EAT LOCAL MEDIA
November 30
Michael LaMarca in his element. (Photo Credit: U.S. Pizza Team)
If you live in or around the Cleveland area, you may have heard the name "Michael P. LaMarca" before. Whether it be for his numerous competition wins, his feature on Hulu's "Best in Dough", or because Master Pizza is your go-to weekend slice, LaMarca has a well-earned reputation behind him in Northeastern Ohio.
We sat down with LaMarca to talk about his impressive career in the pizza industry to get but a mere glimpse at what's behind the mastery. LaMarca generously agreed to detail how he worked his way through the business, but we, obviously, have to start at the beginning.
Slice of Childhood
LaMarca’s family moved to Strongsville when he was in the first grade, so any time he didn’t spend at school was spent at a pizza shop. While he’d be learning, his mother worked with a family friend who owned Gina’s Pizza. After school, LaMarca wasn’t young enough to go home alone, so you’d often find him at work, too.
“I wasn’t old enough to be self-sufficient, so I would go to work with her on Friday nights,” says LaMarca. “When she would work, I would just hang out in the little office. At the end of the night, I would help clean tables and grate cheese.”
Little LaMarca would stand on milk crates to help pitch in, rolling dough and making pizza boxes to pass the time.
“At the end of the night, I got to make my own pizza, which was like my paycheck,” LaMarca laughs. “The first time I made a pizza, it came out of the oven like a pizza that someone would really buy… I thought, ‘Oh my God, I love this.’”
(Photo Credit: Pizza Power Forum)
It’s no surprise that his first job would be at the very same pizza shop. Even throughout college at Cleveland State, pizza was his passion. He very well may have been the only college student in Ohio who enjoyed going to work in his free time.
Then, one day, his father called him up to test his passion for the pie. Out in Mayfield Heights, a longtime barber shop owned by his grandfather and passed down to his uncle, was next to a pizza shop called Master Pizza. The owner was retiring and putting the shop up for sale.
“My dad asked me how serious I was about the pizza industry,” says LaMarca. “He said, ‘Would you be interested in working with us if we bought the shop next door to the barbershop?’ Immediately, I said, ‘Yes, let’s do this.’”
When LaMarca was about 21 years old, on July 1st, 2000, the family business, Master Pizza, began.
“As much as I thought I knew about the business, I didn’t know anything about it. I learned a lot from my dad about how to run a business… and my mom was there every day, too, and uncles and aunts: it was a true family business.”
LaMarca jokes that it was the only job he had where he could get grounded at work, but having the whole family involved was the beauty of the business. Master Pizza might have begun as a passion project, but it would soon stand as a legacy.
Early Days of the Shop
On August 1st, 2012, LaMarca opened a second Master Pizza location in Chagrin Falls, with a dream of growing the business. The building had all the bare-bones equipment, making it a perfect second stop for the shop.
“I think anybody who’s in the culinary world enjoys making something and seeing someone enjoy it. That’s our paycheck: the satisfaction of looking over and seeing people enjoying themselves. Especially pizza, it’s a fun food.”
It wasn’t always easy on the back end of the shop, though. LaMarca had been a new father with maxed-out credit cards, trying to figure things out and make the business work. He had delicious pizza, but the next step was marketing it to new faces.
What better place to market a pizza you’re proud of than a pizza competition? So, LaMarca took a trip down to Columbus, competing at Pizza Pizzazz, in hopes of taking home an easy win.
“I took last. I did really, really bad,” LaMarca recalls with a laugh. “I remember thinking that I had everything figured out.”
Though it wasn’t what he had anticipated, LaMarca was thankful to be in the room with around 75 people who had traveled from across the country to compete.
“The next year, I took second,” says LaMarca. “I was literally on the car ride home calling radio stations and TV stations, saying what we did. I was on air the next day, even before the winners were.”
After gaining notoriety in newspapers and on the radio, LaMarca was soon off to Las Vegas to compete in the International Pizza Challenge in 2013. Competing in the non-traditional category, he took first in the division. Though he wasn’t able to win the finals, this marked a monumental win for LaMarca.
Alongside the victory came a call from the United States Pizza Team, offering congratulations and an invitation to compete at the World Pizza Championship in Italy.
Essentially, he was being invited to the Olympics of pizza making.
The pressure was on, with cameras surrounding participants as they had only 12 minutes to make the perfect pie before it was toted off to the judges.
“It was just so intimidating that I forgot half of the ingredients of my pizza.”
He caught on, though, and what would begin as one trip to Italy soon evolved into competitions in Spain, China, Sweden, England, and beyond. And, with how much he competed and won, it became the norm for LaMarca and Master Pizza to be featured in news outlets from screen to script.
“I always say that necessity is innovation, you know? You’ve got to figure it out. We got creative and had a great team, and we just figured out how to get some notoriety and build off of that and come up with great products.”
LaMarca took inspiration from his experiences, featuring flavors and techniques from the places he’s competed in and visited. You’ll find the “Manhattan” on the menu, an ode to New York pizza, and you can customize any pie with a Detroit crust for a texture from up north.
“One of the things we live by is that we eat here, too. We probably eat here more than our customers do, so we want to have the right products.”
With this wave of concern online about what we should and shouldn’t be eating, Master Pizza has been well ahead of the trends for nearly 15 years. Avoiding additives is just one part of the battle, as every Master Pizza location has been using unbromated, unbleached flour for over a decade.
“A lot of people aren’t aware of [bleach being used in flour]. I learned about it a long, long time ago while traveling in Italy. I got to visit some flour mills and some of the biggest flour companies in Italy, and I learned so much about them that when I came home, I didn’t want that in my flour.”
That, and LaMarca notes that all the products used at Master Pizza are specifically chosen not to contain certain preservatives. Ideally, everything is always as fresh as possible.
Famous Face
Many of you may have seen Chef LaMarca on Hulu’s “Best In Dough”, competing against the Chicago and Detroit pizzas of the world with none other than his own homestyle.
“I make a pan pizza, I could go up against that. [The producers] asked, ‘What is it like?’ I said, ‘It’s Cleveland Style.’”
Initially, there were questions about what the integrity of a “Cleveland Style” pizza might look like. LaMarca put it simply to them.
“It’s a pizza that is in a round pan, but the dough recipe is a bit breadier than a typical pizza dough recipe.”
LaMarca competing on the Hulu special, "Best In Dough"
Master Pizza, specifically, is distinct in appearance. You take the “Cleveland Style”-coined doughier crust, dimple it, and top it with herby, deep tomato sauce and provolone.
LaMarca’s mastery proved successful, as he famously won the “Best In Dough” title and the $10k grand prize. But, unlike many other chefs, LaMarca can’t actually savor his dough.
“The Good Lord has a sense of humor. I have Celiac’s Disease,” LaMarca jests. “I got tested, and the doctor looked at me and said, ‘I have never seen someone this intense with gluten intolerance like you.’”
For someone who had dedicated his life’s work to dough, it threw him for an unbelievable loop. Thankfully, in his many travels around the world, LaMarca had his fair share of gluten-free pizza, whether good or not. In this, he decided to master the perfect gluten-free pizza without using any store-bought, frozen shells.
“We were very committed to making gluten-free pizza because we couldn’t not have it,” says LaMarca. “It started off with making the shells overnight because we worked during the day. We would make 30 to 50 a week.”
Which may seem like a small feat for a staff that currently makes over 1,000 shells a week. All of this is a labor of love for LaMarca and others like him with Celiac disease or a gluten intolerance, so that they can enjoy the simplicity of a pizza party.
The kitchen is color-coded to ensure food safety for those who order gluten-free pizza. Using dedicated tools, changing gloves, and ensuring every step of the pizza-making process is cross-contamination-free helps keep all pizzas in order and safe for specific dietary needs.
“Making pizza is a lot harder than people realize because, you know, it comes at you a dozen at a time. We really came up with a system and worked hard to execute this to provide a great product safely for many types of people who need those options.”
The Master Pizza menu is also inclusive for those with vegetarian and vegan diets, prioritizing the shop’s slogan of “Pizza for Everyone”.
Editor's Eats
“Michael LaMarca— Captain of the United States Pizza Team, five-time national champion winner, one-time international pizza champion winner— gets a cheese pizza,” LaMarca jokes. “I get a cheese pizza, sometimes double cheese, and extra sauce.”
A pretty fine order, if we do say so ourselves!
For those looking for some variety, I'd have to reccomend these stars:
Atop his many impressive accolades, LaMarca currently sits as the Vice Chair for the Board of Directors of the Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance (ORHA).
“[ORHA] fights for the restaurant industry in so many ways; it’s a mission to elevate the industry,” says LaMarca. “I’ve been involved in it forever, but then as I became a board member, I realized how important this association is.”
LaMarca sang praise for ORHA and their advocacy for the industry, down to the nitty-gritty of government policies and regulations. This non-partisan organization prioritizes protecting and informing restaurants, owners, and staff.
On issues such as tip taxing, child labor laws, and food safety, the ORHA helps keep restaurants informed about developments at the federal and state levels.
The Man Behind the Slice
If it wasn’t obvious, Michael P. LaMarca is serious about his pizza. It goes beyond a quick call-in order on a Friday night when you don’t feel like cooking; this is his life. In the culinary industry, you’ll come across thousands of chefs and owners who genuinely have a love and passion for the craft, and LaMarca is undoubtedly one of them.
"My dad always said to me, 'If you're gonna be a pizza guy, be the best pizza guy in the world.'"
Whether you’ve had Master Pizza before or not, I couldn’t encourage you more to stop in, order a pie, and enjoy the LaMarca labor of love.
Find a Master Pizza location near you!
Are you our next featured spot? Please send all inquires, comments, and questions to mnader@eatlocalohio.com.