Long Island Pizza Chef Wins Chopped Great Neck native won

BY JULIE PRISCO jprisco@antonmediagroup.com

Rob Cervoni, owner of Taglio Pizza in Mineola, recently won $10,000 on an episode of Chopped. The popular show features four chefs facing off to prepare a three-course meal consisting of an appetizer, entrée and dessert. In each round, they have to use all the ingredients the show provides them in the mystery basket. At the end of each course, a panel of three guest judges eliminates one chef who fails to measure up in terms of taste, presentation and creativity. The episode Cervoni was featured on was a special where only pizza chefs competed. Cervoni’s Roman style pizza expertise won him the challenge.

Cervoni grew up in Great Neck and grew up working in a pizzeria in Little Neck. After selling his frozen yogurt store on Middle Neck Road, Cervoni opened Taglio in 2018. Taglio is famous for being Long Island’s first Roman style pizzeria. Cervoni became inspired to make Roman style pizza due to his experiences visiting his family back in Italy.

“My family immigrated here from Italy, and we’ve traveled there visiting my grandparents and tasting the pizzas,” said Cervoni. “Seeing this Roman style pizza there, I always wondered why it wasn’t in the United States. I grew up working in a pizzeria and always had a passion for pizza, so I wanted to bring this style of pizza to Long Island.”

Roman style pizza is a pizza that has higher hydration and a longer fermentation time, explained Cervoni. New York style pizza has a 24-hour fermentation time while Roman pizza could be anywhere from 72 to 96 hours. Roman style pizza also has a lot more water in the flour which makes it super light, airy and crispy.

“It’s almost like a hybrid of grandma-style and Sicilian style,” said Cervoni. “You get the crispiness of the grandma and the softness of the inside of Sicilian slice.”

The pizza episode of Chopped featured four pizza chefs, Cervoni from Long Island and three others from Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Chicago. While competing on TV with cameras in your face is stressful, it’s not that different from a busy night at Taglio, Cervoni shared.

“You’ve got to be able to work under