Oct. 28, 2014, Mississauga, Ont. – There’s only one event in Canada where you
can get the latest pizza industry knowledge while watching Canada’s top
pizzaiolos compete for the title of Chef of the Year – and it all went down
yesterday in Toronto.
Oct. 28, 2014, Mississauga, Ont. – There’s only one event in Canada where you
can get the latest pizza industry knowledge while watching Canada’s top
pizzaiolos compete for the title of Chef of the Year – and it all went down
yesterday in Toronto.
Canadian
Pizza magazine hosted its third annual Canadian
Pizza Show at the International Centre yesterday. A record number of attendees
walked the showroom floor, browsing dozens of booths, taking in the live
presentations and demonstrations and watching the chef competition unfold.
Among this year’s presenters was Pizza
Nova’s Domenic Primucci, who discussed his four pillars to a successful Pizza
business: foundation, passion, philanthropy, and change.
Canadian master baker Peter Jacobs delighted
with a dough demonstration by allowing attendees to visually compare dough
according to yeast type and percentage, water quantity, and ingredient
additions.
A business panel with John Chetti of
Toronto’s Queen Margherita Pizza, and Jason Harris of Garlic Democracy Italian
Eatery, discussed their outlook of the pizza industry with attendees and gave
pointers for profitability.
This year was the first time Canadian Pizza hosted its Chef of the
Year contest during the annual pizza show, and the excitement of competitors,
attendees and exhibitors was palpable.
Thirteen competitors, including last year’s
champion, Carlo Raillo from Edmonton, crossed cutters out on centre stage
throughout the day. On the line was $1,000 in cash, and, more importantly, a
prized trip for the top two finishers to Las Vegas to compete in guaranteed
spots in the finals of the 2015 International Pizza Challenge and Pizza Expo.
Each of the pizzaiolos had 20 minutes to
bake and present their pizzas to the judges’ panel – composed of chefs, food
consultants and pizzeria owners – who scored them on crust, toppings,
creativity, bake and presentation.
Raillo had stiff competition, but amazed
the judges with his original Cappuccino Pizza, complete with chocolate dough
and whip cream, to snag the top spot and once again win the title of Canadian
Pizza Chef of the Year.
Pizza Cotto, created by Vito Dachile of
Enoteca Mozza Pizzeria Moderno from Laval, Que., was chosen as the runner up.
Dachile will join Raillo in Las Vegas for the Pizza Expo in March.
From Woodbridge, Ont., Fernando D'Agostino of
That's Italian Ristorante beamed as he claimed the third-place spot with his
pizza The Sidernese.
Globally recognized sommelier Zoltan Szabo
closed this year’s pizza show with a talk on ideal wine parings and how
pizzeria owners can improve their wine menu.
This year the show’s platinum sponsor
was PizzaMaster distributed by Alfa Food Service. The gold sponsors were
Stanislaus Food Products and Saputo Foodservice, and the bronze sponsor was the
Dairy Farmers of Canada. The chef competition was platinum sponsored by
Saputo Foodservice and gold sponsored by Moretti Forni Canada.
Look for a full story on the show in
December’s issue of Canadian Pizza and check out some of the photos on our Facebook page!
Print this page