“I knew I wanted to go in with a cheese pizza,” said Truly Pizza kitchen manager and chef Sergio Balderas, whose deceptively simple cheese pie won grand prize honors at the 2024 International Pizza Expo in March. “I wanted to get Truly on the map.”
Competing with nearly 100 other pies, Balderas’ cheese pizza nabbed the grand prize in the traditional pizza category. His pie, featuring few ingredients of the highest quality, started with whole milk mozzarella, California tomato sauce, chopped semi-dried tomatoes (ruby-hued jewels with a slight chew that straddle the line between fresh and sun-dried) and, of course, the dough.
And what dough it is! Truly Pizza’s dough requires a three-day fermentation process to achieve its deeply flavored taste and shatteringly-crisp, blistered crust. In order to prepare Truly Pizza’s crust in the typically balmy Las Vegas environs, Balderas mimicked the Dana Point restaurant’s climate by adjusting the temperature of the room they worked in.
“Because we are so close to the ocean and our building has windows, we can’t contain heat” the way other pizzerias can, which, in part, helps Truly Pizza’s dough get its signature taste and texture.
SEE ALSO: New Neapolitan-style pizza restaurant opens in Dana Point
Adding to the difficulty of this category was that, unlike other toppings-heavy categories that might benefit from piled-high ingredients or modish add-ons, there was little wiggle room for error. “With this pizza, there’s nothing you can hide. You’ve got your cheese, your dough, your sauce and that’s it,” he said.
In addition to winning his category, the chef also won the Southwest regional category ahead of Matt Hutchinson (Houston Pizzeria) and Aliastair Hannmann (Al The Pizza Buddha) who came in second and third, respectively. Balderas, who lives in Anaheim with his wife and two children, joins other award-winning chefs at Truly Pizza, including Michael Vakneen and Chris Decker.
“We are immensely proud of the team which now features four different pizzaiolos recognized for being at the top of their game and leading the industry,” said Truly Pizza co-founder Donna Baldwin, in a written statement. “The pizza industry recognizes our team because we infuse every pizza with skill, flavor and love.”
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The pizza expo featured five categories: traditional, non-traditional, Neapolitan/STG (specialità tradizionale garantita), pan and best cheese slice. Competitors at the expo baked their signature pizzas live, which were then judged by a panel of accredited chefs. Tony Cerimele, owner of New Columbus Pizza Company, in Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania, won pizzamaker of the year.
Balderas, a Sacramento born-and-raised chef who wanted to relocate to Southern California due to the buzz of its dining scene and the availability of produce, made the move to Orange County after landing a job with Chris Decker’s Truly Pizza in 2023.
Truly Pizza is another staple in Dana Point’s burgeoning culinary scene, which also includes Bear Coast Coffee, Giana Bakery and Provisions and Dana Point Ale House (all of which are located in the coastal enclave’s unofficial Lantern District neighborhood between Pacific Coast Highway and Del Prado).
Balderas’s newly-crowned cheese pizza can be found at Truly Pizza.
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