Making pizzas fly

Italy's Pasqualino Barbasso, who has twice won the world championship for acrobatic pizza, will be in Beijing soon doing lunch and dinner shows. [Photo provided to China Daily]

How does somebody grow up and become famous for throwing giant pizzas in the air?

"It really started as a joke," says Italy's Pasqualino Barbasso, who has twice won the world championship for acrobatic pizza, in 2001 and again in 2002. "I started doing it at the restaurant where I worked long ago, and customers started asking me to come and do shows. Now I've been doing it for more than 15 years."

Barbasso will be in Beijing soon for a week doing lunch and dinner shows. Besides his acrobatics, he will prepare his signature pizzas such as Lilly (prawn, pumpkin, grilled zucchini, mozzarella, bottarga mullet roe), Bolero (stracciatella cheese, bresaola ham, cherry tomatoes, balsamic reduction), Roman-style, and Arrotolata (Parma ham, artichoke, rolled pizza mozzarella and Parmesan cheese).

The 43-year-old Sicilian has toured the world to showcase the quality and traditions behind Italian pizza.

We caught up with Barbasso between tosses to ask a few questions about his craft.

What's the biggest pizza you've ever made in a competition?

About 2 meters. It starts with 1 kg of dough and takes about 10 minutes to spin out that big.

Is the dough you use for acrobatics the same dough used to make a pizza for eating?