High-end ingredients make for award-winning pies

So what is the secret to prize-winning pizza?

Fresh ingredients? Scrumptious cheese? Crispy crust?

Ask the folks at Big Cheese Pizza in Post Falls. They’ll tell the secret: garlic butter. And spiced chicken, creamy garlic Alfredo sauce, bacon and tomato all served up on a cheese-stuffed crust.

In a word: yum.

Big Cheese Pizza’s garlic chicken pizza won top honors last week at the first-ever North Idaho Battle of the Pies, held at the North Idaho Fair in Coeur d’Alene. Ten pizza joints from around the region tossed their hats – and their pizza dough – into the ring.

“There was some amazing competition,” said Big Cheese owner Todd Tondee, who’s been making pizza for 19 years. “There was a lot of gourmet pizza out there. I was kind of surprised we won.”

The competition included second-place finisher Capone’s Pub and Grill, who served up a spicy Italian sausage, pepperoni and Genoa salami pie, and Papa John’s in third, with their barbecue chicken pizza. The People’s Choice Award, voted on by the crowd, went to Mangiamo’s Mediterraneo pizza, an olive-studded pie loaded with grilled chicken, spinach, feta cheese and a tangy sauce.

The Showmanship Award went to the dough-tossing trio from Old Ice House Pizzeria and Bakery in Hope, on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille.

Each contestant brought the materials to make two pizzas, one for the judges and one for the crowd. Each pie was assembled on site then baked in ovens set up on the Kootenai County Fairgrounds midway.

Five judges spent a couple hours inspecting crust, studying toppings and smelling the sauce before the winner was announced. For at least one judge, a chef himself, the secret to a winning pie is simple.

“The bottom line is that simplicity is the key to everything,” said Tony Usher, executive chef of the Dockside restaurant at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. He looked for a properly made crust, preferably thin, and a sauce that wasn’t too complicated. A key ingredient for a perfect pie? Garlic. Doesn’t matter where, either – in the crust, on top of the crust or in the sauce.

“Garlic can go in anything if it’s applied correctly,” he said, adding, “These were all great pies. Everyone did a great job.”

This year’s pizza cook-off, sponsored by The Spokesman-Review, is expected to be the first of many. Organizers hope to affiliate next year with a national pizza contest in which the local winner would be eligible to compete with pizza chefs from around the country.