Two GTHA chefs just won prestigious pizza prizes
North America’s best cheese pizza is being made in a small bakery outside of Hamilton
Some of the best pizza in North America is being made right here in the GTHA, according to a prestigious competition in Las Vegas.
Two Ontario chefs, Paulo Guerra and Kevin Moreira, won accolades at the International Pizza Challenge in Nevada yesterday. Guerra is a chef who has spun dough for Gatto Wood Oven and Lambretta, but competed under his own catering company, Paulomakespizza, reports BlogTO. Moreira, meanwhile, is the sole pizza-maker at Boa Bakery, a small family business in Binbrook, a town half an hour south of Hamilton.
The competition was structured into several divisions, each for a different type of pizza. Guerra competed in the “classica” category, which meant cooking his pie on the floor of a Neapolitan-style dome oven at high heat.
Moreira, meanwhile, won with two pizzas in two very different categories: “world’s best cheese slice” and best dairy-free pizza. Videos of his win for the best cheese category show Moreira jumping and embracing members of his posse, while his wife and business partner, Nikole Moreira, films.
Fearing a rush, and with their pizza-maker out of town, the Moreiras closed their store today. Kevin’s parents are holding down the fort while the two are in Vegas, explained Nikole in an Instagram video, and she and Kevin didn’t want them to be overwhelmed with calls. Kevin, the video caption notes, is the shop’s sole pizza chef and cooks with a 72-hour, fermented sourdough starter—not the kind of thing that’s ready overnight.
Surprisingly, Kevin isn’t even the first pizza chef to bring the top cheese award back to Hamilton. Two years ago, Andy Huynh of Cowabunga Pizzeria won the very same prize, and he’s been surfing a wave of business ever since. The Moreiras may want to hire some extra hands: Binbrook is about to be a popular place.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
