#pizzawars

California Pizza Kitchen opened its first restaurant in Beverly Hills, California in 1985. Using fresh high-quality ingredients to create innovative, hearth-baked pizzas such as The Original BBQ Chicken, Thai Chicken and Jamaican Jerk Chicken, the restaurant gave California a place in the pizza pantheon alongside Chicago and New York. CPK then expanded to more than 250 locations in more than 30 states and 11 countries. Global Restaurant Concepts Inc. (GRCI) brought the world famous brand to the Philippines and in 1998, the first CPK restaurant outside the United States opened its doors in Glorietta 3 in Makati City.

The venue for the Pizza Wars grand finals was at CPK Bonifacio Global City. Together with other bloggers and friends from the media, we were not just going to be mere spectators at the event but we would also be able to taste and judge for ourselves all three pizza finalists.

The three winning chefs were ready to get started and they brought their game faces with them. The grand prize for the Pizza Wars is P25,000 in cash and more importantly, the winning pizza gets to be included in CPK’s regular menu, so everyone was definitely nervous and excited.

Some even brought their own cheering squads from their respective CPK branches.

During the finals, each chef was judged on their creativity, execution, taste, appearance and marketability of their creation. They prepared their pizzas using only the ingredients available at the CPK kitchens and this is where their ideas and creativity will come into play.

All the pizzas were prepared by the chefs right there on the counter and everyone was excited to get a taste of these winning entries.

We were also given a card where we can write down and choose who we think deserves to win the Pizza Wars. If we got to choose the winner correctly, then we would be able to bring home a box of the winning pizza as well. I hope my taste buds are working properly today because I want to bring home a pizza!

Daniel Wilson, International Franchise Brand Ambassador for CPK was in town to witness this grand event and shared with us a few of his experiences working at CPK. While the Pizza Wars has been held in the USA before, CPK Philippines is the first international franchise to carry out the pizza chef competition, which is quite fitting since they were also the first international outlet to open.

Lea Castillones was the first chef to introduce her pizza which is the Steak with Mushroom & Truffle Pizza. This pizza had fresh Mozzarella, wild mushroom, and Grilled Steak all doused with Truffle sauce. 

I am a big meat lover and this is the kind of pizza that I like! I remember enjoying the White Truffle Sausage Pizza at Torch Restaurant so much and this one also has that great truffle smell and flavor. The premium grilled steak gives it a heavier beefy taste and it goes well with all that oozing Mozarella cheese. It is a simple pizza with just a few ingredients but it all works well together.

Next up was Rommel Panaligan who concocted a vegetarian pizza with a twist called The Farmer’s Choice. This one has a roasted squash base topped with fresh Mozzarella, grilled eggplant & zucchini, cherry tomatoes and desiccated coconut (gata).

The Farmer’s Choice was unlike any other vegetarian pizza I have tasted before, which I usually don’t like. His creation has so many flavors all blending into a wonderful combination. Using squash as his pizza base was quite unique and adventurous but he was able to deliver it well. Rommel actually used the pinakbet as an inspiration for his pizza. It also has that distinct Filipino taste and you feel like the ingredients had just been picked up from a nearby farm.

Lastly, John Oplejada brought out The Elvis, a dessert pizza inspired by the King of Rock & Roll’s favorite peanut butter and banana sandwich. I have never seen a pizza with ice cream on top so this was truly amazing! It has Mozarella, peanut sauce, crispy bacon, candied walnuts, and banana topped with a big scoop of peanut butter gelato.

How can you not like a bacon pizza topped with ice cream then topped with bacon? This should be an entry for Baconfest Manila! The gelato does tend to melt quickly so this is one pizza you probably cannot take home with you as it is. But it was delicious especially with the melted banana which is baked along with the pizza.

The judges who will decide the winner for Pizza Wars were Archie Rodriguez (left), President & CEO of GRCI, Griffith Go (middle), Chief Financial Officer of GRCI, and celebrity chef Rolando Laudico who was once a pizza cook himself. I wrote down my own favorite pizza on my card and was hoping that the judges felt the same way I did. So who do you think won the first ever Pizza Wars?

It was Romel Panaligan from CPK Alabang who went home with the title and received the P25,000 cash prize for his winning creation, The Farmer’s Market. Mr. Rodriguez said that “the three of them are already winners, but The Farmer’s Market came first because of its uniqueness and exceptional flavor.” Romel had been working at CPK for 15 years so he is really deserving of the award. The winning pizza will also be featured in CPK’s National Pizza Day celebration in August and will eventually be added to the regular menu in the last quarter of this year.

I wasn’t able to guess the winning pizza correctly since my favorite was the Steak with Mushroom and Truffle Pizza, but everyone went home happy to be part of the first CPK Philippines Pizza Wars. I asked Ms. Luisa Del Rosario (2nd from left), Senior Operations Director of CPK Philippines if they could also include the other two finalists on the menu and she said that they might also decide to feature them. Congratulations again to Rommel Panaligan for winning the Grand Prize at the first CPK Pizza Wars and here’s to more delicious and exciting pizza creations in the future.

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN

Branches at Greenbelt 5, Shangri-la Plaza, Greenhills Promenade, Eastwood, Rockwell, Bonifacio Global City, Mall of Asia, Alabang Town Center and Century City Mall.

www.cpk.com.ph

www.facebook.com/CPKPhilippines