Purezza, the UK’s first vegan pizzeria, were ​emphatic​ winners at the World Pizza Championships 2019, held in Parma, Italy. Purezza is the first vegan pizzeria to compete in the competition, and also the first vegan pizzeria to win.

The Campionato Mondiale Della Pizza, or World Pizza Championship, has been running since 1991, and now attracts over 6,500 independent pizzerias from across the globe.

Purezza, which has restaurants in Brighton and London and is in the process of opening a vegan mozzarella factory, took part in the Pizza Classica category.

Pizza Classica is for traditional Italian style pizzas, baked with wood fired ovens and similar to those found in Naples. Competitors have up to 12 minutes to prepare and cook their pizzas using pre-selected ingredients, before presenting it to the judges. The judges proceeded to select a small number of winners.

Purezza’s entry was titled The Promised Land. It uses BrewDog Punk IPA-infused whole grain pizza dough, topped with stir-fried cavolo nero, Italian-style marinated tempeh, pioppini mushrooms, and a borlotti bean sauce.

It uses two different cheeses–Purezza’s own signature vegan cheese, dubbed Mozzarella 2.0, which acts and tastes just like dairy mozzarella but is allergen-free and contains half the fat, and a fermented cashew cheese with sun-dried cruschi peppers. The pizza was finished with a garnish of ginger puree, agave syrup, and a vegan caviar.

Purezza’s head chef, Filippo Rosato, who cooked for the judges said “The Campionato Mondiale Della Pizza is the gold standard of awards for pizzerias and pizza chefs around the world. It’s the competition that every pizzaiolo aspires to compete in. To even be there as the first vegan pizzeria was an incredible experience, but to have come away with one of the awards for the Pizza Classica category is more than I could ever have hoped for and shows that vegan pizza isn’t just possible–it’s the future.”

This award joins several others that Purezza won in 2018, including the National Pizza of the Year in the UK, where Purezza beat 15 of the UK’s best pizzerias with their Parmigiana Party pizza, and also the PizzAward 2018 in Naples for the Best International Pizza.