Arnaud Atché has only been making pizzas for about 15 months, but the former consultant has poured himself into the daily rigor of making his dough and baking with precision from a seaside restaurant in the town of Zandvoort, about 30 minutes west of Amsterdam. Piatti on the Beach is certainly a one-of-a-kind pizzeria in the middle of nowhere, but very close to the F1 track.

Brett Feeley did what a lot of amateur cooks did during the pandemic: make pizza. Little did he know it would lead to Slowhand - a Detroit style operation on Toronto's East Side, where a sourdough starter is the key to a unique pie.

Chris Pandel teamed up with fellow Boka Restaurant Group Chef Lee Wolen to create Zarella, a pizzeria and taverna with two styles of pizza: a thin artisan and an even thinner tavern. Pandel tackled the latter, and he's damn proud of the results.

Argentinian born, Italian raised. Guillermo Paolisso came to Chicago and realized there was a gap in the market: Roman style. He and his wife now make their crunchy slices each day at Capriccio in the Lincoln Square neighborhood.

Hunter Leslie started out with a food truck, but realized pretty quickly as he moved from Detroit to L.A., the future was in a brick and mortar. He was one of the first Midwest transplants to open a Detroit style pizzeria in L.A. with Detroit Pizza Depot.

Jeff Scheer ended up on Maui like a lot of people - by accident. But his commitment to the culinary scene there, as nascent as it is, has been admirable. We discovered his sourdough pizza at Marlow, in an upcountry mall, where the menu has lots of highlights.

Their motto is "One Part Milan, One Part Brooklyn, All Maui," so you know a pizza from Sal e Pepe is going to be special. This is a love story for sure, but it's also a story of resilience and courage, in the wake of the deadly Lahaina wildfires from 2023.

Bronwen Kinzler-Britton & Jose Ibarra both came from more fine-dining backgrounds, but realized they just wanted to work for themselves and make great pizza. Naughty Pie Nature operates out of a tiny corner kitchen space (no dine-in) in Echo Park, but they've had a nice, steady growth pattern since they were just a pop-up a year or so ago.

Alex White's Great Great Grandfather used a sourdough starter when he ran a shop in the Yukon Territory more than 120 years ago. That same starter lives on in a Las Vegas pizzeria: Yukon Pizza, where they make sourdough crusts as well as some NYC slices.

As a born-and-bred New Yorker (from Long Beach), Vito DeCandia was literally brought up in a pizzeria. He was stretching dough by the age of 12. His lifetime of baking eventually led him to the West Coast, where his wife was from. Two years ago he opened Angel City Pizza in Venice, where he continues to make what he knows: NYC style slices, squares, and even Grandmas! Vito will be one of 40 pizzerias participating at Pizza City Fest L.A. April 26-27. Get your tickets at pizzacityfest.com