What Reps, Relationships, and One Book Did for Eddie Stalewski | Pizza King Podcast

I talked to Eddie Stalewski — @eddiespizza412 — about going from the Pizza Bible in 2013 to standing on the main stage at Pizza Expo as a World Pizza Champion, and every connection, competition, and late Saturday pizza session that happened in between. 

If you have ever questioned whether the craft you are putting into your work actually leads somewhere, this episode will answer that.

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Leadership Lessons From The Great Books
Understanding great literature is better than trying to read and understand (yet)...

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Transcript

1:12

What's going on, Pizza Fan? Welcome back to the Pizza King Podcast. I'm your host, Tyrell. As always, I sat down this week with a with a very special guest, Eddie Stalooski. Eddie is a world pizza champion, and what makes him unique is he's a world pizza champion without without ever owning a pizza shop. He didn't start a shop. He didn't quit his job to go do it like a like a lot of folks did. Eddie's Eddie's a homebaker, but not in the sense that you're thinking. He started with a with a Tony G's pizza Bible inside of a crate, I think he said inside of a crate and barrel store. He picked up a book and it and it hooked him. He made pizzas every single weekend for years. He made everything, all the recipes in the book. He learned how to make dough. He actually got a job at two pizzarias locally so that he could train and become a better pizza maker. And what that led to was becoming a pizza champion. He won Best Pizza in the Northeast back in 2022. He won the Real California Milk Challenge, and he earned his World Pizza, his World Pizza Champions jacket, all while keeping his full-time job. So what makes Eddie's story different is not just the wins that he had at the competitions, but it's the people that he met along the way, folks like Tony G, folks like the Mercurio family, and how he was really intentional about building those relationships and building each connection. So this episode to me is just as much about how you build relationships in business and in an in this industry as it is about how you build a better pizza. So I hope you enjoy Eddie Staloski. I was not into that. I mean, of course I've been on the internet and stuff like that, but I was like sort of social media adverse because I knew I kind of felt like I knew like what I, you know, from people that I knew that were on social media, I didn't really want that to be in my head, if you know what I mean. I we have some pictures and things like that. So you said so you had you had you had the iPad, you had your but you personally weren't taking any photos of the pizzas in the early days. No, and a funny story when I got it in 2017 was because I bought a brand new car, which was a Honda Civic 2017. Well, you know, you you go in there and you try to hook up a flip phone to this thing, it it's like uh I don't know what so like the next day I went out. I went out and bought a smartphone. Like I my phone, my phone won't connect to the car, I gotta fix it. So new new car, new phone, back to back days. You understand what I'm saying. So, you know, I I did that, and um, and you know, again, still making all these pizzas and things. I will tell another story. So the as I was working my way through the the book, um, I I got my way to like the Chicago deep dish part of the book, right? And which was um me making this deep dish pizza, and it was a stuffed crust deep dish. And so if you if you have the book and you open up the book to this stuffed crust deep dish pizza, it's it's a mammoth of a pizza, but what you got to put inside, I had to learn how to make sausage, which was homemade, like homemade sausage. It's in the book. Follow the recipe. I bought a sausage attachment from my KitchenAid um mixer, which was really cool, you know. Learning how to case sausage, you know, um, making like, you know, the sausage recipe that's in the book is is phenomenal. There was like roasted red pepper, there was peppers in there, there was pepperoni, there was oh my, there was just so many other ingredients that went into this deep dish. And it was a double dough. So you basically had a dough and then you had one on top that you you then you sort of did like a rope crimp. So you do a rope crimp around it, this beautiful pizza. But my mother-in-law, I I was telling her about like, oh, I you know, I like to make this deep dish. I said, but you need this pan from Lloyd's pan. Again, I didn't think she was gonna buy the pan. So I'm cutting grass here one day and I see the UPS driving up, and he's carrying his box, and on the outside of the box it says Lloyd Pans. I'm like, oh here we go. So I said, I guess I I guess I'm guess I'm making a deep dish. So I made it. It was one of the most beautiful pizzas. It was one of the first ones I made. I still hook, I have good pictures of that one. The rope crimp with your you do with your finger, you go around it. It's it's it's it's really beautiful, and it was really good. It was tasty, very filling. I I loved it. I'm gonna start making more of those here. I'd love to make those pizzas. That's not something you see in in Pittsburgh very often as a a Chicago deep dish style pizza. No, nobody's really doing like cast iron here. Um, nobody's really doing like tavern style pizza like I do, you know. Like there are so many like holes that I probably could fill here, I'm sure. Uh we can get into that uh later. But um, but like I said, I was working my way through the book and and then um in 2018 or so. My we have family that lives on the West Coast, so in Santa Cruz, California. So I said, we gotta go, we gotta take a trip up to San Francisco. I've never been. I said, I want to go to Tony's restaurant. So I go to Tony's restaurant, I order like four pizzas for the table. There, meanwhile, there's like five, four of us, but my daughter, so you know, she was real tiny, and um, you know, we ordered these pizzas, and I ordered ones that I made at home, so I wanted to, you know, see how the how I compared to these, to these pizzas. And sure enough, I was so very surprised how how very similar the taste was to what I was making at home. And I'm like, he couldn't have just like put his recipes that he's making in the restaurant in his book. Well, I mean, in a in a in in a in a way he did. And he was an open book, you know, put it right out there. You know, here I'm I'm I'm giving you the tools to the kingdom here. You go and do it, right? That's what I kind of felt like. And I'm like, okay, so that that really like encouraged me to come back and really like like get nailed this, right? Um, and so again, I would work my way um and I think the next style I started working on was really was my Sicilian style pizza. Once I have yet to compete in a pizza competition with it, I think it's in my opinion, it's uh one of the best pizzas that I make. Um I get so many compliments on it when I make it for friends and family. Yeah. Um, I've not yet competed with it, so I'd like to do that one of these days, maybe up and coming here. Um, but yeah, it's it's I work real hard on it and uh it's it's beautiful, it's light, it's airy, and you can eat the whole thing, believe it or not. Yeah, you don't feel so full and stuffed after you eat it. Unlike the uh Chicago Deep Dish. That's a one slice and done the Chicago deep dish. It's a that's a that's a that's a big boy. You had two of them. I had two that day. Well, you put some work into it. Um before I hit record, you were kind of telling us how your your mother-in-law had um, you know, kind of decided that she was just gonna support you, even if you didn't ask for it. She she sent you equipment, she sent you, she sent you pans. I I love that the family got behind you in that in that endeavor. As you were going through the book and you said you read it cover to cover before you made one pizza, did you kind of just list out the things you thought you could execute, or were there pictures or you know, recipes you're like, no, I definitely gotta try this one? That's a really good question. Um, I think I was naturally drawn to the deeper dish pizzas, the Sicilians. Also, what intrigued me were the thin, the thin crust pizzas, um, like the tavern style pizzas. Those really intrigued me because I had never heard of those pizzas. Um, if you heard of like a St. Louis style pizza, I even tried making that one with a Proville cheese, which I was not a big fan of, but it was delicious. Don't get me wrong. I it just was not for me. I mean, it's a it's a tavern style, but you um you basically par bake the pizza shells with a little bit of sauce on them, and then you know, when it's time to go, you you you finish topping them and bake them off in the pizza uh in the in the oven. But um those I was very I I like the grandma style pizza. Um I tried executing it. Um mine always came out thicker than what you know what what typical grandma pizzas were. So I used to always get a lot of a lot of comments on Instagram. That's not a grandma pizza. We don't put the sesame seeds on our grandma. I'm like, okay, well, okay, whatever. Um, Detroit was uh very intriguing to me because I had never had a Detroit style. That was the thing about the book. It had all these different styles in it that, you know, I I hadn't I had never heard of. And I think that was the intention of the book is that, hey, look, there's a bigger world out there. Go try these out, you know, and and uh here, here's here's how you can make them in your house if you want to, right? And so, and I felt like that was, you know, a challenge for me to to like, hey, yeah, because I love the cook. That was the thing. It you know, pizza and cooking, it just fell into place for me. You know, I will say this, my mom was a great cook. She was Italian, and so when she made when she made food for people, um, she always wanted to know how how um, you know, she always wanted to, you know, she went she was very happy making pizza uh making uh food for people, and it made her feel good that when people said, boy, that's like that's so good, it's so delicious, you know. And I s I get that same feeling. I think that feeling brings me a lot of joy. Um I think that's what drew me to it, and and um the passion for for doing it comes from from the from that, you know. And beautify. I mean, that was the thing about Tony is as I got to know him and got to watch him and see him, I got to see how he beautifies a pizza. And that's an it's like creating like a piece of art, you know, with with ingredients, you know. And I think that was what was drawn, drew what drew me to it, you know. How many times you go to a restaurant and they just slop the stuff on your plate or things just you know, it's it you eat with your eyes, right? I mean, all of a sudden you get this beautiful pizza that looks like, wow, what is this? And so, you know, uh, that's the feeling I was going for. Um, I mean, you know when you get a bad something bad at a restaurant or I mean it may taste good, but it doesn't look good, you know. And it doesn't you know that can do it wasn't it wasn't prepared with love and care. Right, right, right. And I think that's one of my besides creating the dough recipe and all that, I think it's the it's the end, like at the when I'm done, I I like when I gotta cut it and then I gotta do some post-bake finishing to make it look beautiful. That's my favorite time with the pizza, i in my opinion. Is uh that's just I just love it, you know. Were there were there any parts of the process that were difficult for you early on? Well, I think I think that you know, it was more uh a lot of trial and error. I mean, when I say a lot of trial and error, I mean a lot of trial and error. Like this was not like you know, I do this once in a while. I was doing this, I was making pizzas probably once or twice a week, you know, to just trying to figure it out on my own, right? My wife's friend had a birthday party at this Neapolitan pizzeria here called Il Pizziolo, the guy he was the guy who kind of brought Neapolitan pizza here to Pittsburgh. Nobody even knew what Neapolitan pizza was. And uh actually it's a good story. I don't know if you know who Roberto Caparusio is. He's from Castet, he's the guy that owns uh Castate and Don Antonio in New York City. I know the place never met him though. I mean Yeah, he he he's he's like the godfather of of pizza, you know. I I mean I he's but he he started out in Pittsburgh, believe it or not. And he worked he I think he's the story, the urban legend is that he slept on this guy's couch, the owner of the old pizziolo. He and he he made cheese, and I think he also sold cheese. And then he branched out and he branched out and and started his own Neapolitan restaurant here in Pittsburgh called Regina Margarita. He wood-fired oven, he put a wood-fired oven in there, and uh so he this is way before he became famous. I mean, probably some people knew who he was, but not a lot of people here. So he had this restaurant called El Piziolo, and my wife's friend had a um this is so this is raw molinero from Raw Malonero, actually owns El Pizziolo. So I went over there, I was watching these people make pizzas, and I was like, man, this is Neapolitan pizza. This is interesting to me. It's in the book, but you gotta have a wood-fired oven to really execute a Neapolitan pizza. So I think I had an uni at the time. I think I bought like the first uni that was out there. So I was experimenting with it, but I was enthralled by seeing these people make these Neapolitan pizzas in this restaurant. And I had just mentioned to one of the guys there, and I said, I said, Hey, I really would like to learn how to do this, you know. And uh they they said, uh, uh, well, where do you live? And I said, Well, I live, you know, suburb out here in Pittsburgh. And they said, Well, you're not gonna believe this, but we're opening a second location, which was 10 minutes away from my house, maybe maybe, maybe six or seven minutes away from my house. So I'm like, so I say, Let me take your number. So he took my number. I don't know, it was probably six or seven months later. I get a call from the head, head, um, head chef, and he's like, Hey, we want you to come in for an interview. And so I came in and I was working there, like with my full-time job. I'm in supply chain. I was I was working, um, so I was doing like three days a week over there because it was close to the house, you know. So I was, you know, learning how to make the pizzas and stuff. And uh, and so I think around that time there was Pizza Expo. Uh I I I didn't know what Pizza Expo was either. So it was like 2019. So um I decided my friend actually worked worked worked. He just retired from the FBI and he got he got transferred from Pittsburgh out to Las Vegas. And I and his uh his name's James, and I said, James, I said, I said, there's this pizza expo. They talk about this. I said, I want to come, I'm gonna come visit you, come stay with you. I said, I'm gonna go to this pizza expo for a week. So I I get a plane ticket and I go out there, and I'm I was just I was floored. I didn't know, I had no idea what I was getting into. But I mean, uh day one, I think, I was going to all these different seminars. I mean, it was crazy. I signed up for two Tony Di Mignani pizza classes, making pizza there. It was like a each class was $180 a piece. So I took two of them. It was actually on the convention floor. Um so I took those classes, which was really cool, is I have my pizza Bible with me and he signed my book. So that yeah, I didn't meet him when I went out to San Francisco. Yeah, because he wasn't there. He might not, he might have been there, I don't know, but he wasn't at the restaurant the day I was there. But um, but yeah, I and and while I was at the the show, just wanted to figure out what's going on. I didn't even know about competitions or anything like that. So I went back in the competition area and uh I happened to see some people from Pittsburgh. Um, one of the guys, uh, his name is Pete Tolman, who I'm good friends with today. He owns Ironborn Pizza here in the strip uh in our strip. He has two locations and uh he's competing. He actually won best pizza in the northeast that year. And he he made, and then I saw there were some other Pete Pittsburgh people hanging out there. And I had done some research up until that time, like who's who in Pittsburgh and pizza and stuff like that. So the other people that were watching Pete were uh the Mercurio family. So Michael Mercuria, Joey was there, Joey Mercurio, uh, Anna Crusoe, which uh she's a Mercuria as well. And they were there standing. I went up and introduced myself to Michael because I had just read he won a Caputo Cup in uh Atlantic City. Okay. Well, you know, I know this now, but you know, uh back then, you know, I never even went to Mercuria's is another Neapolitan pizzeria here in Pittsburgh. So they they started up in 2012. And so I went up to Michael and you know, he he's one of those guys like, hey, somebody, somebody knows me. Like he was like taken back by somebody came up to and said, Hey, this, you know, uh the star status, right? Like, you know, here I am, nobody, right? You know, got a little bit of an Instagram. I mean, I think I had an my daughter put me on Instagram probably in 2019, but that was right around that same time. And, you know, so the funny thing is that he rem he remembered that. So um, so that was 20, that was 2019, my first pizza expo, got my book signed, met some of these Pittsburgh people there, and then 2020 was COVID, right? So, um, so they delayed the Pizza Expo in Las Vegas to August of 2021, and I signed up to compete. And I, I mean, here I am, went one year, one year just to get a lay of the land. I'm like, okay, I I you know working on stuff. I said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna sign up and compete during COVID. So I competed in the pan division. There was only 32 contestants at the time or competitors at the time, because it was as people were funny about COVID and stuff. And I came in, believe it or not, I came in 12th out of 32, which I thought was pretty damn good, right? I mean, I thought I made, I made, and there's I learned a lot of things that I probably uh helped me uh along the way. But I, you know, I said I'm gonna go for it. So, you know, just trying to get out there, get your stuff out there, make the but the cool thing is I had my friend James, who if I need to, you know, he was carting my butt around. I had uh if I had to go get supplies or something, he um he uh I had everything at his house. I had a dough mixer there, I made all my stuff at his house, and then when it was time to get, I have a cool a separate cooler out there. I have all my paraphernalia and stuff out there. So when I go out there, it's like Eddie's Pizza West Coast competed uh that year. Again, it came in 12th. So then 2022. So let me go back real quick though. Um, so the Mercurios, um, they have a pizzeria here in Pittsburgh, and they actually um are known for gelatos. So they have a uh gelato, you know, making business. They still do today. That's um one of their you know main businesses. But um they uh the the two boys, Michael and Joey, actually went to study under Roberto Caparusio because Roberto left Pittsburgh, went to New York City, and started up Keste and Don Antonio. So the the family wanted them to learn from someone that you know is the best at it. So they went and studied under him for about two weeks. So so it just so happens I was driving on this uh out in the suburbs, and I'm looking and I see this sign and it says Mercurio's now hiring. I'm like, what is going on? So they opened up a second location in Fox Chapel. I saw the sign, I called my wife, I said, Hey, I said Mercurios is opening this this uh you know Neapolitan pizzeria. I said, I said, I think I'd like to go work there. Can I get to go work under these guys that studied under Roberta Caparusio? I said, I'll learn how to really make Neapolitan pizza, you know, the way that you know the pros make it. I go in there, I get interviewed um on the spot. Um, a general manager that was there actually used to be the general manager at Yelp Pizziola, where I worked as well for about a year. So he was there, so he knew me. Um Anna Crusad's husband, Steve, was there interviewing. So I oh I yeah, you know, you didn't have a resume. I had I had my like iPhone, I think I was my resume, and I said, Here, here's my Instagram. This is what I do. So meanwhile, Steve's Steve's Steve's taking a picture of me. He sends it to Michael and says, Do you know this guy? He goes, Yes. He goes, that guy loves pizza. Hire him. And he what he remembered was the the interaction. I, you know, he remembered the expo interaction. And um, yeah, so those guys, um, so Michael and Joey and Anna, they're they're world pizza champions. I didn't even know what world pizza champions were. I mean, you get to know when you go out to Expo and you're like, wow, this is this is cool, right? Um, and then um, so at that, I think in that 2019 and 2020, there was a pizza fest here in Pittsburgh, the first pizza fest ever. And Ironborn was there, Mercurias was there, and I was just there just to take it all in. My wife and I were going just to eat pizza, you know, and I saw Michael there, and Michael was making pizzas, and he goes, Hey, dude, he goes, if you're just me here making pizzas for all these people that are here, it was you know hundreds of people, two sessions. He goes, You're not busy, why don't you come over here and start helping make make some pizzas? I had interviewed at his place. He saw I started making pizzas there, and that was the same time. Those guys actually found out though. So Michael and Joey, not Anna, um, and Pete Coleman all found out that that night that they were uh became world pizza champions that night. I found that out like later after the fact. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, pretty cool, right? But I, you know, and then like in you know, go go back to Expo in 2022. I I competed again. And remember what I told you the tavern style pizza was something like, okay, I ain't seen nobody making this out pizza expo. You know, when you go out there, you gotta like kind of like get a lay of the land and figure out what anybody's doing. So I said, I'm gonna make tavern style pizza. So I worked on it here. You know, of course, if I'm making pizzas here in my house, I don't have a pizza mask. I don't have a Maraforney oven here. So, but there's people here in Pittsburgh that do. So Pete Tolman at Ironborn, he has a Pizza Master. So when you go to competitions, they have a Pizza Master there. So I would go down there. I would go down there. I don't know. I was going down to his place probably, I don't know, four like four weeks in a row, and I'd go down and do test bakes in his oven, making that same competition pizza over and over and over and over, so that I know when I step up to the plate or the oven, I know what my temperatures are, I know what my bake times are. There's a lot of different variables though when you're at Pizza Expo than at being at Pete's Place because people aren't opening and closing the oven at Pete's Place. You got your dedicated oven. When you're at Pizza Expo, people are messing around. So you really got to eyeball some things, you know, when you're there. But that year, I made the made these two tavern-style pizzas, actually in a pan with a free coat edge. And I had pep I put pepperoni roses on. So you've seen pepperoni roses probably all the time. Nobody had seen this was a non-traditional category. And what I found out was the pan competition that I had was in the previous year during that COVID thing, there was when you were in pan, there was no uh like regional trophies or anything like that. Like you had to win it all or you didn't win it. Then I found out if you're in non-traditional, non-traditional, you could win it all, but then they have regional trophies and things like that. So I said, well, why don't I, you know, chances will be better if I can maybe get if I don't win it all, I can maybe win a regional, right? So I I decided to, you know, compete in non-traditional. And no, when it when they say non-traditional, they really like you gotta bring it. You gotta come with something that they ain't never seen before, never tasted before. And I think the pepperoni roses is what kind of helped me. So I I always make I made two of these pizzas. Back then you could make two. Now they only regulate you to make one pizza for for from a timing perspective. But there was a strategy involved. If you made two pizzas, I like to cut my pizzas and then dress them if you've seen any of my Instagram stuff, because you know, when you cut them, you have stuff all over them, it gets messy, right? And again, you're trying to make this beautiful presentation to the judges. So, so what I did is I would make, I made two pizzas up. One I didn't cut, dressed it up, and then the other one I cut, dressed it up, and then they got the they got the one that was uncut, the judges did. And then when it came back out to me, they wanted me to cut it. I said, Well, I already have one cut. And what was nice is that I was able, I didn't have to do all this and make it all messy. I was able to give the judges clean pieces that were not all clean, slice. I learned that. I learned that from the you're right, uh competed at in COVID. I watched other people do it and I'm like, hmm, that's smart. And I I think the judges like it uncut, you know, presented to them. But I just I now when I write make pizzas for the judges, I I like to cut it because it just it even looks good, even cut. You can't even tell sometimes that it's cut the way you dress it up, you know. But that year I won Best Pizza in the Northeast. I was seventh overall. Um, I think Michael Vacknin, another world pizza champion. I think he came in first that year. But I was looking at yes, there was no digital stuff. And then I was with Pete Tolman, and I'm I'm looking, I had no idea about this regional award. Like, like I had no idea. Like, like all of a sudden I look over here and there's this other board and it says, and I have my name was at the top of the list. And I was like two or three points way ahead of everybody. So I won Best Pizza in the Northeast in 2022. That kind of put me on the map with those pepperoni roses. I was uh a greatest feeling. Uh, you know, I got a plaque, I got $500, you know, standing up there without not being, you know, I again I'm was working in a pizzeria. Uh, you know, it wasn't like I was somebody off the street, you know, but these are my creations, you know. I felt real proud um just uh, you know, just uh, you know, be up there with all those people. And um it kind of, you know, kind of put me on the map a little bit. I I love that about your story that you, you know, even though I guess technically we, you know, the internet or social media sees you as a as a homebaker, but you were you were putting in the reps. You were in the pizzeria. Reps, man. Well, the other thing I didn't tell you is, and I don't like to share this too much, but um um, you know, I was making pizzas here for friends and family for like four years in a row. So my my my week, so during COVID, you know, we worked from home for for three years, okay? And so I'm like, okay, so I would started making like pizzas. I'd make like five pizzas. A friend down the street or another friend would say, Hey, will you make me some pizzas or something? Okay, sure. So I started making these pizzas on Saturdays and uh in my oven, I boxing, all of a sudden, you know, word of mouth started flowing around. And so if you came and got a pizza and you told a friend and a friend and a friend and a friend, those those were those were connections. There was no, there was no, I did no public advertisement of like what I was doing here. It was totally friends of friends of friends. Somebody you had to know somebody to get in. That quickly blew up to like 18, making 18 to 20 pizzas every Saturday. So I know. And I was also doing pizza, I was doing pizza classes and I was doing parties. I was going to people's houses and doing parties, and I mean, it was crazy. I and I was doing it, and I, you know, so I'm still not so routinely as I was doing it. I just friends and family. But put the pizzas in there, put the blankets on top, and then they just drove off. And then they would send you, you know, if they wanted to send you any money, they'd send you some met money on demo and stuff like that. But um, it wasn't for listen, it was not for the for the for the money. It was, you know, it was more for just getting uh a lot of Instagram content. And just again, I'll go back to my mom, right? Just going back for the the joy and love of doing it and seeing the smiles on people's faces and how happy people are and and the conversations that we would have. I mean, I can reconnected with friends that I hadn't seen in years, right? You know, they came out of the woodworks and they found that I was making pizzas, you know. And it was just, you know, and it was the social part of it that I enjoyed. And even at the restaurant, you know, people come in, which is really cool. People come into the restaurant and you'll you'll see them and they're they're like, they're on their phone, they're like, there he is, there he is up there. He's making pizzas. Who's that guy making pizza from the inner internet up there, you know? And uh they're sometimes they're a little bit shy and bashful about coming up and saying hello to you. But some people will, you know, the the waitresses will say, Hey, that table over there, there are big fans of you over there. So what I'll do is I'll if if it ain't too busy, I'll run out and go and say hello to them to the table. And, you know, and how many times you go to a restaurant and and a manager comes over to you and is very cordial with you and things like that. You're gonna go back to that place. I mean, you know, it's not my restaurant, but it's my brand at the end of the day, you know, and so and I represent my brand and I also represent their brand. And so that's that's uh means something to me. I'm just not some guy uh fake, if you know what I mean. You can obviously tell I'm not fake. You're definitely not a fake guy and you're you're you're super nice. I'm I'm happy because I finally got a chance to to meet you in Vegas just you know a couple of months ago, and I've been following. I think I think the pepperoni rose is what drew you pulled you on my feed, and I I've been able to watch. And dude, I can I can see without a doubt that you put the the utmost amount of care and and and you know detail into your pizzas. You your pe I mean it's gotta feel great because you got obviously you got a ton of followers, the pizzas look great, but when people see that or people copy it, like how does it feel to just know that like you're not just making pizzas at home for yourself, you're you're actually inspiring other people to get on that journey or to start making some. That's the other part of this that I I've gotten so many messages from so many people that I I have inspired them um to make pizzas. I don't know if it's like, well, hey, if that guy can do it, anybody can do it. I think it's not that. I think it's I think that people just are drawn to the the you know, hey, uh I think I can do this. And so so many people have contacted me. I wish I could post all their um, you know, all their uh sayings up on the wall and whatnot, but uh I mean just just tremendous acoly, you know, tremendous uh inspiration um that are you know that I get from people. People so many times send me pictures of their work um that I see, and I, you know, I'm always encouraging. That's the thing, you know, there's a lot of negativity on social media, and uh I don't choose to partake in that. You know, you can get somebody saying, you know, they'll go off on a tangent. Now, meanwhile, it's good for the algorithm if you want to try to get views and and whatnot. But uh, and that's okay, it's fine. And always take the high road when it comes down to because what ends up happening is that people can see, see you and you know, and see through that. And what ends up happening is other people start commenting and saying,

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you know, they'd start taking your back on things, right? And then you don't have to do anything, you just sit back and let them argue it out, right? I I you know, it's all fun and game. You got a lot of trollers out there, but you gotta you just gotta stay away from that because at the end of the day, it's it's all about, you know, moving pizza forward to the next level. And and that's that's what I'm about. And you know, I'm not you know, I'm not saying I'm the best pizza maker in the world, but I I want to encourage people to to try it and do it, and you'll get a lot of joy out of it. Do you still feel like a student? I mean, you started with Tony G's Pizza Bible. You you you know, you've you've gone through competitions, you won Northeast, you know, you got a huge following, you're helping, you know, the shopping you're in there in in Pittsburgh. You still feel

(Cont.) What Reps, Relationships, and One Book Did for Eddie Stalewski | Pizza King Podcast

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like a student, or do you Yes, so so m so much to learn. There's there's so many, I'd say so many, uh you may not think, but you know, I always self-check myself. You know, there's so many things that I want to do that and I feel like there's a lot of things that I, you know, can improve upon. Like, you know, I first started out making New York style pizzas from the book, you know. But do I make New York style pizzas? No. It's something that I'm good at doing, yes, but I don't practice it as much as I'd like to. So that's a style that, you know, um that I think I can really do good, uh do a good job with. But I'm not afraid to admit, but I have I have some weaknesses. I think everybody has weaknesses if you're absolutely uh, you know, unafraid. If you're afraid to if you're afraid to to say them, then then you got problems. But like I said, I you know, I those are the things for you to work on, right? You know, to make things better, you know. And I think there was a class in Beltsville, Maryland, that I snuck into. Tony Gemini used Tony Tony Tony G used to um have a pizza school in San Francisco. Well, I was saving up my money to go to this thing, you know, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go. And then, you know, and then then all of a sudden he started getting, you know, pulled into different directions with his franchise. And he he he he couldn't do it anymore, really, I think. I think I I mean, not that he couldn't do it. Uh he'll he'll say, you know, um, you know, it it it just got to be too too demanding, you know, probably for his time. And and also he had uh like Laura Meyer was working for him. It's she was a big part of the the the training as well. She wanted to open up a restaurant herself, you know. So he stopped doing that. But then there was this one last class he was going to do, and it was gonna be at Maraforney um in Belgium, Maryland. And I saw it on Instagram and and I saw it and it was sold out like that same day I think he launched it. So I was bummed out, you know. And some sponsors of mine, Grande Cheese, for example, a local rep here, a good friend with, he happened to be dropping off some cheese to my house one day, and he brings his boss with him. His name is Steve Selznick. He's following me on Instagram. Like, what are you doing here? And he's like, I said, I want to come and see what's going on here. Like, what's going on? And you know, traveling with more, we're going to visit some pizzeria's here in Pittsburgh. And I told him about this Tony G class, and he's like, he goes, you know. He goes, Grande sponsors that he goes, and I said, No, I didn't know that. He says, I'm teaching the cheat cheese portion of that class. I'm like, get out of town. Let me make a phone call. So he makes a phone call and calls uh Francesco from Maraforney, and uh they had like 18 people and they slid me in as number 19, so I get in there. It was it it was $2,000. It was not $4,000. I could drive to it, didn't have to take a plane, it was like three and a half hour drive from here to Pittsburgh down there, you know, easy drive. I go down there and take this class, and what was really cool was that uh that's where I met um Cedric down there. Yeah, so Cedric's so Cedric's working for Maraforne. Oh yeah, he was he was just starting as their culinary guy, right? Yeah. Yes, yeah. So he's so he's so he's Tony's assistant, okay, during this class. And there's eight, nineteen of us, and uh, and I'm there, and you know, Tony knows who I am, and so somebody from the back who um um he's he they said, hey Tony, you know, what's what's a trending pizza styles um that are out there? And I had just won best pizza in the northeast in Vegas. He goes, well, he goes, cast iron skillets are hot, he goes, and tavern style pizzas are really hot, and he looks out there and he says, he goes, Eddie, he goes, Eddie, he says, Eddie won best pizza in the northeast. He goes, tell them what you made, Eddie. I'm like, and everybody's looking at me like like like crap, like who's this guy, right? I'm like the the guy in this room. So the cool thing was that Tony knew I worked at Mercurio, so he knew I knew a little bit about making dough, you know, large scale and things like that. So there was a dough making portion of the of the class, and we broke up into groups, and there was like six or seven of us. So we all had a hand in making the dough and stuff. So we're making stuff over here and other groups making, and um, I don't know, we we did something wrong. I think we were measuring out the the flour and somebody left the plastic cup in the flour. We didn't we didn't have enough flour at the end of the day. Wait, you know what I mean? Because the the the plastic cup, you know. Anyway, long story short, the dough didn't come together. It's it came together eventually. So then after you were done making dough, you would then go make pizzas up at the oven. So we're up there at the oven. Tony's got a microphone on, and he's he's doing like ban, he's bantering between me and him about, you know, because he told us to put the book away. We weren't allowed to use the book. And then I looked over and I saw the other group that was over by him. I said, I said, I said, you made us put the book away. I said, what about those guys? I said, they need to put the book. So we it was fun. We had some really good camaraderie uh, you know, between him and I, you know, and uh it was very fun. But at the end of the day, at the end of the class, he um he asked us, what are you doing for dinner? His set said goes, he goes, Hey, I got plans. So Tony looks at me and he goes, Because what are you doing for dinner? I go, I said, Well, what are you doing for dinner? And he says, he says, Well, he says, uh, Julia Adrani has a place up in DC. He says he invited me to come up. I said, I said, well, I said, you want to go? I got a car, I got my wife's car. He he says, yeah, he says, Wanna go? He says, he says, now it's yeah, let's go now. I said, because it's gonna take us some time to get there. So him and I drive in my wife's car. Meanwhile, I had to call my wife before. I said, You're not gonna believe this when I tell you this. Like Tony G did in the car. In your dirty Subaru to get in. Meanwhile, so we drive. I mean, just it was, you know, and we go, we have a great time. Actually, another pizza maker friend of mine, um, his name's um Jeff Taylor. So Jeff is in the Baltimore area. He goes by Staglio's pizza if you're following on Instagram. I am so Jeff's great guy. Jeff knew I was there. Jeff says, hey, I'm gonna come down. I want to get Tony to sign my book. So he comes in, I introduce him to Tony. Um, like I'm Tony's PR guy now, right? So it comes in. So Jeff comes over. So Jeff, Jeff gets to go with us too. Jeff, Jeff's Jeff goes to dinner with us. We go to dinner, we go to dinner, both of him and I go to dinner with Tony. Jeff's driving by himself because he has to, he's going a different direction after he leaves. So it's just me and Tony and my wife's club. But we, you know, it was great. We he was he was it was funny. I was trying to like showing him what I was make, planning on making for Pizza Expo and stuff, you know, because this was in February, so Pizza Expo is coming up in March. He's going through my phone, he goes, I like that pizza, I like that pizza, I like that one, you know. And uh, but it it it was good, good just to have a you know a face-to-face conversation. Meanwhile, he was getting phone calls left and right from people. I mean, it was crazy, you know, um, things he was organizing back in San Francisco. But I yeah, then after that, you know, it was it was it was good. I think these interactions you have with people like this really um, you know, helped. I mean, it helped me here, yeah. I I think in in the long run, you know, just to to um, you know, having these conversations and really kind of getting to know you, like, hey, you know, this guy's a pretty nice guy, pretty cool guy, loves pizza type of thing. And i I think that was, you know, that's how that's how things work in this world, right? You you make connections and these these connections, these pieces that I these pieces that I've made over these years, it's just it's in incredible. A lot of it had to do with going to Pizza Expo. A lot of it had to, you know, I forced the issue with some of these things, you know, going to work at Mercurios and getting to know them, and then they become world pizza champions. And so, you know, and then there's these all these uh, you know, connections with people that you make over the over the time. If I had to go back, it's not it wasn't scripted though. That's a thing, you know. Maybe a little bit, I think. Maybe I had some some ideas of what I was thinking, but I never would have thought that, you know. I always dreamt that I would, once I understood what the World Pizza Champions team is and what it means, I think uh I started aspiring to be that. And I started making it known that I would like to be on the team. The other thing I didn't really say is, you know, that once I won that Best Pizza in the Northeast, um, you know, and then that Tony interaction. Um I was I also was applying. There was a California real California pizza compet contest um that they had. I was that I think that's eight years running that they've had. So I've been applying to that that thing for eight years. You know, you put a you put a picture in, you but you can only send in two pictures and you got to give, you know, your recipe, what you're doing, and then they they pick you. Well then the one year in 2020, 2024, they picked my guess what pizza they picked. I and I submitted. I submitted that one with the pepperoni roses. Yeah, I bet. They picked it. I had to execute, I I I had to execute it there and get it. So the judges, I won that year, and I won I won $7,500. That's awesome. All expense paid, all expense paid to go to Napa, California. Um, you know, and and what was really cool was that my my wife's sister lives in Santa Cruz, again, West Coast. Well, Napa's only two hours from Santa Cruz. So I would I flew to my sister-in-law's house, did all my prep work there, drove all my stuff to from there, rented a car one way, um, and then, you know, and I had all my stuff already prepped, and then the next day I was competing in the competition, you know, and I ended up with winning that year. Pizza Expo was in 20. I I I mean, I've been competing in the Pizza Pizza Expo, right? Yeah, I was still still competing. Uh, there was competition in in uh used to be Atlantic City that I competed in. And then uh then I went back the next year. I I I put in another pizza um for the real California, and I got accepted again. It was a cast iron skillet, beautiful cast iron skillet. I had these cast iron skillets sent from Lodge cast iron to my sister-in-law. They sent me eight cast irons. I didn't pay for them. I ended up giving them away to all the contestants after I was done. And I that was in 2025, I won, and the prize that year was like five five thousand or fifty five hundred. So I won 5,000 that year. The judges again that year were Tony, Laura Meyer. Who was the third judge? Oh, it was Glenn. I think it was Glenn again. I think all three of those were Glenn. So, you know, again, the the connections you make. One other thing I will say, uh, I'm very proud of this. And I I don't I didn't I'm not a gloater or I don't really like to, you know, but uh there was a I want to say it was in 2024, there was a it was called PizzaCon. It was in Philadelphia. There was a one-day, yeah. You know what I'm talking about? I didn't get a chance to go, but it was like the same time. So I went to the show, yeah. There was no competitions or anything. So the big thing on that show was that um the keynote address speakers was Tony Gemini and uh John Arena. They were announcing the John Arena Foundation that they were still world pizza champions were starting. But both of both of those guys got up there and were talking, and Tony. Um, Tony was up there and he was talking. And I was there's thousands of people there. I'm in the middle. I mean, I'm in the middle, like far from the stage. Like you probably can't even see me, but I'm I'm there. Like center in the middle. I got a red shirt on in the middle. And uh, so he's talking. So Tony's talking about his his dad and how his dad coached his soccer team. And he was talking he was talking about the World Pizza Champions and how he formed this World Pizza Champion team. And, you know, and he talked about, you know, you don't have to be the best where he goes, but you know, these these some of the people that were on the team, and he said, you know, he says, he says, you know, you don't have to. He also said, you know, he was talking about Anthony Scardino, uh, which is in the Chicago area of Professor. I talked to him in Vegas. We're gonna get him on the show, though. Yeah. Yeah, he's awesome, dude. But Tony will, Anthony was we didn't have a pizzeria. He gets on the team, mainly because Tony, you know, saw something in him, right? It it's not about whether you own a pizzeria or not, because there's a lot of people that are on the team that own a pizzeria. It's it's what you're it it what's your what's your what's your platform? What are you pushing forward, right? Um, and I mean, do I have aspirations of a pizzeria? Yeah, sure I do. But you know, I don't have one now, and probably Anthony didn't either. Now Anthony has like two or three of them now, right? But he's talking about Anthony, because I guess some of the team members were giving him slack of the Tony Slack say, hey, look, this guy doesn't even own pizzeria. And Tony's like, you watch, this guy's gonna win championships, you know. He says it's not about he's just not about whether you own a pizzeria or not. He goes, he says, what's inside that counts? He says, what's in here? And he points out into the audience. He says, it's like the Eddies out there. He says, he says, that guy loves pizza. He goes, I think he loves pizza more than I do. I was, first of all, people are looking at me, like, who's this guy again? You know, kind of like deer and headlights. And I was I was just taken back that he mentioned me. And then after that, we had them, we we did a social media thing with me and him because I that was a ton, they actually launched this Pursuit of Pizza book that I got an advanced copy of. So, you know, hence the the Pizza Bible. Now, this is like the Pursuit of Pizza is like the the sequel, I guess. For the pizza, yeah, yeah, I understand. Only yeah, but it has like QR codes in it and everything. But anyways, I started making pizzas in there. So the social media person who's works on this on the World Pizza Tamping Team, they would show me making a pizza, and they and then me and Tony talked about, but he he he mentioned he goes, he I said I told him thank you for and acknowledging me. I said I can't believe he says he said I saw you out there. He goes, he says, he says, he said, I saw you out there. I said, I said, I saw you, you saw me, you made eye contact with me. You know, I was I didn't, I just couldn't believe that they pointed me out like that. So, you know, uh he's a great guy. He's like one of the hardest working people, I think, that I've ever known, you know. Just just incredible. I don't even understand how it's almost like there's 10 of them because you'll see him opening up in a franchise here, and then he's making pizzas on a cruise ship here, then he's doing classes at expo. It's like, dude, wait, when and where do you sleep? Because you're everywhere in the country and still like has so much joy and has time to talk to folks and put people on and do podcast interviews and all these other things. He's a machine. I think I think when you I think the lesson is that when you start feeling sorry for yourself, you you you look at him and you be like, okay, I I shouldn't feel sorry for myself because I ain't I'm not working as hard as this guy is. Yeah. You know, I mean that's that's the lesson there is that and and you know, look look at all these professional athletes. I mean, they always they always say he I I always reference him as the Michael Jordan of pizza because you know he you know you know he always gets the goat, you know, yeah um labeled there. But um I don't know if he likes that or not. He's just being himself at the end of the day. Um you know those professional athletes. Those guys don't, you know, Kobe Bryant and folks like that, they don't get to those to that stature without, you know, just by sitting and eating chips. And he told me one time, I was actually getting ready to compete, and I was real early in the morning, and it was 4 30, 5 o'clock in the morning, and I was unloading my car at Pete's Expo. And who do I see come walk into the place five o'clock in the morning? I'm glad to see I'm not the only person that gets up at four or five o'clock in the morning. Machines, absolute, absolute machines, both of you. I think the lesson for me and just listening to your story is not only do you have, you know, obviously passion for pizza and passion for doing things at a high level, and but the attention and the and the passion you have behind just having good relationships and meeting people and and learning from folks and you know, continuing to foster that because your your story is to me isn't even about pizzas. It's about the people that you've met along the way who've you know contributed contributed one way or the other to who who Eddie's piece of 412, the the page, but who who Eddie S Eddie Stalouski is as a man today as a pizza maker. I mean, that's right, that's that's amazing. I love that. Yeah, a lot of people. I I mean I it's not me, it's it's all the people that you surround yourself with. Um it's my wife, it's my daughter. It's I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't be able to do the things I do here without them. I mean, my wife does my, you know, she'll record my videos, and I'm not sometimes not not the you know, the easiest going person when I'm, you know, she's filming me because I want it done a certain way. And I think when I first started making pizzas for friends and family and things, I remember my daughter, they were it was so Saturdays, you know, they're they're usually going shopping, right? So I'm here making pizzas and people are coming to pick pizzas up. And I remember my daughter saying, like, Dad, why are you doing this? I'm like, Well, I said, I don't I I don't I don't know why. I said, I I think I do. I said, it's I think it's because I, you know, people want these pizzas and I want to make these pizzas for them. That's the best uh answer I could give her now fast forward, and I'm like, you know, did I think that I would be here today, knowing from that question that she asked me several four or five years ago that I I I don't you know it's it's just fascinating to think like I went from there to here uh in that in that time. I mean, uh I I mean I've been at uh 2013, four, it's over a decade, you know. You know, and and I I you can't I mean, time not you know, now that you become World Pizza Champion, it doesn't it's not like uh becoming going into the Hall of Fame or anything like that. This is this is where your career starts, is right here, right here, right now. I think in that regard, it's invigorated me um just from the organizations and things that the team is involved with, the John Arena Foundation, Slice Out Hunger, Kids Feeding Kids. There's all these different organizations, a big we do donations to a Make a Wish Foundation every year at Pizza Expo. Again, John mentioned John Arena Foundation was started. So these things are non, you know, we're a nonprofit, but those things um uh where you can give back to the community uh uh is uh something that I, you know, like to do and and am uh inspired to do. I I love I love to hear it. Well, you you know, learning your story has been incredible. You're you're an awesome dude. Your pizzas obviously look great. I am almost 1,000% sure that anybody listening to me talk is already following your page. But just in case there's one person out there, how do they find you? You can find me actually on um I on in Instagram and Facebook. It's uh Eddie's Pizza412. So Eddy's Pizza 412, that's that's my handle. I just recently, I'd say over the last year, got on Facebook. I was totally on Instagram. Unless you're someone with millions and millions of followers, you ain't making no money. I mean, I think at one time I was making some decent cash, but that was whenever they were competing with with TikTok and they didn't have reels yet, and all of a sudden, so they were paying a lot of uh content creators to hey generate some buzz and stuff. So we did that. My followers grew real fast, real quick, and you're getting paid pretty decent cash, and all of a sudden they went to the city. Same, yeah. I caught that right. I caught the same wave. Yeah. It was good for good for a summer. Yeah. No, I uh but I, you know, the where the, you know, uh if you get the sponsors is where it's at, you know. My reach, you know, for me with 170 some thousand followers, my reach is way bigger than somebody with like a thousand or two thousand followers. So why wouldn't a pepperoni company or a cheese company or an equipment company or somebody want to get because for what they would pay me to to do some social media content versus what they would have to pay a PR company to do is peanuts. So because my those guys can't reach the same amount of people or the direct people that are following me as so it it's it's a win-win. That's why a lot of these content creators are doing so well because some of the companies have figured it out. I mean, I get approached all the time from companies, but there's a lot of companies approach you about doing this, doing that. I I'm uh I'm I'm real, so you know, I like I like uh I like promoting companies that I'm using that you use and you believe you really believe in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah. So but if you know Jersey Mike's wanted to do something with me or you know, want to become a Jersey big Jersey Mike's guy. You know, if we want to make a sandwich pizza or something, you know, with Jersey Mike, that wouldn't be too bad either. There it is. I'm gonna send this clip to Jersey Mike's and see if we can make that happen. Eddie, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for spending and spending some time with me this morning. I appreciate it. I really appreciate it man. A huge fan of yours. Love the work, love the love the passion just behind the whole story, and I'm glad I got to know it a little bit better. I'm looking forward to just continuing to have a relationship with you. So thanks for doing this for me. Yeah, same here. If you need anything or you need uh any other folks that uh you'd like to have on, I I got I mean, it's some I got a list of names you probably would love to have on. Or a good good guy, a good friend of mine is uh Jimmy Henry to Jimmy Hank Pizzas. He's great. I see his stuff too. Yeah, he's been doing like some podcast stuff too and live. Yeah, you well, you should get him and uh his his uh and uh he actually started Virtual Pizza Academy. Yeah, him and another guy, Jim Maribelli from N-E-P-E-A, Nepa Pizza Review. Uh-huh. Those two, those two would be great to have on your show, man. They're awesome dudes. You can tell my set it. Very no it, but you know, they're uh I can get you their contact if you need it, but uh, you could probably reach out to him through uh social. This pizza expo was the um the capstone for me. I was invited to do a demonstration with Tony on this on the main stage, five, six hundred people watching me make pizza. Jimmy was there as well. He's not a world pizza champion yet. Not yet. But um, you know, yeah, you know, I mean, you can't get on a stage with Tony and you know, you're you're you're not, you gotta be somebody, right? At least somebody, you know. So I was, you know, we so we both were on the stage together. And and so, you know, it was uh for me being on that stage, I had there was a part of the presentation or part of the my demo that I I wanted to bring out my pizza Bible because I had it with me and I didn't really know how to do it. We only have so much time and I'm and I knew if I would have started off with this book, I would have probably been like bawling and crying because telling about my journey, like I was telling you, at least I didn't cry today, but um, but telling about my journey and then um and then I there was a time where where Tony would kind of during the present uh demonstration, he comes over and he sort of says something to me, he's how's that look, or something like that, because they he he was bringing the pizzas over to my and and I was and I said I said something to him and I said, Oh, it looks good or something. I said, Does this pizza look familiar to you, you know? And he, you know, he kind of like laughed. And then I picked up my book and I said, you know, I said I've been a um, you know admirer of Tony for many, many years. I said I bought this book, I said, in 2013, 14, like I told you, I said, I came to Pizza Expo in 2019, he signed my book, and I I just I just held it up and I said, you know, I never would have thought that I'd be here on this stake making pizzas in front of you all. So it was incredible. And then that was the same that that same week I got the the jacket. So it couldn't have been more scriptful. Full circle moment for you, man. That's incredible. Full circle moment, incredible. All right, well, close it out with one one piece of advice for somebody at home who is probably gonna pick up uh Pursuit of Pizza or Pizza Bible or Mastering Pizza, like any any one of those books. Like piece of advice for somebody getting started and and with aspirations to end up with a world pizza champion jacket like yourself. Yeah, I would definitely say um, you know, it it doesn't have to be those books, but I strongly advise the pizza Bible in particular. That was the one, and it's very still current and everything, but my advice would be is uh, you know, and just start out like I did. Start out slow, follow, uh, follow the follow the book, make the make the recipes and and and can continue to make them over and over. And just enjoy it. I think that's the the best thing is enjoy the process. You may or may not make it to this. And again, you I I don't even know if it was something that was on my radar, but I just, you know, I I think as I went along, I started thinking, you know, maybe there's a possibility and and you know, and but uh, you know, you gotta have fun with it. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. You know, I made so many mistakes, you're not gonna make a perfect pizza every time, but there's gonna be times when you actually do and you gotta keep it, keep at it, and get keep keep doing it and keep doing the reps. I think repetitions is part of being a perfectionist and successful. So I think that's that would be my lesson. I'll leave everybody and use good ingredients, don't, don't cut corners when it says to get these kind of tomatoes, get these kind of tomatoes, it says get this kind of flutter, because there's there's a reason why they're they're telling you that. Right. So those are the things that I learned along the way that um that I still do to this day. So very good stuff. Do the refs and don't cut corners with ingredients. You heard it from the man himself. Thanks so much, Eddie. I appreciate I appreciate you.