From Garlic Knots to Dessert Pizza, First-place Winners Aim a Cut Above the Rest

Whether inspired by a relative with Celiac disease or trendy Dubai chocolate, the pizza makers who emerged from The Great American Pizza Challenge had their minds on the prize: a big-check, plaque and recognition by their peers at the inaugural Pizza Expo Columbus.

Pizza Today is checking in with the winners to hear how the chefs came up with their pizza concepts and what details pushed them over the finish line.

America’s Best Dessert Pizza

Tore Trupiano

Mangia e Bevi

Oceanside, California

Pizza Today: Can you tell me about your winning pizza?

Tore Trupiano: It was a Dubai chocolate-inspired pizza that had a pistachio-infused dough with hazelnuts mixed into the dough, and that was par-baked when it came out of the oven. I brushed it with some sweetened mascarpone cheese, and then I started adding my toppings to it.

We did fresh raspberries, fresh strawberries and then the Dubai chocolate mix. It’s a mixture of kataifi, which is fried yellow dough, mixed with pistachio cream and tahini, which is a sesame seed sauce, and that was dolloped over the top.

The warmth of the pizza kind of melted the mascarpone cheese and infused it with the kataifi, pistachio, tahini, and really blended it all together.

Then, I finished it with some pistachio dust, a little bit more of kataifi, and then finished it with a chocolate-hazelnut drizzle over the top.

PT: That sounds amazing.

It was perfectly balanced. It was not overly sweet, which I think really made appealing.

PT: Do you think you will offer this pizza in your restaurant?

Absolutely. This will probably lend itself well to the holidays.

We already have a tough enough time keeping up with the volume that we deal with right now, and now I’m adding yet another pizza that has no other shared ingredient with anything else. But that’s the beauty and the fun of it.

America’s Best Traditional Thin Pizza

Tony Troiano

J.B. Alberto’s Pizza

Chicago, Illinois

Pizza Today: Can you tell me about your winning pizza?

Tony Troiano: It was a tavern-style, thin-crust pizza. We sauced it, I have our house-made sausage and whole-milk mozzarella cheese. We put thick-cut cup-and-char pepperoni. After it came out of the oven, I put on a little drizzle of garlic oil, and I put little Asiago cheese and fresh oregano.

PT: How long have you been making your own sausage?

We’ve been doing it on and off for a while, but mostly over the last year. It’s ground pork, but we put all our spices in it. Obviously, fennel – fennel is a very important part of it  – with the salt and pepper and all the basics.

PT: Do you make a pizza similar to this one at home?

Absolutely. The cup-and-chars are a newer thing over the last several years. But basically, we’ve been making sausage and pepperoni pizzas forever. The pizzeria has been around since 1965, and that’s all we do is tavern cracker-thin. We call it thin crust, but in Chicago, but everyone calls it Tavern or cracker.

PT: How long have you been making pizzas?

I’ve been making pizza since I was born in the business. I was literally five years old begging my father to go to the pizza joint. And it’s all I’ve ever done.

America’s Best Gluten-Free

Anthony Berghela

Romo’s Pizza

Glenmont, New York

Pizza Today: Can you tell me about your winning pizza?

Anthony Berghela: I did soppressata, marmalade, pepperoni, ricotta and fresh basil with the garlic oil on top.

PT: Do you make gluten-free pizzas at your home pizzeria?

We do very well with them. I actually started making my own probably about eight years ago, when I found out that my daughter had Celiac. So she said, “I want good pizza, Dad. I don’t want these shells.” So, I worked on it and got some help from people.

PT: How long did it take you to figure out how to make gluten-free pizza?

It didn’t take me too long. The steps of it are very easy because you don’t have to go through the process of traditional dough – trying to figure out fermentation and gluten structure and things like that – because it just doesn’t have it. It was more or less learning how to find ways to give them that characteristic without really doing it – and I had some help along the way from friends in the industry.

PT: Is this a pizza that you offer at home?

Yeah, that pizza is on our menu. You can get (gluten-free) in any style pizza that we do.

America’s Best Pepperoni Slice

Chris Battiste

Mia Ava East Coast Pizza

Pahrump, Nevada

Pizza Today: Could you tell me a little bit about your winning pizza?

Chris Battiste: I do an 80%-20% dough with a lower percentage, and then a higher percentage with a 20%. I also do a poolish with that 20% – it’s a 62% hydration.

And then, I use two different pepperonis: I use a thin cut, and I use a thick cut. And that’s what I was doing for a little bit of contrast. And then I use an East Coast (cheese) blend, which is mozzarella and provolone.

And then, I put a little bit of fresh mozz on it and then finish it off with infused garlic oil that we make at our restaurant.

PT: Do you make pizzas at the restaurant pretty similar to this one?

Oh, yeah. The only thing that I do different here is make a bigger cornicione, so they see the crumb structure. But pretty much everything I do when I go to competition, I try to stick to whatever we use in the restaurant.

The only thing I did different today was I definitely wanted a thicker cut pepperoni.

PT: You also won Best New York-style, Non-traditional Pizza.

Oh, yeah! The non-traditional was my fancy pizza, and it was a white pizza. I used mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, goat cheese and ricotta. And we did a garlic confit sausage; I did a mushroom medley, where I sauteed it in white sherry wine with chanterelle, oyster and shiitake mushrooms. I sauté that in sherry wine with a little thyme, apply that all to the pizza and bake it. When I pulled it out, I placed garlic oil, arugula and then a white truffle oil on top.

PT: Do you do anything similar to that one at your pizzeria?

I do. My very first chef special was called Maximo. Back in the day, it was called the Chrissy, but my son is Max, and now it’s called The Maximo. And what that was my first chef special at the Neapolitan place.

America’s Best Non-Traditional Thin Pizza

Nicole Bean

Pizaro’s Pizza

Houston, Texas

Pizza Today: Can you tell me about your winning pizza?

I made a Tavern-style pizza, and I utilized corn for almost every ingredient that I possibly could. So, I boiled my corn to make a corn sauce. I utilized corn inside the dough, and then I did a cheese blend with Italian sausage, candied jalapenos and doubled up on the sauce on top. Oftentimes, you’ll see that in Chicago, Taverns will do a drizzle on top of the sauce. So, I wanted to pay homage to that. And then I finished with a cornbread and parmesan crumble and a little bit of black pepper and corn husk ash.

PT: Wow! Is this a pizza you make at your own pizzeria?

We will do stuff like this for pizzas of the day, where it lets us be a little bit more creative in different ways.

This one, I kind of went out on a limb. I was really inspired by our trip to all 50 states last year and learning more about the Corn Belt. So, that’s the nickname of this pizza: It’s called “The Corn Belt.” The heart of and soul of America is corn, so I wanted to touch on that.

PT: Do you often make a thin style of pizza?

We’ve been doing tavern pop ups over the last three or four years, and I get to choose when we do it. So, it looks like we’re doing another tavern pop up, and this will be a primary feature. And then if they want to build their own, that’s fine, but this will be the highlight.

America’s Best Breadsticks/Garlic Knots

Brayden Miller

Black Dog Pizzeria

Dublin, Ohio

Pizza Today: Could you walk me through the steps of how you make the garlic knots?

Brayden Miller: We start with 18 ounces of our house-made New York dough, and then I flatten them out by hand. I cut them into eight individual strips that I then roll in flour, and I double those strips up before tying the knot. That way, they get those nice creases that can hold everything.

Then, I put them in a proofer for at 125 F for about an hour and a half, and we bake them at 465 F for about seven-and-a-half minutes, and they get tossed in our house-made garlic knot seasoning and garlic butter. We serve them with pizza sauce we make here at Black Dog.

How long have you been making these knots?

I’ve been making garlic knots at Black Dog for the past three years, and they’ve evolved with us. When we first started making them, they were very simple. I’ve been playing with our recipe for a couple years now, and we like the way they are; they’ve definitely become a fan favorite.

This was your first competition. How did it go?

It was definitely a lot better than I thought it’d be. I was a nervous wreck going in there, not knowing much about it. But being in the back prepping with everyone else is very nice. I got to talk to a lot of big pizza names. Overall, it was a fun experience, and I got to help other people make their food and prep.

Do you think that you will compete again?

Absolutely. I’d love to compete again, especially at Pizza Expo and alongside some of the people that were (in Columbus). I think I want to try the pepperoni slice competition.

Young Pizza Maker of the Year

David Hansen

Caliente Pizza & Drafthouse

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

At just 17 years old, David Hansen is the Young Pizza Maker of the Year, following his win at Pizza Expo Columbus. The young chef bested his competition with “a true masterpiece,” according to his peers at Caliente Pizza & Drafthouse.

Hansen’s winning creation was topped with pink peppercorn crème, two-year-aged Asiago and smoked rosemary ham. Post-bake, he finished the pie with burrata, black truffle honey, fresh chives and a shaving of 7-year-aged Parmesan.