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8/28/2007 | Testimonial: John Gutekanst, Avalanche Pizza,
Athens
,
Ohio
Winner, Pizza Pizzazz Gourmet Category
Prize: $5,000
Winning this year was a sort of redemption for me because my performance in the last couple of years was horrible—and I’m not exaggerating. The first time I came, I wasn’t prepared. I forgot to bring my own pan, so I borrowed a pan that didn’t work. The dough stuck to it, so I had to make another one. The judges had to wait on me, so as you could imagine, I got a really low score—I finished last.
So I went back thinking, “I’m not going to lose like that. I’m going to make the best pizza I can.” As it turned out this year, it came out really nicely and we won the gourmet category with the Cactus Jack Fajita Pizza, a thin-crust pizza. We use sliced rib-eye steak, mushrooms, red onions, green pepper and a proprietary blend of southwest seasoning.
The win has been a huge boost for our business. NAPICS sent out some really good press releases and followed up on them. I have a press release template I got off the Internet and I sent that, too. We really worked the PR side of it and got several newspaper articles.
We market the fact that we’ve won (Pizza Pizzazz) twice; I do it with every breath I take. It’s on our uniforms and we talk about it a lot. It promotes a sense of pride among our staff and in our town. The credibility that comes with that is phenomenal.
I hear (pizza operators) say they don’t want to get into contests or don’t’ have time … that’s amazing to me. If you don’t enter a contest like this, you’ll never win, and if you never win, you’ll never get the PR that comes with it. I’m telling you, it’s the best PR you can get in this business. I don’t see why this contest doesn’t sell out in two days.
The contest was better than ever this year, and people were really into it like I’d never seen. (In 2007, Pizza Pizzazz’s two top prizes were increased to $5,000 each, an award unmatched in the pizza industry.) I saw more chefs—not just pizza guys—than I’d ever seen. It’s still fun, but it’s really serious business now, which you can see by the kind of people it draws.
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