A British chef fears he was sabotaged by rivals who may have swiped his olive oil after he came last out of 429 contestants at the Pizza World Championships in Italy.
Danny Child, 31, from Norfolk took part in the competition in the Italian city of Parma earlier this year.
The pizza maker noticed 15 minutes before the competition was set to start that his olive oil had gone missing and froze while the other chefs around him were busy preparing for the competition.
He told a journalist: ‘We have had a little incident,’ before asking him to go fetch some oil from a salesman at the nearby fair, the Financial Times reports.
He prepared his station by putting all his ingredients in the fridge but left his olive oil out on the counter, only to realise it had vanished shortly after.
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Danny Child (pictured), 31, from Norfolk went to the Pizza World Championships in the Italian city of Parma earlier this year
The pizza maker noticed 15 minutes before the competition was set to start that his olive oil had gone missing and send a journalist to get some from a salesman at the nearby fair
Mr Child said another competitor had warned him to avoid falling victim to foul play by never leaving his ingredients unattended.
The competition, where 429 chefs had gathered to find out who makes the best pizza, is prestigious and whoever places in the top spots can turn his pizza parlour into a destination for fans of the Italian dish.
The British electrician-turned-chef, who quit his job in the pandemic to open a pizza van with his wife Lucy, wanted to experiment with a new recipe at the competition, using beer and honey in his pizza – which the judges ‘probably did not appreciate’, he wrote on social media after the event.
He said: ‘On reflection I’m licking my wounds a bit. There were so many factors at play that I really hadn’t anticipated.’
He also encountered some other mishaps at the event, like the oven not being hot enough, not having a paddle to lay topics on his pizza and wearing black instead of chef’s whites, which resulted in him presenting his creation to the judges while his jeans were stained by flour.
After placing last, Mr Child said he was ‘gutted’ but admitted that the Italian chefs he was up against ‘killed everyone’: ‘I slung in some pizza, spotted those guys and then went off to drink beer and sulk. They are just so good,’ he told the Financial Times.
He opened his pizza van in Norfolk after the pandemic shut down building sites, which was so successful he expanded it to a full restaurant in August
After placing last, Mr Child said he was ‘gutted’ but admitted that the Italian chefs he was up against ‘killed everyone’: ‘I slung in some pizza, spotted those guys and then went off to drink beer and sulk. They are just so good’
The British electrician-turned-chef, who quit his job in the pandemic to open a pizzeria with his wife Lucy, wanted to experiment with a new recipe at the competition, using beer and honey in his pizza
When telling his social media followers he lost, vowing to return in 2024, they were full of sympathy and congratulated him for taking part, with many telling him how good his pizzas are.
He opened his pizza van in Norfolk after the pandemic shut down building sites, which was so successful he expanded it to a full restaurant in August.
Despite his failure at the competition against mainly Italian chefs, Mr Child is determined not to give up and said he can understand why the judges scored him low due to him ‘striding up in flour-covered jeans’.
He also said the language barrier was a problem, as he couldn’t tell the judges what was in his dough when asked.
But the event and the other pizza makers in Parma have inspired the British chef to ‘add and change’ his menu, writing on social media: ‘Prepare better for next time. Be more confident in what I wanted to do and not change it last minute.
‘I’m feeling low about it in general, but I feel like we’ll be double the competitors next time around.’
When telling his social media followers he lost, vowing to return in 2024, they were full of sympathy and congratulated him for taking part, with many telling him how good his pizzas are