Was there ever a time when pizza didn’t reign supreme? Gary or Liz Biegel, owners of Biegel’s Stone Oven Pizza on Broadway might just be able to actually tell you that, however, even I can certainly confirm that today, pizza is a universally accepted food favourite. However, for you pizza lovers, I now have to ask you: do you really know what you’re eating? Have you really tried pizza?
Let me tell you a story I recently learned from Gary and Liz: Queen Margherita of Savoy, the Queen Consort of Italy from 1878-1900 was made a pizza (by who varies depending on who you ask), with three simple toppings: red tomato sauce, white mozzarella and green basil – the colours of the Italian flag. If you’re even slightly familiar with pizza flavours, you’ve likely already guessed the end of this tale. Yes, this is the supposed origin story of the Margherita pizza; a simple, basic, yet flavourful pizza.
I share this story because this also emphasizes Biegel’s Stone Oven Pizza’s traditional Italian approach. Their goal when making pizza is to draw out each flavour, making it so that no one topping overpowers the slice, and instead it is the way the flavours blend together. Speaking from experience, this allows you to enjoy something like spicy cured Italian meat, and sweet balsamic with each bite, neither flavour competing with the other, but rather taking turns, blending much like instruments in an orchestra. Which is also the beauty of a well-made Margherita pizza – three simple flavours blending together perfectly.
To achieve this, you have to start at the very beginning, with high quality, fresh ingredients. Many of Biegel’s ingredients come from Italy, such as the flour or the tomatoes for their house-made sauce, and their herbs are picked fresh from the plants. If you want to emphasize the taste then you are going to need to start with the best flavours, and I think we can all agree that fresh is always best.
The longest part of the process is likely the starter for their dough, which takes about 2-3 days to fully ferment, rest and develop. To start they mix together the necessary ingredients, blending them together to create a magnificent bubbling concoction. Then it sits and grows until it has expanded to fill the entire container (about three or four times it’s original size). At which point, they pound it back down, and the rising begins again. This time-consuming process allows for, you guessed it, taste and texture to be properly drawn out. This also means that the dough’s already done it’s expanding, hopefully allowing you to avoid the “bloated” feeling you might sometimes get from other doughs still fermenting and expanding after you consume them. An important step to reach their goal of a pizza that looks good, tastes good, and more importantly, digests easily.
Of course, we cannot talk about Biegel’s Stone Oven Pizza and not talk about the stone oven, which consists of two circular stone racks heated by gas flames above and below, as they rotate around the large oven. While they could heat both trays from the top and the bottom, Biegel’s usually leaves the top most flame off, allowing them to “finish” their pizzas on the top rack, further cooking the bottom of the crust to get the perfect, crispy texture, while not over cooking the toppings. Again, I speak from experience when I say that the combo of well-made dough, cooked to perfection, creates a delicious, crispy thin crust with just the right amount of flavour to compliment the toppings that you choose.
From the moment that you walk into Biegel’s Stone Oven Pizza, you can tell that it is different. It’s impossible for your eyes not to go immediately to the red Panigale V2 in the corner, a splash of vibrant colour emphasised by the portrait of the 3 Pagani Huayaras on the wall ahead. Racks of Caputo and Polselli imported flour, Italian olive oil, San Marzano tomato, a display cooler showing off Italian prosciutto, fruits, olives and cheeses and right in the center a container holding the previously mentioned bubbling concoction with a sign reading “the start of a gastronomic experience”. Everything you see before you tells you that this is really something new, yet traditionally authentic.
Even the menu on the wall, with creatively named pizzas numbered 00 to 12.1 (like your latest iPhone upgrade, the same but better), speak of the adventures that await you. If the pizza’s name doesn’t seem self explanatory, ask – they have stories. Biegel’s Stone Oven Pizza is not just a shop, it is a pizza experience, that really needs to be seen in person to appreciate. So, if you’ve started wondering if you really don’t know pizza at all – do yourself a favour and go into Biegel’s Stone Oven Pizza to check it out for yourself. If you love it, as much as I know you will, you should visit their Wood Oven location in Grand Valley as well. Just make sure you bring me a slice when you do, yeah?
WRITTEN BY: JILLIAN KENT | PHOTOGRAPHY: CORY BRUYEA | RESOURCES: BIEGEL’S STONE OVEN PIZZA, ORANGEVILLE
