Much like Michelin, which sends secret critics to evaluate restaurants, Posto’s executive chef, Juan Gabriel Perez, and his team at the Somerville restaurant were unaware their Neapolitan-style pizzas were being quietly judged. The secret diners were from The Best Pizza Awards, a global competition that spun off from The Best Chef Awards three years ago and has since grown into its coveted event spotlighting the world’s top pizza makers.
When a nomination email arrived in Perez’s inbox (and this wasn’t his first), he decided to fly to Milan for the ceremony on June 25. There, he discovered that he had earned the No. 54 spot on the list of the world’s Top 100 pizza makers, climbing from No. 60 in 2024 and No. 55 in 2023. No other chef from New England won an accolade, and most of the winners are from Italy.
“It was so cool,” says Perez, who was born and raised in Colombia. Even more surprising was that he met one of his undercover reviewers — also a Colombian — who revealed himself at the awards. “He had the experience like any other customer,” Perez says. “Now we’ve become very close.”
Perez’s culinary journey began nearly 15 years ago at Posto, but he first started in the kitchen, washing dishes at a California Pizza Kitchen. One day, when the pizza maker didn’t show up, he took over the job.
Today, he crafts the pies with a crust that’s chewy, airy, crisp, and full of flavor — using dough fermented for more than two days, then pizzas are baked in a wood-fired Italian oven blazing past 850 degrees. “We want the dough to be the highlight,” Perez says.
Still, it’s his imaginative toppings that also capture attention: crispy prosciutto with mozzarella, peaches, basil, and hot honey; a trio of shiitake, white trumpet, and crimini mushrooms layered with three cheeses; and a playful combination of spaghetti, pancetta, bacon, and an egg on top.
Perez even makes his own mozzarella. “There are lots of little details people don’t see,” he says — but they taste them in every bite. 40 Assembly Row, Somerville, 617-625-0600, postoboston.com.
Ann Trieger Kurland can be reached at anntrieger@gmail.com.