This past March, scores of pizza makers came to Las Vegas to compete in the International Pizza Challenge, the star attraction of the 40th annual International Pizza Expo. Among the 500 pizzaiolos vying for recognition was Vegas’ own Alex White, founder and co-owner of Downtown favorite Yukon Pizza, whose exceptional pie—built on a flavorful crust made from a 125-year-old sourdough starter—is the kind you happily line up for.

To his surprise, White won first place in the Non-Traditional Pizza category. “That means any style of pizza with any style of toppings,” White says. “It’s open-ended, choose-your-own-adventure style.” (Other categories include Traditional, Neapolitan, Pan and World’s Best Cheese Slice.) White took a moment to talk with the Weekly about that World Pizza Champion title, and the adventure he’s chosen.

Tell us about the pie that won you the title.

It was inspired by a favorite snack that I like to have when I’m hanging out or going camping with my wife: I like cold red grapes and roasted almonds. It’s a wonderful combo—sweet, savory, crunchy, juicy, all that stuff. I wanted to translate that into a pizza, somehow.

I came across a recipe for marinating grapes in balsamic vinegar for a day and then grilling them. Once I had that base, I started to work upwards, trying to build a much more complex flavor profile. … Eventually, it had a mozzarella and fontina cheese base, the grilled grapes, and mortadella that we curled up like a little rose on the pizza. When it came out of the oven, I finished it with burrata, mint, basil, some crushed almonds and pistachios I had roasted, lemon zest and smoked salt. It was a multi-layered, multi-textural, multi-flavor combination—a lot of things that represent what I think of as West Coast-inspired pizza. I was born in Northern California, so to me it’s very much a California-style pizza … something very fresh and herbaceous, but still savory and sweet.

Did you think you were going to win?

I went in with low expectations. I was hoping to place in the top 50. Each category had about 100, 150 competitors, and I was up against 99 other pizza makers. These are top people from all over the world—from Japan, South America, Italy—so you’re head-to-head with some passionate, dedicated, serious crafters of the pizza world. … [When I won], I was stunned.

Do you remember the first pizzas you ever made?

Yes, they were terrible. I started out making pizzas in my apartment, when I was in college. At that point, it wasn’t so much about making pizzas; it was more about drinking beer and meeting girls at the party that I was throwing. I’d have a million toppings set up, everyone came through and piled a bunch of stuff onto some poorly made dough, I’d throw it into my oven, and it’d come out a soupy mess.

I started to improve, but I took a long road to get there. There was a lot of knucklehead dough-making and going to the library to learn how to make bread. This was 2009; there weren’t YouTube videos on how to make sourdough pizza at home.

Well, you nailed it. I’m a huge fan of your pizza, one among many. From Vegas Test Kitchen to your own brick-and-mortar, Yukon just gets busier and busier. Does your success feel kind of surreal?

I think it’s the result of a few years of focused work—keeping our heads down, building our business in an appropriate way without overextending ourselves … We really tried to take our time and make our decisions based on, ‘We’re going for longevity in this space. Let’s make sure we have a good customer base before we even get in there.’ Over the last year we’ve grown a huge amount, and we are so grateful.

We rely on our locals, and our customers who support us week after week, month after month, year after year. It was all I could hope for, having my own little Cheers-style bar of regular pizza eaters that come through for their slice or their burger or whatever. To be that local, neighborhood spot. That’s something that’s very satisfying to see play out.

Do you feel the love from Vegas’ other pizzaiolos, as well?

When [Good Pie founder] Vincent Rotolo found me at the side of the road doing a pop-up, I knew Vegas was going to be cool. He immediately kind of welcomed me into the brotherhood of pizzas here, with John Arena and Chris Decker over at Metro, the Settebello guys and everybody else in town. They’ve been wholly welcoming of a dude like me who came out of left field, just making pizzas in his backyard. The last five or six years especially has been an amazing show of support and resources from local pizza makers, helping our company to get going where it’s at. I’m dumbfounded by it, but I’m so grateful for it.

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