The world's biggest pizza festival in Naples! - BBC Travel Show

Dash Of Delish
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3 Video Views·Oct 27, 2022
This is Napoli Pizza Village, the world's biggest open-air pizzeria,
stretching for more than a kilometre along the coastline of Naples.
It's an annual festival dedicated to all things dough.
So I'm about to do a masterclass with some of the best pizza makers in the whole of Naples.
Little bit apprehensive.
To be a true Neapolitan pizza, the dough needs to be prepared in a special way,
and here at the festival, tourists can give it a go.
It's really quite tricky.
There's not much of a spin.
Now that I fully appreciate exactly what it takes to make a proper Neapolitan margarita,
I'm told that tomorrow I can join the judging panel of the Caputo Cup,
the Pizza World Championships.
Pizza chefs from all over the world have travelled here
and are nervously waiting to cook for the judges.
This is the big competition, who has the best margarita pizza.
I've got my secret voting sheet here, it's all of you taking it very seriously.
This is my voting form, from the name of the chef,
my name and the different categories of marks that I can give each pizza.
500 is the best and 10 is the worst.
My fellow judge Mario shows me how to inspect all aspects of the slice
to check the crust is bouncy and that I can taste all the distinct ingredients.
There are nine categories of pizza to judge and it's a gruelling pace.
OK, quickly, quickly.
I'm having to speed eat because I'm being too slow with my marking.
Some of the judges have been here tasting for hours,
they're only swapped out when they're too full to continue.
Some of slice number seven, Mario has had over 40 slices, still going strong.
I've been here for just over three hours
and there are so many people queued up outside waiting to cook for us.
When will it end?
We've had 38 slices of pizza
and I've just seen that they've started to clear up the tables,
so I think the end might actually be in sight.
Then we get word that the final pizza is being sliced.
Number 52 is the last one.
It's a really unusual flavour, sort of mustardy.
I quite like it though.
Go out with a bang.
While the votes are being counted, the award for pizza acrobatics is judged.
It's seriously skillful.
The award ceremony goes on into the night and there are winners from across the globe.
The organisers here hope to take the Napoli Pizza Village festival
to cities like London and New York
and spread the message around the world that Neapolitan pizza isn't just food,
it's a way of life.
