Interview with Will Grant, Caputo Cup Champion

Note from Peter: I met Will Grant in October, in Atlantic City during the Caputo Cup Pizza Championship, where I was serving as a judge in the Non-Traditional Category (this meant, pretty much, anything goes, as opposed to the Traditional category which limited total toppings to three). Will had come to my interview, earlier that day, with pizza maestro Joe Beddia, and afterward he filled me in on his life on Bainbridge Island in Washington and we got to know each other a bit. I wouldn’t let him tell me about his competition pizza because I didn’t want to be biased, so I was pleased when his pie won the category without me knowing it was his (there were a few other sourdough pizzas in this category besides his). While I didn’t know it was his, what I did notice about it was how great the crust was — light in texture while complex in flavor — and, equally important, how balanced the pizza was, not overloaded with toppings but pleasantly topped with a unique gorgonzola cream sauce, along with some other ingredients. Will’s pizzeria, That’s A Some Pizza, has quite a backstory, and stays loyal to the Pacific Northwest passion for sourdough and to the generational values instilled by his family. He agreed to share some of this story with us as he now prepares to represent the United States at the World Pizza Competition as well at the upcoming National Pizza Championship in Las Vegas at Pizza Expo in March.

Will Grant, sourdough pizza master

Peter (PQ):  Will, can you tell our readers a little about your journey, and how you ended up making pizzas?

Will: I have a life long relationship with pizza. I didn’t ended up in it, I started in it.  In 1984 when I was five years old my parents opened our pizzeria on Bainbridge Island, Washington State.  I made dough and pizzas when I was pretty young and have always loved to work and make food. I got serious and started as a chef’s apprentice when I was 10 years old. A year of washing dishes, a year of cutting herbs, a year of baking bread and desserts, a year of prep cooking and sauces and finally, on the fifth year, I worked the sauté line to complete my apprenticeship. For the next 8 years I worked my way through the front of the house.  I started by bussing tables, then expediting, then on to waiting tables, bartending, and even Sommelier, then finishing up with Managing. I opened my first restaurant on my own when I was 24 years old. I sold it two years later and came back to the family pizza parlor that I now own and run on Bainbridge Island.

The family pizzeria. That Will’s mom with him as kid, way back when.

PQ: Sounds like you’ve come full circle, for sure. But you’ve done more than just take over the pizzeria. Both you, and also one of your staff, won awards at the recent Caputo Cup in Atlantic City. Can you describe the winning pizzas and the ingredients and choices you made in creating them?

Will: The winning pizza was in the “non-traditional” category. It was my Gorgonzola Vegetarian, that I came up with about 6 years ago. It is a homemade gorgonzola dressing base with mozzarella, provolone, mushrooms, red onions, garlic, pine nuts and feta cheese sprinkled on after the bake to keep in the feta’s moisture.  The Gorgonzola Vegetarian is one of my favorite pizzas and the first one of mine that I added to the menu. If I was going to represent my skills as a Pizzaiolo I wanted to make one of my favorite pizzas from our menu!

Will’s winning Gorgonzola Non-Traditional Pizza

The second place winner, in the “traditional” category was won by my manager, Allen Raymond,, who made a pepperoni and onion pizza with a Stanislaus tomato sauce mix base, with mozzarella and provolone cheese. Allen had been working on the right combination for a good traditional pie for three months before deciding on his pepperoni and onion pizza for the event.

Last year’s winner, Norma Knepp, entered this pepperoni beauty but didn’t place this year. Instead, Allen Raymond’s Traditional Pepperoni and Onion Pizza outscored her and was the 2nd Place winner. I think it was his and Will’s sourdough crust that made the winning difference this time around.

PQ: What are some of your other goals for the business? Are there any other products in the planning stages? Where do you see it going in, say, 5 or 10 years?

Will: I’m just taking things one step at a time. For everything that has changed we are still that same 500 square foot pizzeria that has been open for 34 years. We proved to the nation we have great pizza, now is the time to impress the nation with consistent food and excellent customer service.  Our dough makes a pretty great Sicilian crust with a four part fermentation process. I have been making some fun Sicilian pan pizzas and look forward to adding them to my menu this year. In the next 5-10 years I would love to either expand my Pizzeria or open a new, bigger location! But a big part of these next few years will be spent close to home raising my daughter as a Pizzaiolo. To be honest I’m just trying to wrap my head around this next year. I have the Quest for Sourdough collecting my starter in February. Also I have been asked to join the World Pizza Champion Pizza Team and will be competing next April in Parma, Italy for best pizza in the world!

Will and his daughter — the next generation!!

PQ: That’s fantastic and should be a life changing experience — congratulations! What is it with the Pacific Northwest? It seems to be a hot bed for creative, innovative cooking and baking, and people feel so passionate about living there. Do you have any thoughts as to why this is so, and how living there has influenced you, both as a baker and also in general?

Will: The passion about living and cooking in the PNW started even way before our starter was born in the Klondike Gold Rush, 120 years ago. Though the Gold Rush brought most of us Europeans here, the Native tribes had been living here for hundreds of years before us. They did, and still to this day, share their traditions in cooking and life. How to be one with the world around you, and how to appreciate your time on it, are some of the lessons I have learned from my Native Aunts and Uncles here.  Being as far west as we are, people have always come here to escape whatever life they have come from, to join the last of the wild west and our independent spirit. I am blessed to live on a small island in the middle of the Puget Sound surrounded by the Cascade Mountains on the east and the Olympic Mountains to my west.  With these mountains and waters we have an abundance of local farms and hatcheries to use the freshest of ingredients and seafood, giving us a unique sense of pride for myself and all my cooking brethren here in the Pacific Northwest.

A true pizza family!

PQ: Do you plan to enter the big competition in Las Vegas at Pizza Expo in March? If so, any hints as to what you might be planning to make?

Will: I’m going to do my best to duplicate and win with the same pizza I made in New Jersey.  The biggest change is that, this time, I will be closing down my shop to bring out all of my management staff to participate as well!

PQ: Wonderful – can’t wait to see if you can capture that magic all over again! Thanks so much, Will, and again, congratulations on winning the Caputo Cup, and for your amazing pizza. I look forward to seeing you soon in Vegas at Pizza Expo!

Note: You can email Will directly at: thatsasome@gmail.com or visit his webpage at: thatsasomepizza.com   You can follow him on Facebook and Instagram, and he can also be found writing for PerfectingPizza.com (it’s an excellent new resource for independent pizzerias, created by World Pizza Champions Michael Shepherd and Siler Chapman — check it out).

With his winning pizza!