ELKHART -- Bruno Cataldo tried to come up with a pizza Italians would like, but didn't expect the response.

 

When the owner of Bruno's Pizza and Mezza Luna in Elkhart finally learned the results Wednesday from last week's Pizza Olympiad in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy, his smile at the score and the placing may have been almost as wide as one of his 24-inch pizzas.

Out of 800 possible points, he got 709 and finished 42nd out of 304 competitors in the classic pizza category of the world pizza competition. He fared better than Donn Yoder and Paul Cataldo, the other two from Elkhart County who made the trip to compete.

 

He said he would have been happy scoring as well as he did last year when he competed for the first time. But he did much better and was one of the top U.S. finishers in the category dominated by Italian pizza makers.

 

Cataldo didn't pile ingredients, particularly cheese, on the crust before he baked it in the wood-fired oven.

 

"Italians -- they don't like a lot of cheese," he said.

Elkhart and Goshen were also represented by Paul Cataldo of Antonio’s Italian Ristorante, of Elkhart and Donn Yoder, of Bruno’s Pizza in Goshen. Donn scored 518 points and Paul scored 428 points with his entry of Stuffed Pizza. Donn’s entry is being added to the Goshen Bruno’s menu and Paul’s entry of Stuffed Pizza is already on Antonio’s menu.

Competing in the past has helped all of their businesses as they have all learned from all of the other contestants. They were able to bring home ideas on how to improve their menus and restaurants