A small bakery in Ontario, Canada, that only started making pizza two years ago just beat a chef trained by a 13-time world pizza champion by one-hundredth of a point. The catch? Neither of them was allowed to use a single topping. Sept. 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day, and the plainest pie on the menu is turning out to be the hardest one to get right.
The International Pizza Challenge at Pizza Expo 2026 drew 730 competitors across eight divisions in Las Vegas. Most divisions let competitors load up their pizzas however they want. The World’s Best Cheese Slice division is a different story.
Why A Plain Cheese Pizza Is So Hard To Get Right
Competitors get 30 minutes to assemble, bake and present. Preliminary rounds are judged blind. The only ingredients allowed are dough, traditional red tomato sauce, cheese or a cheese blend and spices. Par-baking is permitted on-site under official supervision.
Once the pizza is in the oven, the only finishing touches allowed are an olive oil drizzle, grated cheese or dry or fresh herbs and spices. That’s it. No toppings, no additions, no fixes. Every flaw in the dough, every shortcut in the sauce and every misjudged oven temperature shows up on the plate with nothing to cover it.
What The Numbers Say
The competition’s stripped-down format is arriving at an interesting cultural moment. The share of Americans who include a limited number of ingredients in their definition of healthy food rose from 9% in 2022 to 16% in 2026. The share who included minimal or no processing in that definition rose from 20% to 26% over the same period.
The Specialty Food Association’s Trendspotter Panel reported a greater focus on ingredient transparency and simplicity at the 2026 Summer Fancy Food Show in June. Fewer ingredients, done well, is having a moment.
Who Won and How Close It Got
Kevin Moreira of Boa Bakery in Binbrook, Ontario, took the 2026 title with a score of 45.42. Boa Bakery only added pizza to its menu about two years ago, and Moreira also won the Daiya Dairy-Free division at the same competition, both times using a version of the pizza the bakery serves every Friday.
One-hundredth of a point behind him was Tony Scardino of Professor Pizza in Chicago. Scardino trained under 13-time World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani at the International School of Pizza in San Francisco. Third place went to Gennaro Buontempo of Frank’s Pizza & Pasta in Baltimore at 44.34.
The regional breakdown spanned all five U.S. competitive regions, with cheese slice champions from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, to Conway, South Carolina, to Los Gatos, California. The division debuted in 2024, when Andy Huynh of Cowabunga+ in Hamilton, Ontario, took the inaugural title. In 2025, Chris Ostapenko of Slice on Broadway in Pittsburgh won it. Three different winners from three different operations in three years, with regional subdivisions now recognizing top finishers across the Midwest, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest.
When the ingredient list is that short, every decision in the dough, the sauce and the oven carries. Sept. 5 is a good excuse to find out if your favorite cheese pizza is actually as good as you think it is.