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Fired up for Pizza in Toronto
FOOD & WINE
By Daniela DiStefano
It’s Friday night at Forest Hill’s Doppio Zero Ristorante, and the tables are filling in with parties savoring glasses of Italian wine as they await their entrees. To the back of the restaurant chef and owner Nick D’Elia and staff are pulling thin and crisp pizzas out of the large oven that has been fed all day with wood to keep the flames bright and the temperature just right for the perfect pie. The air is beautifully perfumed with the unmistakable pizza aroma, and on an average night 100 pizzas will be turned out of the oven and onto the plates of eager diners.
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a wood fire oven. “Watching pizza being made is a little bit like theatre and has historically been part of the experience since pizza was first sold on the streets of Naples” she says. “The singing and the performance is entertaining for diners and brings ambiance to the restaurant.” From the inside of some of the city’s most popular Italian restaurants, the wood-fired pizza oven has made its way into the backyards of the most discerning of pizza lovers. Ovens can be purchased from a number of suppliers and manufacturers, but for some like Joe Fusco, only Italian-made will do. “The satisfaction of cooking and entertaining is what I love most,” says Fusco. “It’s become a focal point of the home and brings together the family for quality time.” After noticing the growing popularity of outdoor ovens at the homes of friends and family, Fusco purchased his own five years ago from a local importer bringing in fire wood ovens from Italy. “Once you can make it at home the restaurant pizza just isn’t as good,” says Fusco, who enjoys hosting summer pizza parties in his backyard complete with white and red checkered table cloths and homemade menu cards. “We tweak each pizza with our favourite toppings, and with the aroma from the wood as the pizza is cooking and the set-up it’s like we’re in Italy.” From Toronto’s trendy new pizzerias to backyards transformed into personal pizza-making paradise, the search for the finest in wood fired pizza continues to ignite our cravings and our taste buds.
Pizzeria Libretto 221 Ossington Ave 550 Danforth Ave Queen Margherita Pizza 1402 Queen St E 785 Annette St Pizzeria Via Mercanti 188 Augusta Ave Enoteca Motorino 4101 Rutherford Rd Doppio Zero 530 Eglinton Ave W Marcello’s 1163 St. Clair West 3175 Rutherford Road Ice Cream Patio 5451 Hwy 7 Pizza Al Metro 7887 Weston Rd
Wood Burning Pizzerias in the GTA
wenty years ago local restaurants with wood fired pizza ovens were limited, but the influx of openings in almost every corner of Toronto has proven to be a welcomed and flavoursome addition for the city’s pizza lovers. It’s now a hotbed for gourmet chains and family-owned restaurants turning out pizzas from inside Italian-made fornos with toppings and price points just as diverse as their clientele. “Pizza is the ultimate comfort food,” says D’Elia, who has been in the restaurant business for over 25 years. “People of all ages and from almost every part of the world enjoy it on a regular basis.” A classic wood-burning oven pie is characterized by its thin, chewy crust speckled with black, leopard-like char marks and a tender dough centre cooked at around 650 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit anywhere from 90 seconds to two minutes. For the most part, the pizzaiolo will keep toppings simple with a sauce of Italian San Marzano tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, fresh mozzarella and a basil leaf that probably came from a Nonno’s backyard. “You can’t compare to a conventional pizza,” says Andrea Mugnaini, owner and founder of Mugnaini, a California-based company that has been importing Italian-made ovens across North America for 20 years. “Cooking with wood releases aromatic flavours into the pizza, and the moisture in the cooking chamber allows you to bake quickly maintaining pizza dough tenderness.” Mugnaini says pizza culture is seeing a popular return to the roots of the authentic Neapolitan pizza, which includes baking in
Nino D’Aversa Bakery 3120 Rutherford Rd Peperoncino Trattoria 200 Whitmore Rd
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