THEY’VE been celebrating at Pizza My Heart because manager Justin Wadstein won the gold medal in pie-tossing at the World Pizza Games in Las Vegas. As of March 26, Wadstein is officially the world champion in “pizza acrobatics.”
Wadstein has won the title before, but this is the first time in five years the 28-year-old has been the top tosser. He’s been tossing unbaked pizza crusts behind his back, blindfolded–even three at a time–since his early teens. “I started working for my grandparents when I was 13,” Wadstein said. “They owned a little pizza shop in Fresno and I started spinning towels. I worked my way up to dough.”
Wadstein came to Los Gatos from Capitola’s Pizza My Heart three months ago and is now learning all the ins and outs of management, while entertaining customers with his self-taught acrobatics.
LOS GATAN Jay Elliott has a new idea up his sleeve. The former Apple senior VP, who’s penned two books about Steve Jobs, flew down to L.A. recently to talk with reality TV guru Simon Cowell about developing a show called Searching for Steve Jobs. The idea is to have contestants demo their products to a panel of judges, with the best ideas moving forward. The audience would have a vote, too.
“Simon validated my idea, but he’s doing his own thing that would have wider appeal–more like a Shark Tank for the masses,” Elliott said. Elliott has a friend willing to put up the money for a pilot, so now he’s looking for a producer who can help him sell his idea to network TV.
“This isn’t just technology products,” Elliott said. “It can be any product as long as it’s well thought out. The other thing we’ll judge is the person: Are they the Steve Jobs of their industry?”
RETIRED Apple Distinguished Engineer Ron Hochsprung has donated $2 million to the Illinois Institute of Technology to establish the school’s first endowed chair in computer science. Hochsprung was an Apple employee for 33 years. He worked on the Lisa and on Macs, and was the architect of the Mac II. He was also a member of the team that developed Thunderbolt.
CAMPO di Bocce founder Tom Albanese will receive the Man of the Year award on April 26 from the Boys’ & Girls’ Towns of Italy. BGTI is a U.S.-based nonprofit that runs two “towns” outside of Rome, where youth who are war refugees, migrants or otherwise at risk can learn job skills and practice democracy. The youths elect each other mayors, commissioners and judges and then lead discussions about community issues.
Albanese said in a news release that he’s honored to be receive the title. “I have seen how BGTI gives kids who have suffered so much the opportunity to thrive and grow into independent adults,” Albanese said. “Their transformation inspires me to come back year after year.”
Albanese will receive his award at the annual BGTI Ball of the Year at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.
ALSO in the news, Stephen Beveridge is the new secretary of the Santa Clara County Dental Society’s board of directors. Los Gatos resident Nava Fathi is also a board member.
EL CAMINO Hospital has a new chief financial officer: Iftikhar Hussain was previously the CFO at Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and is a UC-Berkeley graduate. A news release from El Camino, which operates hospitals in Los Gatos and Mountain View, describes Hussain as “an innovative leader.” He’s credited with helping to create a website that lets patients assess their out-of-pocket health care costs.
