• by Teresa Buyikian , 4 hours ago

A home chef’s “Fire & Pine Pizza” has won Francis Ford Coppola Winery’s 2025 Coppola Diamond Collection "Perfect Your Pizza" competition.

Emily Jenkins of Nixa, Missouri took the top spot in the yearly competition, beating out three other regional finalists (and thousands of other entrants) in a live cook-off at the winery in Sonoma County, California, earlier this month.

The winning Fire & Pine pie was comprised of pepperoni, stracciatella cheese and a pine nut-chili crisp, which was paired with Coppola's Diamond Collection Claret. Jenkins was allowed to select her prize: a choice between “a once-in-a-lifetime private jet tour of legendary U.S. pizzerias in New York City and Chicago,” or $25,000 cash.

Now in its fourth year, the annual "Perfect Your Pizza" Competition was created to encourage consumers to “explore the pairing possibilities of pizza and wine by creating original recipes to pair with Coppola's Diamond Collection wines.”

Additional judges included  the namesake and owner of the business, movie director Francis Ford Coppola, who also has the title of senior winemaker. 

The other finalist pizzas included a Detroit-style Mushroom & Pancetta; a Mediterranean Pizza Tonnato with tuna, arugula and a lemon-caper anchovy sauce and the "Heard It Through The Grapevine Pizza" with roasted red grapes, hot coppa and stracciatella. The 2024 winner was a Sicilian-Style Caponata Pizza, with caponata, burrata, eggplant and a thick, focaccia-like crust.