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A Livermore High School sophomore, whose parents own Much Ado About Pizza in Pleasanton, took home the first-place title at the national Young Pizza Makers Competition in Orlando last month.
Zoe Zabrowski earned the 2025 Young Pizza Maker of the Year honor during the Florida Restaurant Show/Pizza Tomorrow Summit for her unique pizza she dubbed “Pigs in Paradise”, which is topped with pork and tropical fruit like mangoes.
“I (had) hoped I’d win and I actually did win so … I was really, really excited,” she said. “I was jumping for joy.”
Early in November, the Weekly spoke with the teen and her family ahead of their trip to Florida from Nov. 11-13 for the national competition.
At the time, she said she was nervous but excited to try something new in competing — something not totally new to her parents Mark and Kira Zabrowski, who had participated in several pizza conventions and competitions before opening their brick-and-mortar store in the Mission Plaza shopping center on Santa Rita Road in the summer of 2022.
Zoe Zabrowski told the Weekly that while this year’s competition wasn’t too packed with other competitors, it was still nerve-racking having to show off her pizza-making skills to the number of judges who critiqued her technique, creativity and determination.
“I was super nervous,” she said. “It was the first time I ever competed in anything like this.”
Despite the nerves, the Livermore high schooler’s talents led her to claim the top spot in what her parents said is “one of the pizza industry’s premier youth competitions”.
“This win means so much because I’ve watched Zoe pour her heart into this,” mom Kira Zabrowski said in a press release. “She worked so hard on creating her pizza, and even when she had failed attempts, she never gave up. Her perseverance and passion are what make this moment so special. We couldn’t be more proud.”
In a separate interview with the Weekly, Kira Zabrowski added how great it was not just to see her daughter step outside of her comfort zone, but to do so in a way that represents the entire Tri-Valley and the greater pizza community.
She also said her family was really appreciative of the support they received not just from their local community, but from the U.S. Pizza Team who, during the event last month, presented her daughter with a “Pizza Prodigy” recognition and a chef coat to celebrate her talent and bright future in the industry — even though the teenager previously told the Weekly her life ambitions might lie elsewhere.
Regardless, Kira Zabrowski said that it’s still nice to see others rallying behind small businesses like her own and that in a difficult industry like theirs, it’s important to lean into one’s community, which is why her business tries to give back through things like its “Shakespeare Shares” initiative.
During the month of November, the pizza shop donated $1 to CityServe of the Tri-Valley for each pizza purchased.
“The more we can do, the more we can put ourselves out there locally, but even nationally, the better it is for everyone in the community,” Kira Zabrowski said.
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