Here’s a fun one. A pan pizza that tastes like a five-hour braised veal shank just won the biggest pizza competition on the planet. Mirko D’Agata, executive chef at Montreal’s Pizzeria No. 900, was named 2026 Pizza Maker of the Year at the International Pizza Challenge during Pizza Expo in Las Vegas — beating out the top finishers from every other division with a Roman-style al Taglio slice that basically turned a classic Milanese dinner into a pizza.

And look, I know Pizza Maker of the Year isn’t a headline most people wake up thinking about. But if you care even a little about where pizza is going, this one’s actually worth paying attention to.

What Happened in Vegas

The International Pizza Challenge is basically the Olympics of pizza — and 2026 was its biggest year yet, with a record 730 competitors across eight divisions and 11 subdivisions. D’Agata won the Pan Division first, earning him a seat at the final round where every divisional champion faces off for the overall title.

He then beat them all. Picked up a trophy, a $5,000 Pan Division prize, and another $5,000 for the Pizza Maker of the Year title. He was also inducted into the World Pizza Champions — an invite-only group of roughly 70 elite pizzaioli worldwide. He’s the first Quebecois and one of the first Canadians ever in it.

The Pizza That Won It

OK so this is where it gets fun. Ossobuco, if you haven’t cooked it, is a classic Milanese braise — veal shank cooked low and slow for hours until it basically falls apart, traditionally served with saffron risotto alongside. D’Agata’s whole idea was: what if you could eat that entire dinner, but as a pizza slice?

Here’s what he actually put on a Roman al Taglio pan base:

Every layer has a job. The dough carries the weight, the braised veal gives it the Sunday-dinner feel, the risotto cream adds the creamy continuity you’d normally get from eating the risotto beside the meat, the parmigiano emulsion does the cheese work without a traditional mozzarella pull, and the gremolata cuts through all of it so it doesn’t sit like a brick. FYI, that last part is the move most home cooks skip — and it’s why their “gourmet” pizzas end up feeling heavy.

Who Is Mirko D’Agata?

Quick backstory, because it actually matters here. D’Agata started making pizza at 14 years old at a carryout spot in Turin, Italy. Studied under Neapolitan masters, worked in Corsica, Germany and Switzerland, and eventually landed in Bra, Italy — which is where, according to Pizza Today, he trained in bread-making under Gianfranco Fagnola. That’s the part that shows up in the winning pizza.

Why? Because Roman al Taglio is basically bread that happens to have toppings on it. The crumb is the whole game. If you’ve ever had a bad pan pizza and it felt like a dense pad of dough, it’s because whoever made it treated it like a pizza base. D’Agata treats it like focaccia, and you can taste the difference.

He’s now executive chef at Pizzeria No. 900’s Morso Pizzeria in Montreal, a chain that’s been quietly racking up international wins for a few years. The group also operates a location in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto and runs stores across Canada and France.

The Back-to-Back Flex Nobody Saw Coming

Here’s the thing that actually raised eyebrows on the competition floor. D’Agata won the Neapolitan Division Championship at last year’s IPC. This year he came back and won the Pan Division — a completely different pizza style, with completely different dough science, baking method, and sensory rules.

Neapolitan is 60-second bakes in a wood-fired oven at 900°F, soft and floppy, dairy-forward. Roman al Taglio is long bakes at moderate temps, high-hydration and crisp-bottomed, topped after baking as often as before. Winning both, back-to-back, at the sport’s highest level? Not normal. Most competitors spend years optimizing one style. He just flipped the whole script.

D’Agata told reporters the pan pizza was actually a return to his roots — Roman-style and high-hydration dough were where his interests had always lived. Makes sense, given the bread-making training. But IMO, it’s also a quiet reminder of something most home cooks forget: the person who understands dough will always beat the person who understands one specific pizza.