Electric ovens, tavern-style pies and other stuff we took in at International Pizza Expo
ingredient importer Manzo Food Sales.
Konn cooked Neapolitan pies in an oven designed by legendary oven maker Stefano Ferrara, who flew to Las Vegas for the event. Ferrara is from a family of Italian builders who have made some of the world’s most cherished woodfired ovens for over a century.
While venerated traditions of pizza making remain respected and celebrated, the International Pizza Expo also showcased a new wave of pizza across various styles developing via a blend of technology, refined techniques and shared knowledge.
“You get to see a lot of amazing new equipment. There’s cutting edge stuff,” says Konn.
Pizza Expo show director Bill Oakley estimates that nearly 15,000 people explored a vast assortment of equipment, ingredients and supplies during the three days of the trade show, which ran March 19-21. It was the largest attendance in the expo’s 40-year history.
“It’s a testament to the vitality of the pizza segment. It’s truly reflective of how popular pizza is and how it just keeps growing,” Oakley says. “People used to say ‘What do you need to know about dough, sauce and cheese?’ Well, it turns out there’s a lot to learn about all of those components.”
Slick new ovens
Pizza’s popularity rose in the United States in the 1950s with the large-scale distribution of inexpensive commercial gas-fueled ovens built in New York and New Jersey.
That technology eliminated the need for heavy, handmade brick ovens burning charcoal or wood and significantly lowered the cost of opening a business specializing in pizza. The expanded playing field in Pittsburgh included Pizza Expo attendees Mineo’s Pizza House in Squirrel Hill (1958) and Danny’s Pizza and Hoagies in Bethel Park (1960).
The 2024 Pizza Expo highlighted the next leap in pizza evolution: the popularity of the electric deck oven. They’re not new, but you’re seeing a lot more of them at various price points and with improved precision control. They dominated the exposition floor in Las Vegas.
“It’s changed how we do everything,” says Badamo, who upgraded to a Polin electric oven when he moved his South Hills pizzeriao Dormont from its original Mt. Lebanon location last year. “You see the future of pizza in these brands.”
These ovens, from an international roster of established companies such as Moretti Forni, proBAKE and Svenska BakePartner (Pizza Master), allow for individual temperature control on top and bottom heating elements. They rebound faster than gas ovens, meaning you can put out more constant pizza on busy nights. They can inject steam or whisk away moisture.
Some even have materials to keep the outsides of the oven cooler, which makes for a better working environment. They also don’t require the significant expense of a gas-venting hood in a restaurant, a helpful break for new businesses.
“You can get so deep into the nuances of baking. If you have different hydrations or you want a specific crumb, you can dial in exactly to what you want,” says Daniele Brenci of Forno Brenci, a Bloomfield Saturday Market staple that currently pops up on weekends at Tina’s.
Brenci was on the convention center’s floor cooking Neapolitanand Roman-style pizzas in a duo of Moretti Forni ovens.
The “Neapolis” is an of-the-moment oven designed to compete with wood-fired ovens to make the best Neapolitan pizza. It can reach nearly 950 degrees in a fraction of the time it would take to heat a similar-sized oven with carbonbased fuel. It’s self-cleaning, and there’s a dough-proofer below the cooking surface.
“You never lose control of an electric oven,” Brenci says. “They consume much less energy, too. If you are at a slow point in the day, you just turn it lower so it uses less.”
Portable oven brands including Ooni, Carbon and Gonzey continue to offer more power, versatility and variety at diverse price points, too. This will continue to fuel the home cooking market, as well as offer budding pizzaioli the opportunity to prepare pies at breweries, events and catering jobs.
Welcome to the tavern
The versatility of electric ovens, combined with the curiosity of pizza makers, is spurring a revival of older styles of pizza and pushing forward some new ones.
One trend to look out for is the tavern-style pizza. The thin, crispy pizza, one of the first styles to become popular in the United States, is on the upswing.
“It’s the next Detroit. You heard that this year and you heard that last year,” says Eddie Stalewski, the multifaceted pizza maker behind Eddie’s Pizza 412 and de facto mayor of Pizza Expo.
Tavern-style, which has historic roots in the Midwest and New Jersey, is easy to customize. Its parbaked crust allows for a sturdier bottom despite its thinness, which means it can be topped in a variety of ways.
Tracy Dykeman, manager of Slice on Broadway, placed second in the Northeast in the Non-Traditional competition with a tavernstyle pizza topped with bacon, fennel, pepper jam, goat cheese and green onions.
“It’s the perfect bar pie. You’re going to see a lot more of them,” Stalewski says.
He says another style that should be on the rise is cast iron pizza (which might end up being more common in home kitchens), spurred on by a nostalgia for old-school Pizza Hut dine-in restaurants.
“Even though they didn’t use cast iron, people are nostalgic about that crusty, crumbly thicker pan crust,” he says.
Canotto, a contemporary spin on Neapolitan, will also be more prevalent in the next few years. It’s typically made with a pre-ferment called biga and a higher-hydration dough than a classic Neapolitan. The crust — often called cornichon in the pizza world — is lighter, fluffier and taller than its forbearer.
Of course, long- established styles, tried, tested and utterly delicious, are here to stay. Many Pizza Expo attendees were there to improve their craft at the classics.
“All that Neapolitan pizza hit home. When we’d bite a sample from someone doing a demo on the floor, it took us back to Italy,” says Francesca Veneziano, co-owner of a new mobile pizza operation called Vitalia Wood Fired Oven.
“Those flavors sparked conversations with Italian suppliers we hope to bring back to Pittsburgh,” says her husband and business partner Emilio Veneziano.
Never settle
“The artisan part of pizza making continues to rise,” says Nick Bogacz, founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House. “Everyone is much more focused on the process of making dough and improving their craft overall.”
Alex Hvizdos and Aimee Hvizdos-Noel run Danny’s Pizza and Hoagies, founded by their uncle, Daniel Rowsick Sr. They’ve attended a few Pizza Expos since taking over the restaurant five years ago, and were there this year aiming to bring the long-standing family business into a new era.
“We decided to ramp up the shop and make some changes,” says Hvizdos-Noel. “A lot of it for us is product.”
She and her brother were at the Pizza Expo to scout flour makers, moving away from the bleached and bromated flour that long dominated the commercial pizza trade. They also looked at new ovens.
“That oven has been there for at least 40 years. It’s kind of a relic in the industry,” she says.
Hvizdos-Noel says a class on working with seasonal ingredients also offered an opportunity to spruce up the Bethel Park pizzeria’s menu.
“What a great opportunity for us, since we have some incredible produce here in Western PA,” she says.
Other notable trends on the floor included better tasting dairy- and meat-free components, more advanced supply chain and point-ofsale technologies, programmable mixers and boxes designed to keep pies in better condition for takeaway and delivery.
All together, more than 50 members of Pittsburgh’s pizza trade came back to the area with a reinvigorated sense of pushing the city’s offerings forward.
“My whole thing is that I want to be the corner shop where people come all day long. It’s approachable and everyone is welcome. But that doesn’t mean you have to serve average pizza. Let’s focus on the dough, the flour, the bake, and let’s all elevate each other,” says Badamo.