PRESTON is the new home of Australia’s best pizza.

Preston pizza maker Silvio Serpa arrived home last month after being crowned Australia’s top pizza maker at the annual Campionato Mondiale Della Pizza (Pizza World Championship) in Parma, Italy.

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Mr Serpa won the award for the margherita pizza he has made five days a week at his Wood St pizzeria, Pizzaly, since November, 2014.

media_camera A margherita going into the Pizzaly woodfired oven.

Mr Serpa, who doesn’t speak English, last week spoke to Leader through his wife and business partner Anna Di Perna, who said the honour came as no surprise to him.

“He’s confident that his product is good, so he wasn’t surprised that he was given the award,” Ms Di Perna said as her husband gave a modest shrug.

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Ms Di Perna said punters who were after a pizza piled high with toppings — including the most sacrilegious ingredient, processed ham — would be in for a surprise at Pizzaly.

Mr Serpa last month flew his own ingredients from Preston to Parma to take part in the same championships that launched the popularity of Brunswick eatery 400 Gradi in 2014.

“It’s about quality, it’s what you put on the pizza,” Mr Serpa said.

“Fresh ingredients, a good pizza dough and a balanced topping — you need to taste the flavours, not the whole world on top of a pizza.”

Mr Serpa first learned to make pizza as a restaurant owner in Tuscany about 35 years ago.

He and Ms Di Perna then decided to transform his restaurant into a pizzeria, which they ran until they moved to Australia in 2008 to escape Europe’s financial struggles.

After achieving such success in less than two years Mr Serpa and Ms Di Perna said their next focus was to continue introducing the Darebin community to traditional Italian pizza.

Pizzaly serves 18 different pizzas (don’t bother asking for an Aussie or Hawaiian) from 5-11pm Monday-Saturday every week. For more details visit pizzaly.com.au