Pursuing pizza perfection on Stewart Street

Paula Kelsall

Vittorio Colaiacova had been running the Century House Bed and Breakfast at 62 Stewart Street for several years, when the COVID pandemic shut down businesses of all sorts in early 2020. At first, he took the opportunity to make some improvements, renovating the kitchen and changing the dining layout to improve social distancing. But the lockdowns kept coming and going, and even when travel restrictions eased, business did not return to its pre-pandemic patterns. What to do next?

A family wedding in Italy in the summer of 2022 sent Vittorio in a new direction. One night, out for pizza with some cousins, he found himself watching the action in the kitchen, intrigued with the process of preparing one of Italy’s iconic dishes. When he got back to Ottawa, he found himself listening to pizza podcasts, learning about the latest trends, the best cookbooks, and the many different approaches to making a great crust.

March 2023 found Vittorio attending the 39th annual International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. attending classes and meeting other people who shared his interest in the perfect pie. Many attendees were employed by big corporations, but there were other chefs there running small businesses: pop-ups and food trucks bringing delight to their neighbourhoods.

By now pizza had found its way into Vittorio’s business, and Vittorio’s Pizza House was sharing space with the bed and breakfast. He was offering classes in his sparkling new kitchen and serving pizza to a few customers in the front rooms on Saturday nights. He settled on individual-sized pizzas with a thick, Sicilian-style crust, baked in rectangular 8” X 10” pans that could be easily accommodated in his oven.

By March 2024, after months of practice, Vittorio was ready to go back to the Pizza Expo, this time as a competitor. This was a big undertaking. He brought his own tools, seasonings and flour. He arrived a few days early, in time to prepare the poolish, the mixture of flour, yeast and water that makes the dough rise. After that, he had to prepare the dough and let it proof for 48 hours. He brought 12 pans, so that he could make many pizzas in the unfamiliar oven at the competition, and then choose the best three for the judges. His unique “White Mediterranean Bliss” pizza placed very respectably in the top 20 among the dozens of competitors in the non-traditional pan category.

When a CTV reporter spotted the story of Vittorio’s Las Vegas adventure on Instagram, Vittorio’s Pizza House received an unexpected rush of publicity, and Saturday nights became very busy through the spring and summer. The fortunate guests who were able to obtain a reservation enjoyed a chewy, golden, focaccia-like crust with classic toppings of tomato sauce, pepperoni or sausage. Alternatively they could savour the white pizza that went to the Expo, which is topped with spinach, olives, cheese and truffle oil. Every meal comes with sparkling water and a choice of San Pellegrino sparkling fruit sodas; guests are also welcome to bring their own beverages.

Starting this fall, the Pizza House is open for dining on both Friday and Saturday nights, and there are new dishes to try. Vittorio recently unveiled a dessert pizza, with butter cream, pistachios and Amarena cherries, and this fall he’ll introduce a new white pizza with herbed ricotta and mushrooms. In the new year, Vittorio will be taking time off from the B&B to attend the three-month program in plant-based culinary arts at Cordon Bleu. Who knows where that will take him? If the last few years are any indication, it’s bound to be somewhere interesting.