The sport of pizza throwing
March 22, 2012 6:01 AM   Subscribe

At the 2012 International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, several freestyle pizza dough throwers competed in the World Pizza Games including Japanese Kazuya Akaogi who took home the Gold Medal in Freestyle Acrobatics.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (11 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Because nothing says, "Mmm mmm that's some good eatin' 'za!" like having an Adidas lacing imprint embedded in the bottom of the crust!
posted by Mike D at 6:44 AM on March 22, 2012


Evidently first place takes home $1,000--a nice chunk of dough.
posted by dsword at 6:48 AM on March 22, 2012


HERMAN KANE REFERENCE!
posted by wheelieman at 7:14 AM on March 22, 2012


I'm sorta curious if they have a disclaimer like Seaworld had for the splash zone.
"Occupants of first few rows may get doughed."

All in all, impressive and interesting to watch.
posted by graxe at 7:27 AM on March 22, 2012


If these are the best pizza throwers in the world and they frequently drop the crust dough on the floor, what chance do I have of getting a non-dropped pizza from the local joint?
posted by aught at 7:31 AM on March 22, 2012 [1 favorite]



If these are the best pizza throwers in the world and they frequently drop the crust dough on the floor, what chance do I have of getting a non-dropped pizza from the local joint?

Well considering the local joint is most likely not trying to spin the dough between the legs and over the shoulder... you probably have decent odds of a non-floor pizza. Most pizza places that I've seen that actually toss the dough (as opposed to simply rolling it out) do so pretty publicly so if it falls, it falls in plain sight and more than likely actually just falls back onto the counter.


The videos are pretty impressive, but tbh I've a hard time thinking of it as food prep or anything to do with actual food at all. They could be flinging play-dough around for all it matters.
posted by edgeways at 7:44 AM on March 22, 2012


aught: "If these are the best pizza throwers in the world and they frequently drop the crust dough on the floor, what chance do I have of getting a non-dropped pizza from the local joint?"

I spent three years working for Domino's in the mid-90's, (back when they still hand-tossed pie, and one of the requirements of being a manager then was the ability to make a hand-tossed large pepperoni pizza in under a minute from tray to oven)

I never dropped a pie, and I never saw a dropped pie get picked up and used. The floors near the docking station were usually awash in dirty cornmeal, it'd be very difficult to hide a dropped pie. (the cornmeal got everywhere - during friday and saturday rush times, it would drift like snow underfoot)

So yeah, at least in the mid-90s in one dominos franchise in western PA, your chances of a dropped pie were pretty much nil.

(that being said, employees would eat anything, so we occassionally would "drop" a pie, if you know what I mean)

on preview: as edgeways says, we hand-tossed right at the front of the store, in plain sight of the walk-in customers, further rendering floorpie unlikely.
posted by namewithoutwords at 7:46 AM on March 22, 2012


A couple of odd facts related to this story:

1. The International Pizza Expo is sponsored by Pizza Today magazine, which calls itself "the most powerful marketing tool in the pizza industry!" Take that, word of mouth!

2. Apparently, one of our local pizza chains became the first American pizza to ever win the “Best Traditional Pizza” in the world at this expo. Which is surprising because they aren't even the best local pizza in our small area, never mind the larger region/state/country/etc.

3. If you still haven't quelled your pizza jones, Buzzfeed has a collection of 11 "special instructions" for pizza delivery, with photo evidence of the instructions being carried out. Think "cut pizza into concentric circles," not "tell pizza dude the door is unlocked and the pizza should be brought to the back bedroom."

...and that completes my contribution to this thread.
posted by mosk at 9:14 AM on March 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


When I was learning to toss pizza dough, I would frequently drop it, but it would land on the counter that I was standing at, because unlike that guy I was standing in front of a counter.
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:15 AM on March 22, 2012


Buzzfeed has a collection of 11 "special instructions" for pizza delivery, with photo evidence of the instructions being carried out.

I spent a couple of years working in a Pizza Hut bake shop (more like baked shop amirite). The only odd request we'd get now and again was 'stop on the way and grab smokes plz' which the guys would generally do.
posted by jquinby at 11:46 AM on March 22, 2012


Oh God mosk, that takes me back to highschool. I was the first front-counter male employee at a local pizza shop (previously dudes cooked, girls talked to customers). The boss thought I was 'a natural' so I would get to read Pizza Today and Nation's Restaurant News on my breaks if I wanted (?). Just seeing that big Stanislaus add brings back waves of memories...
posted by pupdog at 4:56 PM on March 22, 2012


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