Fabio Strazzella
- Nunzio Mascolo
- Flavio Di Martino
•Trofeo Pizza e Vino (new):
- Cosimo Chiodi
- Francesco Pio Comune
- Michele Friello
•Trofeo Pizza e Drink (new):
- Michele Friello
- Balazs Attila
- Mario Libero
•Pizza DOC Lovers:
- Antonio Castiello
- Alessandro Memoli
- Massimo Esposito
Special Awards:
- Miglior Pizzaiolo Estero 2025: Pierre James Quirin
- Miglior Pizzaiola Doc 2025: Isabella De Cham
- Pizza DOC Special 2025: Giuseppe Cutraro
JURY IMPRESSIONS AND SIDE EVENTS
Over 100 journalists and food bloggers judged the entries. Jury president Antonella Amodio noted: “It was a truly special Championship. There was an atmosphere of enthusiasm and, definitely, a desire to engage, to understand. There was unquestionably an incredible leap in quality.”
LOOKING AHEAD
With his victory at the 2025 Pizza DOC World Championship, Cutraro steps into a new phase of his international career—one defined by global recognition, expanding business ventures, and a renewed mission to reinterpret tradition for contemporary audiences.