Sponsored by DeIorio’s
The simplest solution is often the best one. While this is true in many cases, when it comes to the science behind dough craft, most operators will agree that the saying doesn’t quite hold up. From gluten production to water quality and challenges ranging from mixing up salt and sugar to maintaining the perfect rising temperature, creating great pizza dough is anything but simple—and it often suffers from the labor issues that plague foodservice as a whole.
When New York City native Mike Pitera moved to South Carolina, he quickly realized there wasn’t much in the way of great pizza, so he opened his own truck with the help of his father. However, Pitera knew that space would be an issue with a truck. “When I first came down with a food truck, I didn’t have mixers or a landing kitchen,” he says. “I needed a way to make pizza without a staff. Frozen dough was the only practical path to kickstart the business.” Starting with that food truck, Pitera opened his first brick-and-mortar location in 2018 and soon expanded to two locations due to demand.
He immediately began researching manufacturers that could meet his expectations for traditional, high-quality New York-style pizza while delivering consistency. “Quality was everything,” Pitera says. “As a pizza maker, it feels sacrilegious to buy dough, so the product had to be as consistent and high quality as if I made it in-house. If I froze my own dough and thawed it, I wanted it to perform the same way.” When Pitera found DeIorio’s, a New York-based frozen pizza dough manufacturer with 100 years of experience and the ability to create custom dough recipes, he knew he had found the quality he demanded.
Pitera now offers five different pizza styles, all created from his one master dough: Grandma’s, Sicilian, New York, Detroit, and Tavern crust. “Their team isn’t just chefs—it’s scientists who analyze protein and gluten levels, hydration, and mixing,” Pitera says. “I gave them my recipe, and they scaled it commercially.”
This partnership has enabled Pitera to offer pizza that tastes like home without worrying about labor or training. “We receive sealed, portioned dough,” Pitera says. “A teenage dishwasher can lay it out to proof overnight and it’s perfect by morning. That’s real-world labor efficiency.”
DeIorio’s core philosophy of consistency, versatility, and efficiency is evident in both Pitera’s and other operators’ stories, as well as their wide range of products and solutions. The company also offers eight alternative base crusts—from cauliflower and chickpea to gluten free and red lentil. With a century of experience and close partnerships with working chefs like Pitera, DeIorio’s continues to innovate, helping pizzerias maintain consistent, high-quality products while staying ahead of emerging trends.
Pitera’s success in bringing a taste of home to South Carolina speaks to the standards DeIorio’s can provide. “Customers constantly compliment the crust. People from up north tell me it reminds them of home—the taste, the crispiness, the flavor. That consistency means everything to me.”
For more information on DeIorio’s dough, visit deiorios.com/pizzeria-sub-shops.
By Ya’el McLoud
