Michael Pitera has been to the World Pizza Championship before. He finished mid-pack. In April 2027 he goes back as a champion.
The owner of Pizza a Modo Mio won the pan pizza category and the grand prize at the 2026 Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup, the Post & Courier reports. The contest ran Oct. 25 to 27 in Orlando as part of the Pizza Tomorrow Summit, and its grand-prize winners earn a trip to the World Pizza Championship in Parma, Italy, according to the event's organizers.
The winning pie, per the paper, is a grandma-style square he calls the Smoky Jewel: sesame seed crust, smoked provolone and mozzarella, vodka sauce, a fresh chicken cutlet, burrata and a hit of Calabrian chili oil. It beat the next score by more than seven points.
That's a chicken vodka parm that went to finishing school. 🍕
The résumé explains the win. Pitera spent about two decades making pizza on Long Island before moving here and running a food truck, according to Charleston.com. He opened the Bees Ferry Road shop in West Ashley in late 2022, then added a pizzeria and brunch cafe in the old Hollywood Pizza space on Highway 162. Somewhere in there he placed sixth in the world for cheese pizza at a Las Vegas competition, a few tenths of a point out of the top five.
Then there's Italy. West Of covered an earlier trip, when he competed with the U.S. Pizza Team at the Pizza World Championship in a field of more than 570 pizza makers from over 55 countries. He finished 29th of 115 in one category and 48th of 354 in the classic division. He came home with regional ingredients and new ideas for the shops.
This time he earned the plane ticket outright. The paper says the 2027 trip will make it two straight years representing the U.S. in Parma.
The rest of the crew didn't go home empty-handed. The Post & Courier reports his wife, Julie, and L.J. Kardestuncer, who makes pizza for him, took second in the two-person category with a smoked gouda and bacon pie. It was their first contest.
Where to try his stuff: the original Pizza a Modo Mio off Bees Ferry Road, the Hollywood cafe, the Clements Ferry Road location the paper lists, and A Taste of Rome, the fast-casual spinoff in the Citadel Mall food court. What Now Charleston described that one as build-your-own personal pizzas on Roman-style dough, ready in a couple of minutes.
None of the reporting says whether the Smoky Jewel is on a regular menu. Ask at the counter. Worst case, you get the regular pie from a guy who just beat the field.
Sources: Perishable News (organizers' release: contest dates, location, Italy prize), Charleston.com (Long Island background, food truck, locations, Las Vegas finish), West Of (Pizza World Championship results), What Now Charleston (A Taste of Rome) and the Post & Courier (the win, the winning pie and score, second-place finish, 2027 trip, Clements Ferry location)
