This success story is far from cheesy.
A pizzamaker at trendy LES eatery Scarr’s has gone from pulling pies fresh out of the oven to looking fresh and hot on the runway.
“It’s been so, so crazy,” Christiano Wennmann, 24, told The Post of his newly-minted international modeling career, which he called “a real Cinderella story.”
The tattooed Queens native’s improbable trajectory from a life of crust to the catwalk began this year when he walked in buzzy New York designer Willy Chavarria’s Paris fashion week show. That soon led to major campaigns for noted brands like Tinder.
And like the dough he stretches during his day job, it all began to rise when the pizzaiolo was recruited while slinging pies.
“I don’t think this would have happened if I was working in any other pizzeria except for Scarr’s,” said Wennmann of the popular Orchard Street slice shop owned by Scarr Pimentel.
Since its 2016 opening, Scarr’s has a following of fans, garnering acclaim from foodies and critics alike — some calling it the best ‘za in NYC.
One devotee who works for Chavarria — favored by celebs like Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish — spotted Wenmann while he was behind the counter covered in flour and scouted him for the brand’s underwear line.
“While I was at that shoot, they were like, ‘I don’t know how we haven’t seen you before; you gotta come to Paris,’” he remembered of the moment stars aligned.
“I was like, ‘Oh s – – t! Okay, I’m down.’ The next thing you know, I’m booking a flight to France.”
Pimentel never flinched at his stand-out employee’s big break.
“He was like, ‘Of course you have to do this, it’s a life-changing opportunity,’” Wennmann recalled of his pizza boss. “He said he’ll find someone to cover me and make everything work.”
Wennmann soon found himself walking the runway in a look from Chavarria’s Fall 2025 line at Paris fashion week in a show that also featured a performance from Latin superstar J Balvin.
“I actually went into it with a lot of anxiety,” said Wennmann of the fish-out-of-water situation, a long way from the Long Island City neighborhood he grew up in. “But Willy and his team took me under their wing.”
In fact, it was a pep talk from Chavarria, who spent decades at Calvin Klein before starting his acclaimed label in Greenpoint, that put the chef at ease.
“He sat me down and said, ‘You’re here for a reason and we wanted you in this show for a reason,” Wennmann recalled.
“He was saying ‘You’re already a star’ and that helped me transform my mindset. And I think it translates into the photos.”
The show garnered coverage in high fashion publications like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
And thanks to his breakout moment in the City of Light, Wennmann was promptly signed by a major modeling agency and his Instagram following has skyrocketed. He has since booked campaigns and shot editorials for fashion mags like Dazed and HERO, as well as designer Sami Miro.
Of course, he’s prominently featured in the official “Scarr’s Pizza Cookbook,” which came out last month.
It’s all not bad for the college dropout who formerly struggled with sobriety.
“I just needed any kind of job at first,” Wennmann said of his origins behind the oven. He soon found a dishwashing gig on Craigslist at a Brooklyn pizza place which is where he quickly discovered a personal passion for making pies.
Now when he’s behind the counter at Scarr’s — he plans to continue working while posing professionally — he’s not only making the marinara, but snapping selfies with fans.
“Customers will be like, ‘Were you the guy who went to Paris?’” he says. “But I’m still making pizza. Modeling doesn’t change who I am.”
“I’m the same person I was before all of this happened. It’s very important for me to stay true to who I am. I don’t want to forget where I came from.”
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