Gail Churinetz

Gail Churinetz is the $25,000 grand-prize winner of Food Network's "Ultimate Recipe Showdown" and the owner of Gail's Pizza Parties, bringing gourmet in-home pizza parties — menu, cooking, and cleanup — to the Memphis area. A member of the U.S. Pizza Team, Women in Pizza, and Galbani Professionale, Gail's pizza journey began in 1994 when her family moved from Connecticut to Germantown, Tennessee, and she set out to recreate the New Haven-style pies she grew up on. Her dough ferments 72 hours on a seven-year-old sourdough starter. Gail taught at Viking Cooking School in Memphis, appeared as a guest chef on WREG Channel 3, and served as a Research & Development Consulting Chef for ACH Food Companies. She also won the Pizza Therapy Worldwide Pizza Recipe Contest.