Ormskirk chef crowned Pizza Chef of the Year at swanky…

Ormskirk chef crowned Pizza Chef of the Year at swanky awards ceremony

A former insurance worker who quit her job after nearly two decades to open her own pizzeria has been crowned Pizza Chef of the Year.

The coveted Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Industry (PAPA) Awards are a prestigious benchmark in the industry. Every year, the annual awards sees the UK's most talented pizza chefs battle it out in a bid to be crowned Pizza Chef of the Year.

But it was Ormskirk's own Nicola Jackson-Jones who proved victorious this year. The pizzeria owner and chef, based just a 35 minute drive from Liverpool, boasts a growing collection of accolades, with the win seeing her beat off tough competition.

The PAPA judges - a team of industry experts including celebrity chef Theo Randall - challenged chefs to create recipes using ingredients nominated by sponsors, with each sponsor ingredient forming a competition category.

Selected finalists were then invited to cook their pizzas in front of the judging panel and live audience at London's Porchester Hall. Nicola Jackson-Jones, from Two Cents Pizza in Ormskirk, dazzled the judges in two of the three categories with her pizzas, 'The Cheesy and Onion' and 'Triple Pep'.

Her creations saw her bag the coveted Pizza Chef of the Year award at the swanky awards dinner, despite a career background in insurance. Nicola left her job in insurance after 18 years to open her own pizzeria, despite never previously having made a pizza from scratch.

Nicola impressed the judges with her pizza creations (Press handout)

She bought a pizza oven and freely admits her first attempts at pizza making were "awful". After a few months of practice, she opened Two Cents Pizza in Ormskirk, around seven or eight months before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Then, she teamed up with a local taxi driver during lockdown to deliver pizzas.

In 2021, Nicola made it through to the live finals of the PAPA Awards where she received a 'highly commended' accolade. At the end of May this year, Nicola decided to close the restaurant after three years trading.

She went on to launch the luxury mobile catering service, Two Cents Pizza, from a converted horse box after craving a new challenge and more creative freedom.

Jim Winship, director of The Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Association, said: "Winners are judged on innovation, commercial viability and of course, taste, across three categories with one overall winner taking the title of Pizza Chef of the Year. This year, the standards were extremely high, but the judges were particularly impressed by Nicola’s creative skills, winning her two categories as well as the overall 'Pizza Chef of the Year' title."

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