March Madness 2012 FINALS

This past Saturday we held the finals for our annual March Madness contest at the Bridle Trails Delivery Kitchen. It was a battle between some experienced tossers – the least tenured competitor has been with Pagliacci for over 2 years. The Final Four were all competing for pride, cash, and dinner for their entire store (and, no, it’s not pizza).

Quinn Ressler from Crossroads, Hugo Uitzil-Tun from Juanita, Marlene Tun-Gil from Bellevue Square, and Jon Obrycki from 85th were this year’s finalists. All have participated in March Madness before but were first-time finalists. Prior to competition Bridle’s lobby began to fill up with spectators ready to cheer and jeer. Juanita was the best represented out of the stores but Crossroads had the edge on props.

All of the competitors tossed out very fast pizzas – the fastest was 31 seconds and the “slowest” was 38 seconds. That means each of these crewmembers can turn a dough ball into a large cheese pizza in just over half-a-minute!

We tallied all the seconds and graded all of the pizzas. We know our customers have high standards so we grade hard. We look at size, even cuts, color of bake – top and bottom, spread of sauce and cheese, crust appearance, and a handful of other criteria.

Quinn had the fastest pizza, but once they were all out of the oven it looked like a race between Hugo and his aunt Marlene. In the end, Marlene proved that Pagliacci and family seniority counted for something. She earns the title of Best Cook in Pagliacci 2012 and gets to defend her crown next year.

Thanks to all the stores for coming out and congrats to Jon, Quinn, Hugo, and especially Marlene for busting it out and proving to be the best of the best!

Marlene shows off her winning form.

Hugo's attempt mid-spin.

Quinn’s toss. Note the follow-through demonstrated by the bent wrist on his right hand.

Jon preps his sauce

Congrats, Marlene