French make best pizzas in the world

You may be surprised to know that the best pizzas in the world are not made by the inventors in Italy, nor by the American fast food franchises, they are French. That's according to the organizers of the Pizza and Pasta Expo held in Paris on Wednesday.

The group brought together the country's best pizza makers and pitted them against a few candidates from the rest of the world. In the end, the French chefs came out on top.

Following several regional and national rounds, and copious amounts of tomato sauce, Rabah Zaoui was crowned the champion. Typically French, the chef from Carcassonne said the secret to his success was in the dough.

Rabah Zaoui, French pizza champion, said, "For a good pizza, you have to have good dough. For me the dough is very important. At least I think so. I would compare it to a saucepan that is going to hold an ingredient that I've prepared. So with a good quality dough you make a good pizza."

Jury member Patrick Asfaux agreed that the key was a solid base. And since he is a Michelin-starred chef himself, he should know.

Patrick Asfaux, member of jury, said, "We're always looking for originality. Most of the pizzas we see aren't like the ones you see on television, where you see the dough rising with lots of yeast, because really pizza is merely water with salt and yeast. After you have those things, you can work wonders."

France is the second biggest consumer of pizza in the world after the USA - even ahead of the Italian inventors. The industry is worth three million euros a year with an average of ten kilograms of pizza consumed every year by each person in France - ten times the amount of hamburgers eaten.