Based at Portarossa in Pampatar (Isla Margarita, Venezuela), Yoselin Maria Tavares works within the technical framework of Vera Pizza Napoletana. In 2025 she received the Pizza Maker of the Year – Ferrarelle Award, a special prize by 50 Top Pizza.
On Isla Margarita, in Venezuela’s Caribbean, Tavares has built a profile that combines hands-on pizza making with day-to-day leadership. Specialist guides list her as pizza chef and CEO of Portarossa in Pampatar, while AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana) includes Portarossa among its members, with a dedicated listing and address on the island.
Before committing fully to flour and fire, her path included technical studies. In an interview with Ocean Drive (Mis Revistas), she says she graduated in Systems Engineering, then trained in baking and pizza between Caracas (IEPAN) and Naples, attending AVPN courses. In the same interview, she frames her draw to bread and pizza as the “magic” of a few elements—flour, water, salt, yeast—shaped by technique and sensitivity.
The milestone that places her on the international radar arrives in 2025: at 50 Top Pizza Latin America 2025, she is awarded Pizza Maker of the Year 2025 – Ferrarelle Award, a special prize from the 50 Top Pizza network (with naming partner Ferrarelle). In the same context, Portarossa appears in the ranking among the leading pizzerias in the region.
Alongside the pizzeria, her work expands into other projects on the island: Ocean Drive attributes three venues to her—Francelina, Portarossa, and Julia Cocina de Mercado—described as a small local hospitality system. This aligns with how she presents herself publicly, signing as “María Pizzaiola” and emphasizing dough, oven work, and team.
On the plate, her approach is described as a personal reading of the Neapolitan canon, with close attention to fermentation and baking, and ingredient choices that echo the Italian supply chain traditionally associated with pizza.
