i. Biography
Chef at Demaio in Bilbao, Spain, Gioel Demaio reached #36 in The Best Pizza Awards 2025 Selection. The recognition rests on a focused body of pizza work: Contemporary Neapolitan and Roman pan formats, long-fermented doughs, a wood-fired oven, and ingredients drawn from the Cantabrian Sea and Campania.
The Honours
The Best Pizza Awards 2025 Selection ranked him #36, a plain marker of how closely his Bilbao work is being watched. In an awards field built around pizza makers and their craft, that placement gives measurable weight to a project defined by fermentation, heat, and sourcing rather than spectacle. That achievement belongs to a kitchen with a clear point of view. At Demaio, the menu centers on Contemporary Neapolitan and Roman pan pizza, two formats treated as separate structures rather than interchangeable styles. The Neapolitan version is lighter and shaped by the crust’s behavior in the wood-fired oven, while the Roman pan format is denser and more structured.
The Craft
The pizza project uses long-fermented doughs, a wood-fired oven, and ingredients sourced from both the Cantabrian Sea and Campania. That geography matters on the plate: one side of the work looks toward the Basque coast, the other toward southern Italy and the traditions that shaped his starting point. La Costa Vasca is the most site-specific pizza on the Demaio menu, tied directly to Cantabrian sourcing. It gives the restaurant a signature that could only make sense where it is made, connecting Italian pizza technique with the products of the surrounding coast. La Edizione Limitada, the limited-edition rotating pizza, is worth asking about because the specials often contain the most interesting decisions. The changing nature of that pizza gives room for the kitchen’s sharpest choices without pulling the larger menu away from its central grammar. At Demaio Pizza Gourmet, he also works with Roman and Neapolitan-style pizzas. There, his approach brings creativity, technique, and passion into refined pizzas that celebrate modern Italian pizza culture, with precision dough fermentation and bold, gourmet toppings described as the point where tradition meets innovation.
The Career
Born in Reggio Calabria, he carries Calabria into a career now closely associated with Bilbao. Mattias and Gioel Demaio left Calabria to pursue their dream of opening an authentic Neapolitan pizza restaurant in Bilbao la Vieja, placing southern Italian pizza culture inside one of the city’s most distinctive neighborhoods. His current roles span two related kitchens: chef at Demaio in Bilbao, Spain, and chef at Demaio Pizza Gourmet. Across them, the work remains specific rather than broad, returning again and again to dough behavior, oven response, and the contrast between Neapolitan lift and Roman pan structure. The result is an Italian pizza practice built through exact decisions: fermentation carried long enough to matter, fire used as a shaping force, and toppings chosen with both Campania and the Cantabrian coast in view. The 2025 ranking did not create that identity; it simply made the achievement easier to name.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Gioel
What is Gioel Demaio known for?
Gioel Demaio is known for Contemporary Neapolitan and Roman pan pizzas, including La Costa Vasca and the rotating La Edizione Limitada at Demaio in Bilbao.
What is Gioel Demaio's current role?
He is chef at Demaio in Bilbao, Spain, and chef at Demaio Pizza Gourmet.
What awards has Gioel Demaio received?
He was ranked #36 in The Best Pizza Awards 2025 Selection.
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