Ricetta's chefs preparing the final pizzas for baking.

Guests sampling semi-finalsist pizzas

One of the semi final pizzas

Judges Joe Ostwald, 2008 winner, and WGME-TV News 13's Kiley Bennet sample the finalists' pizzas.

"Three Friends" created by Susan Higgins is the 2009 winner!

For the second year in a row, Ricetta's Brick Oven Pizzeria has partnered with Maine's Good Shepherd Food Bank to sponsor a search to find Maine's Next Best Pizza! A total of 10 entries were submitted this year. 2 cook-offs were held within the restaurant with many interested community members coming out to taste and vote. The winning pizza, created by Susan Higgins of Yarmouth, was so simple, yet so delicious! Its called Tre Amici (Three Friends) and features ingredients such as pepperoni, sausage and ricotta. In addition to Ms. Higgins winning the title of Maine's Next Best Pizza, she also went home with $500 cash! Her pizza will be featured on our 2010 menu and offered to customers both in house and take out. With each large Tre Amici purchased, Ricetta's will donate $1 to the Good Shepherd Food Bank. Last year's winning pizza, The Philomena, sold over 1,200 times, generating significant contributions to the Food Bank. Ricetta's encourages the public to visit either location (Falmouth or South Portland) to taste the winning pizza and participate in this ongoing fundraiser.

Ricetta's would like to thank all the participants who joined in the fun. As with any contest, there is only one winner, but in the process, we tasted 10 very delicious and creative pizzas!

Ricetta's would also like to thank their celebrity judges, Cindy Williams from Channel 6 news, Kiley Bennett from Channel 13 news, Brian Petrovik from the Portland Pirates, Bob Fisk from Maine Friends of Animals, Joe Ostwald, our first annual Maine's Next Pizza Contest winner, and our 3 representatives from Good Shepherd Food Bank, Rick Small, Christine Force and Melissa Glenn. To learn more about Good Shepherd, visit www.gsfb.org.

Ricetta's was founded in 1989 and is privately owned. Ricetta's has earned the prestigious title of "Maine Best Pizza" 19 years running by the Maine's reader's poll. A local customer stated recently that even after travelling all over the world, he believes Ricetta's to have the best pizza he and his wife have ever tasted. Ricetta's has a strong local customer base with many "regulars" returning each week.