On Saturday, 19th June, we had the inaugural Gisborne Peak Winery Pizza Bake-off.  And what good fun we had!  Our final 8 contestants were chosen from the 'Design a Pizza' table talkers that we had on the tables during the month of February.  We received so many good suggestions for our next feature pizza that we decided to host a 'Bake-off'.  Eight yummy-sounding pizzas were chosen, their makers informed, and off we went. 

Look at the pictures on FLICKR!  Just click on the FLICKR button over there on your right - just under all those nice people's pictures.    Did you know that you can upload pictures to the Gisborne Peak Winery FLICKR page?  It's called 'Gisborne Peak Winery and Friends' on FLICKR:  www.flickr.com/groups/gisbornepeakwinery/

The day was cold outside but the competition was hot inside.  Each pizza so different and so individual in style.  I loved them all!  Some of the finalists pizzas were:  Kristen's Greek Pizza, Marty's spagetti pizza, Toni's Vegan Pizza, Rob's Special 'less is more' pizza, Brian's Smoked Chicken & kidney beans pizza better known as 'George the Pizza, Carolyn's Vegetarian Anit-pasto Pizza and Soulla's Greek Olive Pizza.  They were fantastic.

Contestants made three pizzas for the judges to try as well as our People's Choice Judges.  Anyone could be a People's Choice Judge and we had 28 people keen to taste, judge and score pizzas.  They had a serious responsibility to taste ALL of the pizzas and judge without bias.  Some contestants had brought along a strong cheering squad - others just one or two people who didn't know  WHAT to expect!

Our esteemed judges were Roz King of the Whistle Stop Tavern, New Gisborne (a woman who knows good food); Tony Young of Emperor Tang Chinese Restaurant, Gisborne (a man who knows good food combinations) and Victor Migitto of Sapore Nostro Italian Restaurant, Sunbury (a man who has cooked more pizzas than all of us combined).  Thank you to these three judges who took their job very seriously, but had some fun doing it.  It was a difficult decision for them to all decide a winner, a runner-up, third place and special mention, but in the end they were in complete agreement.

The winner was:  Kristen Small with her Greek Pizza.  Kristen also won the 'People's Choice Award'.  Runner-up was Carolyn Andrews with her Vegetarian Anti-pasto Pizza, and Special Mention went to Brian Isbister for 'George the Pizza'.  Brian actually works here at Gisborne Peak and makes all the pizzas on Friday's along with helper Maddie, so Brian couldn't win but the judges did like the smoked chicken with beans and capsicum pizza.

Kristen's Greek Pizza with marinated lamb, feta cheese and lemon will be featured at the winery during the month of August.  Come and try it!

Most important is that everyone got in the spirit, had a ball as a contestant, fun as a People's Judge and it was considered a huge success.  It will definitly be on the event calendar every year now in June.  Everyone got a Finalists Certificate and the winner's and runner up's pizza is featured on this website along with their recipe. 

Ana did a great job with set-up and all the ingredients that our pizza makers needed, Bob did all the maths behind the People's Choice award (not an easy task!) and Barb played MC.

Vist the FLICKR part of this website to see more pictures.  And watch for the event next year!