At the Mainardi Food & APN Pizza Cup held in Pag on September 18th, with around twenty competitors from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, Poland, and even the Philippines, local pizzaioli secured podium positions in both competition categories.
Pizza Napoletana STG
In the highly demanding and strictly regulated Pizza Napoletana STG category, third place was taken by Igor Paunović from the Belgrade pizzeria Majstor & Margarita, which has been listed for years in the 50 Top Pizza Europe guide.
Second place was won by Dion Doli from Porta Salina Pag.
First place went to Bojan Merdzanovski from the pizzeria Bell Ciao in Vir.
Pizza Classica
In the creative Pizza Classica category, where pizzaioli presented their own original pizza creations, third place was taken by Karlo Žanić from Brick’n’Bite in Bestovje.
Second place was won by the young Polish pizzaiolo based in Pag, Maciej Gadomski from D10’s Pizza Fantasista, with his recently introduced pizza Messi’s 30.
First place went to Bartul Bašić from Murter with his pizza APNP — A Pag on a Pizza — using authentic ingredients found on the island.
Why This Matters
The judging panel included the president of the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, the 2024 world champion in pizza contemporanea Pasquale Poerio, and Croatian Trofeo Caputo winner Alen Radanović — which makes the success of Pag’s pizzaioli even more significant.
Organizers added that both Dion and Maciej qualified for the Trofeo Caputo in Naples with their placements and will represent Croatia next year.
They also noted that this experience will only raise the level of pizza on Pag even further in the future.
