Lars Smith, chef and co-owner of State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria in downtown Los Altos, doesn’t describe himself as a aggressive particular person, but his zeal for pizza competitions and success with the U.S. Pizza Team could say in any other case.
Smith and his spouse, Cristina, together with the U.S. Pizza Team, just lately launched into a 10-day journey to Parma, Italy, to compete in the World Pizza Championship. Smith was shocked by his success in the occasion.
“I speak very little Italian,” he mentioned. “I didn’t really know what was going on. I heard my name; I didn’t even know what I was going up on stage for. That was for the best American score out of the 30 or so, which is a big deal, because there are a lot of people that are there competing that I really look up to.”
Smith took residence an extra prize in the Pizza alla Pala class, long-rising Roman-style pizza, for which he made a pizza with salted zucchini, burrata, lemon zest and mint.
“It wasn’t until three days or two days later that I found out for the Pizza alla Pala category that I got fifth in the world, which is insane,” he mentioned. “I was eating lunch in Florence when the scores popped up, and my jaw was on the floor.”
While the State of Mind pizza ovens are usually not outfitted to make Roman-style pizzas, Smith hopes someday to open a Roman-style pizzeria in the world along with his workforce.
“It’s a really special style of pizza for me,” he mentioned. “It’s much more like a bakery-style process than a pizza-making process. I really liked the technical aspect of it, and I also like the tradition of it in Rome.”
According to Smith, essentially the most well-known Roman-style pizzerias “don’t really have menus – they just have a lot of different pizzas with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Anybody who’s been to State of Mind knows that that is where my passion lies.”
A slice of Italy
Along with being acknowledged for his work on the World Pizza Championship, Smith mentioned the spotlight of the April journey was visiting the birthplace of pizza along with his spouse and the U.S. Pizza Team.
“We’re all there to celebrate pizza,” he mentioned. “It’s a really fun atmosphere, and people are really excited. …. In the last 10 years, the pizza industry has become closer than ever, with social media and some of the industry magazines.”
Smith joined the U.S. Pizza Team in 2017 after profitable the prize for the World’s Best Non-Traditional Pizza on the 2017 International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. That win opened a variety of doorways in the aggressive pizza-making world for Smith, enabling him to collaborate and compete with the workforce.
It was additionally the primary time he and Cristina, his State of Mind co-owner, traveled collectively to compete in a pizza competitors.
“We met in the pizzeria in 2005,” Smith mentioned. “She actually scored second highest in the U.S. and kicked my butt in the classical competition and everybody else’s, too. That was a really, really incredible experience for her.”
The journey of pizza competitions doesn’t finish right here. Smith mentioned the couple can’t wait to journey to extra occasions, in addition to work on their craft in Los Altos.