to + present tense use

Is it correct to write:

"Our family is dedicated to perfecting the art of pizza cooking"

Instead of the canonical:

"Our family is dedicated to perfect the art of pizza cooking"

I think I read the former more often although grammatically the obvious pick is the second one.

Answer

Actually, the "to" in "dedicate to" is a verb particle. As such "Our family is dedicated to ..." has nothing to do with the use of the infinitive (to + verb) following the verb dedicate. Instead it has to do with the fact that dedicate is a phrasal verb.

So yes, it is correct to use the gerund form (verb + ing) of a verb, as you did with "perfecting," after dedicate to.

From my ear, I hear a slightly different meaning though in what they express each of these.

Our family is dedicated to perfecting the art of pizza cooking

This sounds like perfecting is a continual process and they will continue doing this until the end of time.

Our family is dedicated to perfect the art of pizza cooking.

This sounds to me like you will eventually perfect it and then there will be no more work to do.