enjoying the business side just as much, and has a terrific back-up in Piano Piano Chef Ali Grundman. Victor’s Italian ancestry lends him a deep understanding and love of Italian food. “It’s the number one ethnic food in the world,” he says, qualifying this by joking that the region of Italy he specializes in is “New Jersey,” by which he means North America has added its own spin to Old World dishes. Pizza here tastes slightly different than it does in its country of origin, and that’s just fine with Victor, whose vanity licence plate reads
“PizzaPie.” He boasts his restaurant serves “the best Neapolitan pizza in the city,” cooked in just 90 seconds at 900⁰ in a hand-crafted, wood-fired oven. To make good on this claim, the guys treat me to a glass of Zaccagnini Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wine and a Pretty Woman pizza, crafted from fior di latte, tomatoes, capers, parmigiano cheese, black olives, red onions, anchovies and Sicilian oregano, with a smoketoasted crust. The dish is as colourful as its surroundings and twice as luscious. The side order of bucatini carbonara
they also offer me is to die for – distilled to deliciousness, with an ultra-creamy egg yolk-and-cheese sauce, chunks of pancetta, and custom-made pasta from their local supplier, Famiglia Baldassare. To my regret, my family never ate dinners like this. But that’s the wonderful thing about Toronto – being able to find a restaurant like Piano Piano that feeds you like family and treats you, well, let’s just say better than most real families do. For more information, please visit: pianopianotherestaurant.com
I love making people happy