Gluten Free Pizza Available

Back in 2008 we noticed we were getting more and more phone calls asking if we made a gluten free pizza. People with gluten allergies were begging us to make a gluten free pizza that they could eat – something palatable was requested, but they were really hoping for something tasty. They also needed to have confidence that it wouldn’t make them sick, that is to say, that special care in the preparation & cooking would be assured and they could enjoy a pizza like everybody else – except that it would be a gluten free pizza. In a way it was very flattering to hear requests from people with gluten allergies; many said that we are known for being the best when it comes to all things pizza and these people really missed pizza. We still get calls and questions every week about our gluten free pizza.

We took quite a while to develop our own gluten free pizza recipe and it’s been on the menu for about a year and a half. Our recipe is made in house—from scratch and we only make it early in the morning in small batches. We do this to limit the exposure to wheat flour. We could have sourced the pre-made shells like some other pizza places do, but we felt that we could do better. Italians have been making Gluten Free pizza for years and they even have a Gluten Free baking category at the World Pizza Championship games. What I’ve learned from my experience there is that they don’t like eggs in the dough, which is common in North American Gluten Free products. Our recipe is egg free.

While we were developing our gluten free pizza dough recipe we had several testers who tasted our sample batches and sent us evaluations of each test. We knew we had our final recipe when all the evaluations came back with “this tastes like pizza!!!” A big thanks again to all of our samplers, we really appreciated your honest feedback. Even though we had our winning recipe, we still had to figure out how to incorporate a from-scratch gluten free pizza into a busy ‘wheat’ pizzeria. We asked our friends in Australia and Italy how they have been able to offer it on their menus for the past 10 years. We developed our system based on many suggestions from these experts.

We have a special shelf inside our walk in where we make the gluten free pizzas. We use sauce, toppings and cheese from the walkin which have not been in our kitchen, exposed to the wheat dusting flour that we use to slap out our wheat pizzas. Whenever we get an order for a gluten free pizza, a Pizziolo takes a clean, fresh apron and makes that gluten free pizza in the walk in, then loads it in our granite stone conveyor oven. We use separate baking disks and we also use a separate cutting wheel for our gluten free pizzas. We take extra special care that our gluten free pizzas are not exposed to any wheat products. It’s a lot of work, but we realize that not caring could make someone very sick and that’s just not acceptable.

Part of the other challenge was to check with all our suppliers about whether or not their products were deemed “gluten-free”. Label laws in Canada allow for a small percentage of wheat flour to be included in a “spices” category listed on the label—and listed here are all of our gluten free pizza toppings.

Gluten Free toppings:
Meats: Buffalo Chicken, Cajun Chicken, Plain Chicken, Seasoned Chicken, Strip Bacon, Turkey Bacon, Plain Beef, Capicollo Ham, Oysters, Anchovies, Shrimp.

Veggies: All of them!!!!

Gluten Free Pizza Crusts made from scratch with: White Rice flour, Brown Rice Flour, Tapioca Starch, Corn Flour, Corn Starch, Gluten Free Yeast, and Xanthan gum.
Available in 12” size only.

Gluten Free Specialty Pizzas*
When requested with gluten free pizza crust

Gourmet Hawaiian
Our signature marinara, Capicolla, Strip Bacon, Fresh Hand Cut Pineapple,
Monterey Jack Cheese Blend

Mexican*
*request with plain lean ground beef instead of seasoned beef, our signature marinara, Roma tomatoes, red onions and medium sharp cheddar

Classic Vegetarian
Our signature marinara, fresh mushrooms, green peppers, red onions & Roma tomatoes

Gourmet Vegetarian
Our signature marinara, chopped baby spinach, artichoke hearts, red onions & sundried tomatoes

Cheesy
Our signature marinara, mozzarella, medium sharp cheddar & Monterey Jack Cheeses

Big D’s Bodacious BLT “Canada’s Best Pizza 2006” – Canadian Pizza Magazine
No sauce, a blend of medium sharp cheddar & low fat mozzarella cheeses, capicolla ham, strip bacon, topped with fresh diced Roma tomatoes, ranch dressing, light pepper & sea salt finished with fresh chopped Romaine lettuce.

Havarti Heaven “Finalist for Best Pizza 2007” – Pizza Festiva
Olive oil & herb sauce, roasted red peppers, red onions, strip bacon & Cajun chicken with a blend of garlic’n’chive havarti & low fat mozzarella

Californian
Olive oil & herb sauce, low fat mozzarella cheese, seasoned chicken breast, chopped baby spinach, sundried tomatoes & Roma tomatoes

The Most Expensive Pizza in the Land

We are definitely the most expensive pizza in the city, if not the highest price, then among the top 2. We might even be the most expensive pizza the country, although I thought I heard about a place that was putting gold flakes on their zzas and charging upwards of $100 for a small, 10” pie. Come to think about it, maybe that was one of those hoity toity places in New York.

Some think that our prices are so high just because we’ve won a few awards for our pizzas. (ok, like 5 “Best Pizza of the year 2005-2009”) While we don’t use inedible toppings like gold flakes or diamond studded earrings (now please don’t send me emails debating whether gold flakes are edible) we do use something almost as expensive; 100% Canadian dairy cheese.

Exactly why is Canadian dairy cheese so darn expensive? That’s a great question and I wish I could give you a simple answer but the facts are not stacked in my favour. Whatsmore, there is a 30% pricing difference between 100% Canadian dairy cheese that we use on our fresh pizzas versus 100% Canadian dairy cheese that we use on our frozen pizzas. WHAT?? You ask, that can’t be true – I made that up, you say~!?? Oh I wish it were so, but alas, no ‘tis true. Same cheese, different uses have different prices. That’s why our frozen gourmet pizzas are much, much less expensive than our fresh pizzas. That’s why all the frozen pizzas in grocery stores are so cheap. Nice of the big boys to compare their frozen pizzas to fresh pizzas from authentic pizzerias (like ours) every commercial break for every major game and popular TV show and not mention the built in price advantage, eh? (no, I’m not bitter). (ok, maybe just a little)

So then, how come there are so many pizza places selling fresh pizzas for $5-$10 for the last decade? AHA!! Well if you must know, they aren’t using 100% Canadian dairy cheese on those pies – they are using a substitute, an imitation, a mixture, a derivative of something else created to look like and kinda taste like real 100% Canadian dairy cheese, but cost a whole lot less.

Whether or not you can tell the difference isn’t the issue for today. Whether or not you care is. We are among the last of the holdouts for insisting on using 100% Canadian dairy cheese on our award winning, fresh pizzas. Canadian cheese prices are among the highest in the world – twice that of our friends in the USA. Is it any wonder that consumption of dairy products in Canada is at an all time low? We could use the same ‘cheeselike’ substances that our so-called competitors use and drop our prices, but we believe that our customers would drop us just as quickly. Still though, why can’t we use the same, 100% Canadian dairy cheese on our fresh pizzas that we use on our frozen pizzas? I mean, would the dairy police come and take us away in a milk truck? Would we be thrown in jail for using the more affordable 100% Canadian dairy cheese on our fresh pizzas and passing the savings on to our customers? It might sound silly, but no sillier than a 30% price difference for cheese because of the rules of engagement! It’s like having two separate prices for ball point pens; one higher if you use it on a notepads kept next to the phone, and one price lower if you promise to only use it on lined, legal size yellow paper.

Now I'm not an economist, nor a lobbyist, rather just a simple pizza chef with 20+ years of experience who knows quality ingredients and can say with a certain amount of confidence that giving all pizza makers access to the same low prices that only frozen pizza manufacturers currently have can only increase dairy consumption in Canada. Maybe this article from The Globe and Mail can explain our dairy system better than this pizza chef can.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/global-food/canadians-dont-know-the-price-of-milk/article1809689/