Apples on pizza? Yes! Toms River resident's creation just won $25,000 in national contest

Toms River resident Sean Duffield remembers how good pizza tasted when he and his family visited Italy a few years ago.

We're not sure what Italians would think of his latest pizza creation: a thin-crust pie that features three cheeses, Granny Smith apples, caramelized onion and fennel.

But it probably doesn't matter. "The Chance Seedling," as Duffield calls it, just won $25,000 in Francis Ford Coppola Winery's first Perfect Your Pizza Contest.

“All the other competitors were excellent cooks, and most of them had competed in other home chef competitions, so I was worried,” he said. “What gave me comfort though, is that I only do pizza. I mastered my dough the way I like it, and I didn’t need to rely on my recipe ... I did it straight from memory.”

Duffield, you see, loves pizza.

"It's my favorite food," he said.

Two years ago, Duffield's family bought him an authentic wood-fire pizza oven. At first, he was holding free, donation-based pizza pop-ups in his backyard for friends, with all donations going to charities like Long Beach Island's Waves of Strength, and Manahawkin's David's Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation.

That experience paid off.

The contest was launched in October. The first round focused on the recipe, and “perceived taste of it’s wine pairing,” Duffield said.

Then the four finalists from throughout the country were brought to the California winery to compete. On Jan. 27, Duffield, a full-time Verizon employee with no culinary background, took the title.

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One judge was New York Times-best-selling author Dan Richer, who wrote "The Joy of Pizza," and owns the famous Razza in Jersey City.

"I was surprised and totally won over by Sean’s original and delicious pizza," Richer said in a news release. "It was incredibly well conceived and well executed. From the perfectly caramelized crust to the tart, crunchy green apples and the richness of the three cheeses, it was a perfect bite in every way.

"And the pizza paired fantastically with the crisp apple notes of the Coppola Prosecco, whose effervescence cut through the richness of the cheeses to make a perfect pairing.”

The recipe was dedicated to Duffield's niece, who came home from college during break last October.

"They don't really have fall [in South Carolina], so that's what she was missing when she came home," he said. "She wanted something that reminded her of New Jersey, and she's a vegetarian. We decided to use Granny Smith apples, and treated it like a caramel apple, with caramelized shallots and fennel, and maple syrup.

"Some apples were cooked into the pie, and others were used fresh as garnish."

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The Chance Seedling is an agricultural term, Duffield said, for a naturally occurring hybrid plant.

"A cultivator discovering the hybrid would have to go search back to figure out the parent plants in order to reproduce the hybrid," he said. "The Granny Smith apple is an example of a chance seedling ... and I was taking a chance on submitting the recipe.

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Duffield paired the pie with Diamond Collection Prosecco.

"We wanted something that would cut the fattiness of the cheese, and we had a lot of sweetness on there so we wanted something dry to balance that," he said. "The profile of the prosecco is also very apple forward, and the bubbles cut nicely through the cheese."

His love of simplicity is what he thinks gave him the edge.

“I don’t have a very adventurous palate, which is why my favorite pizzas are Margherita and straight marinara with no cheese,” Duffield said. “But I think that really helped me in the competition because my pizza skills are honed in on simple ingredients.”

His family helped, too.

"We joke that our 12-year-old daughter (Campbell) is our social media manager, our [15-year-old] son (Cooper) is our business manager and strategist. He also has an excellent palate himself," Duffield said. "And my wife Courtney is like my sous chef because she helps me craft everything."

Will the win go to his head? It doesn't seem like it.

“I’m not a pizza snob," he said. "I’ll eat frozen pizza … I just really enjoy pizza, and that’s what helped me find that taste and style I always wanted to make.”

The competition was "an amazing experience," Duffield added.

“Having feedback from the judging panel was very validating for someone who just likes to make pizza,” he said. “And to win the cash prize is mind-boggling. Two weeks later and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”

Gabriela L. Laracca joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2021 and eagerly brings her passion for cuisine and culture to our readers. Send restaurant tips to glaracca@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River resident wins $25,000 in Coppola Winery pizza contest