Gristina

Born and raised in the Bronx I was surrounded by pizza, even in my home. My father owned a pizzeria, he was the one that imprinted an undying work ethic in me that has its own pros and cons. I started to work for him at the ripe old age of 12. This taught me the pride of earning your own money and to develop a passion for making pizza.

In 1998, I started working at one of the busiest pizzerias in Westchester County , N.Y. and then in 2003, I opened my first pizzeria with a partner in Wilton,CT and it wasn't long before we had two other stores and eventually had joined the World Pizza Champions and started learning more about the industry I loved. I couldn't be happier to say that each and every one of the team members taught me something and I hold all of them in the highest regard. I competed in New York , Atlantic City and Las Vegas , winning medals in the New York World Pizza Games trials in 2005 for fastest pizza and for largest dough stretch. In Las Vegas 2008 I was able to squeak out a win for Best Traditional Pizza in the Open Division.

After my partnership ended, I left the ownership side of the industry in 2009 and started working at various food related, fast casual companies in Manhattan (even one or two pizzerias) all the while learning and taking in different aspects of the industry. Finally, in 2019 I decided to start a part time pizza catering company. So i looked for portable pizza ovens that I liked and could handle what i was looking to accomplish, designed a menu (much of which is based off of pies that we made at the pizza shops after hours that wasn't on the menu) as well as a website and started doing what i loved, making pizza for people and watching the smile as they eat what i created.

After moving with my family in 2020 to a small suburb of NY called Pelham, I noticed a small pizzeria that turned out to be available and thought “it's time”. The name I chose , Pizza Fenice, is significant to me because the word "fenice" is the Italian word for phoenix, a bird that rises from its own ashes and well in some ways that's how I feel getting back into the industry.

Achievements:

• Gold medal- fastest dough; World Pizza Games trials; -N.Y, N.Y August 2005

• Bronze medal- largest dough stretch; World pizza Games trials- N.Y, N.Y August 2005

• Best Traditional Pizza ; International Pizza Challenge, Pizza Expo- Las Vegas, NV 2008

YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY

1989-2009 2019-present

www.pizzafenice.com
304 Fifth Ave -Pelham
N.Y. 10803