The sound of a crackling wood fire fills the kitchen, flour is all over the counter and the smell of melting mozzarella makes you feel like you’re in the Motola’s family kitchen on the Italian seaside.
After leaving his small hometown in Italy, pizza chef Giuliano Motola, is trying to bring a piece of his country with him and into the homes of Cambridge residents.
From as early as he can remember, Motola says he would walk to his Nonna's house in Puglia, Italy and see her in the kitchen making the most delicious foods he ever ate, all from scratch.
“She would be making handmade pizza dough or pasta,” Motola recalls. “Everyone in Italy can cook, but her food just felt like home.”
Spending time with his grandma in the kitchen, he would study her recipes and how she would cook. This led him on a culinary journey that would bring him all the way to New York City at only age 18.
With only $500 in his pocket and a dream, he headed to the United States in 2018 to pursue his passion and work in one of the most diverse food cities in the world.
“Cooking was my life and I had this amazing opportunity to go and work at an Italian restaurant in the big apple, I had to go,” he says. “I didn’t even have a bank account, I was so young, but I knew this is what I wanted to do.”
He worked in a busy Italian restaurant in New York and got an overwhelming dose of big city life. Coming from such a small town in Italy to one of the most populated cities in the world was a massive culture shock for Motola.
After spending six months in New York, he decided to go slow it down a bit and live with some family in Canada. Staying with some of his father’s family members in the GTA, Motola got to work in more restaurants keeping his dream of owning a restaurant alive.
Then in 2020, COVID hit and the service industry was essentially shut down. Motola was out of work and his goal of becoming the chef of his own Italian eatery suddenly didn’t look too promising.
“I was sitting at home with nothing to do, no work, nothing. I wondered if I made a mistake staying here in Canada and if I should go back home to Italy,” he says. “I was feeling home sick and needed to find some answers, so I searched for something that made me feel like I was at home.”
Motola remembered that his grandmother would always cook these amazing dishes, and he wanted to feel that sense of nostalgia once again. He went on a journey to find a pizza that would make him feel like he just walked back into her kitchen, sat down and grabbed a slice of authentic Italian pizza.
“I went to the busiest places, pizza chains and mom and pop shops, but nothing could compare and bring me back to my roots in Italy,” said Motola.
Finding no success to hunt down this white whale of a pizza, he decided to focus his attention on creating his own perfect dough, something he always dreamed of doing.
“When working in these restaurants I made so much pizza, they always had their own recipes so I couldn’t make my own,” said Motola. “I didn’t want to make other peoples food forever, I came here for a reason and that was to start my own business and make my own food.”
Motola spent three months finding the best recipes and importing all of the ingredients directly from his home country. His goal was to make it as authentically as possible, Italian tomatoes, flour and the freshest mozzarella available.
“The way the sun grows the tomatoes in the italian soil has such an effect on the taste, the flour everything has a specific taste,” added Motola.
He started to make his pizzas and cater friends and family events. This quickly grew into a small catering business where he would bring his pizza oven to parties and make fresh pizza for those at the event.
After a few months of this, he ended up moving to Cambridge and things slowed down. He started to work a normal manufacturing job here in the city and his pizza making became a small side business.
“A lot of my contacts and customers were in the GTA and I was commuting to do some events, but it was becoming too much,” said Motola. “I needed to expand my business into Cambridge and Waterloo region.”
He saw that local restaurants that were opening would end up closing only after a few months in business and that people were staying at home and cooking more meals, that’s when an idea hit him.
“I thought, I can make fresh frozen pizzas for people and sell my dough, mozzarella and sauce in a kit so people can make them at home,” he said. “I have a kitchen here at home and I adhere to all health and safety protocols.”
Motola always wanted to bring his culture and cuisine into people’s homes and allow them to experience true Italian cooking. He made a post on Facebook about selling pizzas and dough and the response he got shocked him.
“It was amazing, I made my post and I was just getting flooded with requests,” he added. “I was even approached by the Hespeler Farmers Market and they want me to open a booth in the summer.”
He is selling bags of fresh pizza dough and ingredients to those who want to make their own food at home. He wants to meet the needs of those who want to stay home and not eat out, but also eat something that is of high quality and delicious.
In the future Motola wants to move out of his home kitchen and into a commercial space where he can have a store front and sell other imported Italian products. This would give him the opportunity to help others from Italy come to Canada and bring with them culinary knowledge and a chance to live here.
“I was fortunate enough to come to Canada and start an amazing life. If I can help those from back home come here and work, that would be a dream,” he said.
Motola is now taking orders for pizza kits, dough and frozen pizza through his Facebook page.
