Nelson’s Itza Ristorante has long laid claim to making Nelson’s best pizza. But now the local restaurant can say it’s producing one of the top pies in the country.
Itza’s Rick Nixon was one of four chefs across Canada selected to compete in the 2011 Chef of the Year competition run by Canadian Pizza Magazine — and the only chef outside Southern Ontario to make the cut.
“We didn’t expect it at all,” says Nixon, who has entered the restaurant in the competition several times before.
“Most of the time we see that [the winners] are coming from pretty large markets. The other three finalists, one was out of Ottawa, one was London, it’s all Southern Ontario and those are huge markets.”
To enter the contest, chefs must create and pitch a pizza idea that is judged on originality, marketability, and “flair.” The four finalists then ship all of their ingredients, from dough to toppings, to Toronto for a test bake.
Nixon chose to enter his Italian Garden pie (which includes pesto, peppers, spinach and asparagus), with a slight variation.
“I made it up into a thin crust, added some freshly grated parmesan and a little bit of olive oil on the crust,” he says. “But other than that it was the exact same one we do at the restaurant.”
This month Nixon got a call telling him he’d made the cut, and drove to Kamloops so the pizza’s components could be sent out overnight.
Though the pizza lost out to Ottawa chef Pasqualino Oliveri’s La Regina — topped with broccoli sauce, sausage, peppers and red onions — Nixon says he’s received good feedback so far, and expects to hear more from the judges later this month.
“For us to just get in the finals from our little town here is pretty awesome,” he says, adding now that the restaurant has made the cut once, he’d like to see if Itza has what it takes to qualify for an international competition.
“Now it’s just a matter of coming up with a different pizza for next year,” he says.
Recipes for all four finalists will be published in Canadian Pizza Magazine’s April edition, which is online at canadianpizzamag.com.