Women in Pizza: Steph Mantis
**In celebration of Women’s History Month, I’ll be posting about women in the pizza community every few days this month. The pizza biz is pretty male-dominated, so let’s take this opportunity to throw the spotlight onto some of the women who are doing amazing work in the pizza world.
Where do I even begin with Steph? Maybe at the beginning.... We met at the opening of Pizza Brain, the incredible pizzeria/pizza culture museum in Philadelphia. We heard of each other, but never physically crossed paths until that day. I knew of Steph because of her amazing project, Forever Pizza. It’s essentially a slice of actual pizza encased in resin.... forever. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The day Steph was born, her father purchased a new oven for his pizzeria in Biddeford, ME. Pizza By Alex is a local institution and I’m honored to have had the pleasure to visit there last fall. Growing up in a pizzeria, it’s now wonder Steph now combines her two loves, design and pizza, whenever she possibly can. She’s the brains behind the pizza night light, pizza luggage tag, pizza cold pack, and pizza coasters from Kikkerland. She’s obsessed.
When my book about pizza boxes came out in 2013 and my publisher asked if I wanted to hang some amazing pizza boxes in their bookstore, Steph jumped to the task and designed beautiful frames. A year later, when a European company asked me to bring my pizza box collection to Germany and England, Steph didn’t even stop to think about it when I invited her to come along and supervise the installs. We mad great partners in these projects and only have more ahead of us.
Steph is an incredible designer, pizza lover, and friend. She’s truly a force of positivity in the pizza world and I’m forever thankful to have crossed paths with such an incredibly talented and dedicated person.
