Food – Page 2 – Andrew Goldenberg

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Has Come to Ottawa!

26 Dec

This past weekend my brother caught wind of a new pizza place in Ottawa that offers true Chicago style deep dish pizza. The name of this establishment is Made in Chicago Pizza.

The shops owner Mohamad Lotf immigrated to Canada in 1992 and opened various pizza shops throughout his time in Canada and although his shops were successful, Mohamad always felt as though the Ottawa area pizza shops were missing a unique quality that sets them apart from one another. Enter Made in Chicago Pizza. Mohamads unique Chicago Deep Dish pizza restaurant.

Made in Chicago Pizza has had a pheonemenal reception here in Ottawa, and Mohamad could not be more pleased with how the community has received them.

First let’s talk about the sauce. Made in Chicago Pizza has some of the best tasting pizza sauce I have ever experienced in Ottawa and abroad! It’s nice and tangy with just the right amount of sweetness to it, that keeps your mouth happy bite after delicious bite! Our particular order was a very simple large bacon and pepperoni pizza. The images below do not do this pizza justice!

Made in Chicago deep dish pizza is the real deal. A large pizza had the weight of a small baby! The look is deceiving. There is a ton of cheese, sauce, and toppings jammed into this little delightful pizza box.

Keeping in mind that this was the soft launch of their business and I don’t think they could have anticipated just how many people in Ottawa wanted an authentic Chicago style deep dish pizza to slam into their faces, but Ottawa responded with a massive amount of business in one day. They had orders piled up but somehow still managed to get all the pizzas out with a very acceptable wait time.

This pizza is prepared with care, and offers a tremendous value even over traditional pizza places here in Ottawa. A large bacon and pepperoni pizza is going to run you $33.00 + taxes, but believe me it’s worth every penny and you certainly get your moneys worth.

Made in Chicago Pizza offers an incredible product, a fair price, and the service was fantastic! If you’ve had Chicago style deep dish pizza, this is a great spot. If you haven’t had Chicago style deep dish pizza, you definitely need to check out Made in Chicago Pizza. You won’t regret it!

For More Information you can visit them online or in person at 1481B Innes Road Ottawa, ON K1B1C5.

Thoughts on the Worker Shortage

27 Nov

The last few months, I’ve been reading quite a few articles where business owners are speaking out about not being able to find suitable staff to work in their establishments. According to many of these business owners the issue stems from Government handouts and the fact that “people just don’t want to work”.

I personally believe this all to be a massive falsehood being perpetuated by business owners, who for a long time, have profited off the backs of their workers and now are actually having to adapt and pay their staff what they are worth.

Before the pandemic hit Canada, restaurants and bars had plenty of staff who were serving their patrons. It is my contention that a majority of these people fall into a very specific camp that now have more options.

The camp I am referring to is people who are stuck in a job they don’t want, with an emlpoyer who treats them poorly, and before the pandemic, they really could not afford to train or branch out for a new job and a new beginning. What the pandemic has shown is that when you give someone who feels they are in a dead end job or are being mistreated by their employer and opportunity at a better life, most of them will take it.

The main argument I hear is that with Food costs and overhead, these poor restaurants and bars can’t afford to pay more than minimum wage, and need their patrons to supplement their workers income via tipping. I’m sorry but anyone who can do even basic math knows that is simply untrue.

A 10KG bag of flour costs a REGULAR customer roughly $14, not someone buying in bulk or regularly taking delivery of large quantites of flour. An average pizza shop (mom and pop not chain) charges anywhere between $10 and $20 for a pizza. Doing some simple math you can easily see that a regular bag of flour pays for itself with the sale of a single pizza. Even factoring in toppings, sauce, and cheese, a pizza still has very healthy margins if you’re selling a quality pizza and have regular customers (literally everyone is ordering in at the moment) there’s absolutely no reason that you can’t pay your staff a living wage.

I’m sorry but that argument is absolute bull shit!

Father’s Day Wagyu Test Cook

18 Jun

I’m a very lucky man! My wife purchased some Japanese A5 Wagyu steaks for father’s day, and today I decided to do a test cook to make sure I can cook these steaks without overdoing them.

I started out by seasoning both sides with kosher salt and ground black pepper.

To get a perfect medium rare doneness, it was simple cook of 3 minutes on each side of the steaks and butter basted to finish them off.

Perfectly cooked, seasoned and delicious!