Aver’s triumphs at pizza contest

A key contributor to the college student’s diet for decades, restaurants like Aver’s prove there is more to a great pizza than slapping a little cheese and sauce on some dough.

Living up to its “gourmet” billing, co-owner Kris Kaiser brought home a trophy from the Pizza Expo, held March 10 to 12  by trade magazine Pizza Today.

Lambda Gyro Pi, which features a base of creamy zazaki sauce and cheese topped with beef and lamb gyro, sliced onion, fresh tomato, crumbled feta cheese and oregano, won the South Central region’s prize for non-traditional pizzas.

“It’s just something we came up with basically to emulate a gyro,” Kaiser said.

Sixty teams are allowed to compete in each of the two divisions – traditional and non – and are then broken down into four American regions of 12 competitors each, as well as an “open” region for international teams.

Linda Keith, vice president of meetings and conferences for the expo, said the trade show includes pizzas from Canada, Ireland, Australia, Luxembourg, France, Indonesia and Italy. It is billed as the largest and oldest pizza trade show, having celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

But Pizza Hut and Papa John’s are nowhere to be found in this competition.

“Surprisingly, we don’t get entries from the chains,” Keith said.

The pizzas are judged 65 percent on taste – testing the crust, the blend of cheese with sauce and toppings, etc. – and 35 percent on appearance and visual presentation.

The non-traditional category offers much more creativity to competitors, as the restrictions on “traditional” pizzas allow only red tomato sauce, standard dough and two of the nine permissible toppings to be used. Once the competition starts, the chefs have only 30 minutes to prepare, cook and present their pizzas to the judges.

Originality is a characteristic of Aver’s pizzas, if pies like Parthenon, Veggie Revival, Justa Fad and Beckon Desire are any indication.

“We like to have a theme with everything,” Kaiser said, though he added that Cream and Crimson, Aver’s original specialty pizza, is still his favorite. “We tend to go crazy sometimes with the stuff we do, but hopefully, it all turns out good.”

Sophomores Claire Trincot, Kellie Kramer and Erin Johnson all agreed Aver’s is their choice when they’re in the mood for pizza.

“I think they have more options and higher quality than places like Pizza Express and Pizza Hut,” said Trincot, estimating that she and her friends order it once a week. “It’s really fast delivery.”

The three also said they appreciate that the cost is essentially the same as it would be for a restaurant such as Pizza Express.

Keith said she has known owners Kaiser and Brad Randall for years and wasn’t surprised Aver’s took home an award.

“Winning contests isn’t new to them,” she said. “They really make good pizza.”