Italy may have scored a controversial win against Australia in the 2006 football World Cup, but revenge is a dish best served straight from a wood-fired oven, as Melbourne pizzaiolo wins title

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

It’s official: the world’s best margherita pizza comes not from Naples or Rome, but the northern suburbs of Melbourne.



Johnny Di Francesco, owner of 400 Gradi in Brunswick, took out the top prize at the Campionato Mondiale della Pizza (or Pizza World Championship) in the Italian city of Parma on Friday.

Di Francesco, who has been making pizzas since he was a young child, won the specialita traditionale garantita for his margherita pizza. Under the rules of the competition, a margherita pizza must be under 35cm in diameter, cooked in a wood-fired oven and contain only certain ingredients, such as peeled tomatoes, cheese, garlic, olive oil and salt.

The world championships attracted 600 entrants from 35 countries, including six from Australia.

Di Francesco, who revels in the nickname “Mr Pizza”, is something of a standard bearer for Australian-made pizza – he has previously represented the country at the Pizza Olympics in Las Vegas.

He told Guardian Australia that the competition was very tough.

“I was happy to get into the top five, so to end up number one is a fantastic achievement for me and also for Australia,” he said. “It lets the rest of the world know we do produce quality product here in Australia.”

Di Francesco said his secret was Italian-imported flour, high-quality buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil.

“People underestimate the margherita,” he said. “They think it’s the easiest pizzas to make, but it’s one of the hardest. Because it has so few ingredients, you can taste the quality of the dough used. With other pizzas, you can mask that with toppings.”