An Elkhart woman shakes up the competition at the International Pizza Expo.
18-year-old Carmilla Cataldo was the youngest competitor inside the Las Vegas Convention Center on August 17, where the 2021 International Pizza Expo was taking place.
A title she is not unfamiliar with. Carmilla won first place at the 2020 Mid-American Restaurant Expo as a 17-year-old, bringing home “The Best Pizza in the Midwest”.
Carmilla is the daughter of Antonio’s Italian Ristorante owner, Paul Cataldo, who himself is a world-champion pizza maker.
This year, Carmilla was one of 85 competitors inside her division.
Her “Calabrese” pizza consisted of a 72-hour cold fermentation dough, homemade Pomodoro sauce, homemade sausage along with homemade hot honey sausage, charred bell peppers, cup and char pepperoni, Calabrese hot peppers with hot honey drizzle.
That combination would be good enough to claim the title as First Place winner of the Mid-West Region. Carmilla missed the top World Champion spot by fractions of a point.
While in Las Vegas, Carmilla also placed 4th in the world in the pizza box folding during the World Pizza Games.
