a special pizza episode

“I don’t use pineapple on any of my pizza and then they gave me vegan pepperoni to make a dessert with.Any chef would say that’s pretty challenging in itself,” said Cervoni.

In the end, Cervoni represented Long Island’s pizza and won the episode.

“Long Island really gets no respect for pizza and my goal was to go on there and really bring some awareness to Long Island Pizza, because Long Island has some of the best pizzerias in the country. And we really deserve to be a destination for pizza,” said Cervoni.

With the $10,000 prize Cervoni won on Chopped, he plans to set up a scholarship fund for other aspiring pizza chefs.

pressure, and obviously anybody who’s worked in the pizzeria on a Friday or Saturday night during the rush. It’s exactly like being on television because you’ve got a bunch of people sitting there waiting on their food,” said Cervoni. “The only difference is having that mystery basket.”

During the first two rounds of the episode Cervoni said he went on autopilot and used what was in the basket to make a great interpretation of his cooking style. The dessert round proved to be the most challenging.