Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Last year Jay Jadeja, co-owner and chef at the Onion Tree, was invited to participate in a pizza cooking competition called the International Pizza Exposition, hosted in Las Vegas, Nevada by the culinary magazine Pizza Today. He competed in the Neapolitan category, but was only able to make it to 75th place, which he considered a disappointment.
But that setback didn’t stop him. A few weeks ago, Jadeja was back at it, competing in the Pizza and Pasta Northeast 2022 Competition in Atlantic City, New Jersey, again in the Neapolitan category. This time, he took first prize, putting himself and the Onion Tree on the pizza-making map, and vindicating his roughly seven years spent mastering cooking pizza.
“It really felt like a validation,” Jadeja said. “It shows I’m learning and getting better, and there’s no boundaries basically being of Indian origin cooking pizza, competing with homegrown Italians who have been doing this for much longer than I have.”
The Onion Tree has been a fixture of the restaurant industry in Sea Cliff for the last two years, attracting customers from near and far with their wide range of dishes and inviting ambience. Several weeks ago, their skill in the kitchen paid off when the restaurant was awarded “Best Neapolitan Pizza” in a competition against pizzaiolos, or pizza chefs, throughout the Northeastern United States. Customers think they are pretty special too.
“My wife and I have tried the pizza, and we love it,” Ed Weinbraun, of Sea Cliff, said. They’d been coming there since the first week the Onion Tree opened. “It’s close to the best anywhere I’ve ever eaten, and I’ve eaten at some pretty good Italian places.”
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