The Pizza Tomorrow Summit Pavilion and the US Pizza Team Come to Anaheim

There is a specific sound that tells you a pizza competition has started on a trade show floor - the flat slap of an 18-ounce dough ball hitting a bench, then a rhythm, then a crowd forming three deep because somebody has decided to stretch it wider than anyone else in the room. For three days in August, that sound belongs to the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Pizza Tomorrow Summit Pavilion returns to the California Restaurant Show for its third consecutive year, Aug. 23-25, 2026, at 800 W. Katella Ave. Show floor hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday and Monday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday. Inside the pavilion sits the REAL California Pizza Challenge, hosted by PMQ’s U.S. Pizza Team - eight competitions over three days, four of them culinary and four of them athletic.

From Orlando to Anaheim

The Pizza Tomorrow Summit was launched in 2021 by Grand Slam Events, LLC, a partnership between Doug Miller and Glenn Celentano, two trade show veterans with nearly 60 years of combined experience in the business. The inaugural summit debuted Nov. 9-10, 2022, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, chosen as a convenient and cost-effective home base for the East Coast and Southern pizza industry.

PMQ Pizza Magazine came on as an official sponsor from the start, providing what organizers described as insight and guidance on educational programming and pizza competitions, helping fine-tune topics and event content.

It grew quickly. The 2024 summit drew more than 4,500 industry professionals to the exhibit hall. The 2025 edition ran Nov. 11-13 at the Orange County Convention Center’s West Hall B, co-located with the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show.

The Anaheim pavilion is the West Coast expression of that model - the summit’s programming logic transplanted into a general restaurant show, aimed at operators who are not going to fly to Orlando in November.

A team with a passport

The U.S. Pizza Team was established in 2000 in collaboration with PMQ Pizza Magazine. It describes itself as a group of expert pizzaioli and pizza acrobats who compete in national and international competitions, and its stated purpose is to promote camaraderie through sportsmanship and teamwork.

The international calendar is the point. Team members compete at the Campionato Mondiale della Pizza in Parma, at Pizza Senza Frontiere in Rimini, and at the Galbani Cup. At the 2025 World Pizza Championship in Parma, 11 independent American pizza makers competed and cracked the top 100 in every category they entered.

The individual results are worth reading. Chef Vitangelo Recchia of Bella Napoli Pizzeria & Restaurant in Florida placed 11th in Pizza in Teglia - Roman-style pan pizza - out of 113 competitors. David Sommers of Mad Mushroom took ninth in Largest Dough Stretch, 21st in Fastest Pizza Maker and 33rd in Pizza Classica. Patt Miller of Pizza Patt’s Slice House + Café + Creamery in Ohio finished in the top 50 in Pizza Classica and competed in dough acrobatics. Giovanni Labbate, Tore Trupiano and Sean Dempsey also made the trip.

For an independent operator, that is an unusual career ladder: a competition on a convention floor in Anaheim can end with a flight to Parma.

Eight events over three days

The California Pizza Challenge is sponsored by REAL California Milk, which also assists competitors with cheese sourcing. The 2026 schedule runs across all three show days, with a competitor meet and greet the night before on Saturday, Aug. 22.

Sunday, Aug. 23: Gluten-Free, the REAL California 3-Cheese Challenge, Largest Dough Stretch, Fastest Box Folder.

Monday, Aug. 24: Non-Traditional, Fastest Pie Maker, Freestyle Acrobatics.

Tuesday, Aug. 25: Pizza in the Pan.

The culinary rules are specific in the way competition rules always are. Non-Traditional entries must be round, 14 to 16 inches, cut into at least six pieces, and must include California cheese; the winner takes the grand prize, a trip to compete at an international competition in 2027. Pizza in the Pan accepts any pan style - Detroit, Sicilian and the rest - with a minimum six-piece yield, a 30-minute prep window and no pre-baked components. Gluten-Free requires certified ingredients and cross-contamination protocols. The 3-Cheese Challenge requires exactly three California cheeses and a submitted recipe.

Registration is open through the U.S. Pizza Team site.

The athletic side

The four Pizza Athletic categories are, in the show’s own framing, events demonstrating the dexterity and agility needed in the kitchen. They are also the reason a crowd forms.

Largest Dough Stretch gives competitors a five-minute window and an 18-ounce dough ball. Fastest Pie Maker runs five 10-ounce doughs onto screens against the clock. Fastest Box Folder is five 14-inch boxes, folded for time. Freestyle Acrobatics is the spinning discipline, and its winner earns flight and room to Orlando for the Oct. 25-27, 2026 dates.

USPT athletics coach David Sommers makes the operational case for all of it, describing competitions that showcase “strength, timing, control and efficiency” and arguing that the training “sharpens rush-ready mechanics.” Operators who invest in it report better morale, better retention and a steady supply of social content - a pizza athlete on staff is a marketing channel that shows up for a shift.

The sport also has a clean on-ramp. Nicholas Harper of Peace of Pie on Hartwell went from an intimidated newcomer at a 2022 event in Parma to a repeat winner in Largest Dough and Fastest Pie Maker.

Last year’s champions

The most recent California Pizza Challenge produced a full board of winners, which gives a good sense of what the Anaheim floor looks like in motion.

Juan Robles of Triple Beam Pizza in Los Angeles took Grand Champion, winning Pizza in the Pan and the Secret Basket Face-Off, and went on to represent the U.S. at the World Pizza Championship. His summary of the win was appropriately unglamorous: “Honestly, it’s all about the dough.”

Griffin Baker of Secret Pizza LA won Traditional, ahead of Rico Lunardi of Slice on Broadway and Chris Battiste of Mia Ava East Coast Pizza. Roberto Ramirez of Yeah Buddy Pizza swept the speed events, taking Fastest Box Folder and Fastest Pie Maker and earning induction into the USPT Pizza Athletic Division. Nicholas Harper won Largest Dough Stretch. Sean Dempsey of Dempsey’s Brewery Pub & Restaurant won the 3-Cheese Challenge, and Mike Pitera of Pizza a Modo Mio won Best Traditional Sauce.

The Young Pizza Maker category, for ages 14 to 17, went to Arabella Justice of Pizza a Modo Mio, whose advice to future competitors was the best line of the weekend: “Honestly, just go for it. You never know what could come out of it.”

Supporting sponsors included REAL California Milk, Marra Forni, MFG, Grain Craft and Gi.Metal.

What a pavilion adds

A dedicated pizza pavilion does two things for a general restaurant show. It gives pizzeria operators - a category with its own equipment, its own flour suppliers and its own margin math - a reason to walk a floor that also serves fine dining and institutional foodservice. And it gives every other attendee something to watch.

That second function is underrated. Trade show floors are quiet by default. A live competition creates gravity, and gravity moves people down aisles they had not planned to walk. The pavilion sits inside a broader 2026 show that includes the Culinary Innovation Theater, a Japan Pavilion from the Japanese Food Culture Association, a dedicated Latino Restaurant Association presence and more than 40 hours of complimentary education.

For three days in Anaheim, the loudest corner of it will be the one with the flour on the floor.

Sources

• California Restaurant Show - official site
• California Restaurant Show - Competitions
• U.S. Pizza Team - 2026 California Pizza Challenge
• United States Pizza Team - official site
• U.S. Pizza Team - Dough in Motion
• U.S. Pizza Team - California Dream Pies: Crowning New Champions at the CPC
• PMQ: Pizza Tomorrow Summit Pavilion Returns to California Restaurant Show in August
• PMQ: Pizza Tomorrow Summit to Make ‘Grand Slam’ Debut
• PMQ: More Than 4,500 Industry Pros Swarm the Exhibit Hall at 2024 Pizza Tomorrow Summit
• PMQ: U.S. Pizza Team Shines on Global Stage at the World Pizza Championship in Parma
• PMQ: L.A. Pizzaiolo Comes Out on Top in the Hotly Contested California Pizza Challenge

Research verified August 8, 2026. Schedules, exhibitors, speakers, prices and access details may change; confirm current information with the organizer before attending.