LI pizza chef competes on Hulu's 'Best in Dough'

Who has the best pizza? It's the subject of endless debate. But the new cooking competition "Best in Dough," debuting early Monday on Hulu, at least gives three chefs per episode the chance for bragging rights and $10,000. And among the pizza makers on the premiere is Huntington's Carmela Cipriano, in a themed episode going up against two other nonne — Italian for "grandmothers," though the streaming service titles it "Nonnas." 

However you spell it, the 66-year-old Cipriano is the real thing, with granddaughters Adriana, 7, and Gianna, 5, from her son Marciano and his wife Jennifer. Born in a house in the southern Italian village of Amantea, in the Calabria province, Cipriano immigrated to the United States with her parents in 1958 on the passenger steamship Constitution. She initially learned to cook from her father, Giuseppe, and mother, Antonia, she says by phone from her home. Then, "I got married very young, at 20," and so she continued learning from her husband, Filippo. "He's from near Naples and his style of cooking is totally different than our style of cooking," she says. "And I learned a lot of recipes from my mother-in-law."

Cipriano now cooks professionally as part of her son and daughter-in-law's five-year-old Marciano's Pizza Truck, a refurbished 1941 International K-5, from International Harvester, with an imported Cirigliano Forni brick oven mounted on it. The mobile pizzeria has been such a success that, Cipriano says, "They're working on a second truck, which should be ready in the spring. And they bought a commercial building, so they can have a pizza place here in Huntington," on New York Avenue.

"Best in Dough," hosted by Wells Adams from ABC's "Bachelor in Paradise," pits three pizza bakers against each other in themed episodes — "Best in the Midwest," with a chef each from Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit; "The Mamas and the Mias," with mother-daughter teams — under head judge Chef Daniele Uditi of Southern California’s Pizzana restaurants, alongside Bronx-based Chef Millie Peartree, comedian and food influencer Eunji Kim and baker Bryan Ford.

"They had an amazing kitchen. Amazing," marvels Cipriano — a Huntington High School graduate, as Carmela Rocca — of the facility where she cooked on Dec. 9 in Burbank, California, up against Nonna Antoinette of Southbury, Connecticut, and Nonna Lina of Queens. "They had all the best ingredients,” including the imported Italian flour brand Caputo, "which is what Marc [her son] uses. It's the high-end flour. What a difference when you use that stuff. So good."

Cipriano already had some media presence when producers recruited her for the show: She, Marc and Jennifer won Food Network's "Family Food Showdown" in March 2019, and Nonna Carmela has showcased her skills on the syndicated "Dr. Oz Show," where Jennifer had worked as a producer (and shared with her co-workers a 2018 Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding talk show — informative).

The "Best in Dough" producers "actually called up my son," recalls Cipriano, who also has two daughters. "He was so excited. He thought they wanted him," she says with a loving chuckle. "He was like, 'Yeah, I'm Marciano.' They go, 'Yeah, we're looking for your mother.' I'm not gonna tell you what he said! Then they called me and I had to do interviews and stuff, of course. And he's going, 'Don't do it, ma! What if you mess up?' I said, 'So what if I mess up?' "
Spoken like a true nonna.