Pittsburgh chef takes home win at national pizza summit: "They know we play hard"

By: KDKA-TV's Meghan Schiller and producer Ashley Funyak  

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A local pizza chef serving up some serious moves in the kitchen is now representing Pittsburgh at a national level.

Matt Hickey, commissary general manager with Caliente, says he recently had the opportunity to represent the pizza chain and Pittsburgh at the Pizza Tomorrow Summit in Orlando, Florida. 

As part of the summit, Matt was able to participate in four contests that test different skills when it comes to pizza making. It's called the Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup, which the summit describes as a "head to head battle between talented pizzaioli and pizza acrobats from across the nation." 

Matt placed first in Largest Dough Stretch, which gives competitors five minutes to stretch out an 18-ounce ball of dough into its largest possible size with a perpendicular measurement. 

"You do stretch a little bit differently than if you were in a pizza shop. Normally, you would keep the crust, but in this competition, you want to flatten the crust," explains Hickey. "So we work out the outside real well, not really touching the center, because the center is going to stretch naturally as you pick it up."

"There's different strategies, I like to do a wheel motion almost with my arms," says Hickey. Hickey says he managed to stretch his dough ball to roughly 36 inches. Hickey says he did have two holes, which he managed to fix at the last second. If he had failed to do so, he would have been disqualified.

Hickey took his dough to the stage for the Pizza Acrobatics Competition, a freestyle showdown where chefs get to show off their best dough spinning alongside music. The summit says participants are judged based on difficulty, dexterity and handiwork, technique and originality, combos and entertainment value over the course of three minutes. Hickey placed third. If you want to check out his moves for yourself, Hickey often shares videos on his Instagram page when he's helping out in the kitchen.

Hickey also placed third in Fastest Box Fold, which tested each chef's ability to fold pizza boxes under pressure. According to the summit's social media page, Hickey managed to fold five boxes in 31.85 seconds.

When it comes to returning home as a champion, Hickey says he likes the recognition but it's much more than that. "It really boosts the whole company up," says Hickey. "It's like a whole victory for the whole company and the whole pizza community out there as a whole."

Hickey says it's a huge honor to represent the city. "When we travel around the country, they know Caliente," Hickey says, "They know we play hard."