Burlington pizza chef bakes up two big wins
Cooking in his oven rigged to go up to 800 C amid melted and blackened cupboards was a regular part of chef Bart Nadherny's day before he opened his own pizza shop.
Since the beginning, it has been a labour of love.
'I'd take these huge 50-lb. bags of flour home that I'd buy from the restaurant and make pizzas all the time,' said Nadherny, referring to his time living and working in Virginia.
After decades of investing in his love for pizza, Nadherny went from a young pizza lover to a two-time award-winning chef for a pizza he makes regularly out of his Burlington shop, Son of a Peach Pizzeria.
'It was just mind-blowing, it was such a surreal experience,' Nadherny said.
The pizza chef won first place at Toronto's Restaurants Canada Show on April 7, before landing first again in the Canadian Pizza Summit's Chef of the Year competition in Montreal just a week later.
He took home $3,000 in award money.
Nadherny won by cooking his specialty and addiction — the pepperoni pizza.
'I've made this pizza a million times in my mind, and here on the line,' said Nadherny, pointing behind the shop's counter.
Next month, Nadherny and his wife, Kim, will celebrate 11 years since opening the shop.
When the couple was thinking about where to settle down, Burlington was an easy choice.
'We chose my old stomping ground of this beautiful Golden Horseshoe area,' he said.
Nadherny grew up on farms in Beamsville, where his love for fresh produce and vegetables was first born.
The business name came from Nadherny's mom, who grew up on peach farms, earning her the nickname 'Peachy' and making him the 'Son of a Peach.'
More deep-rooted than the name is how his parents and grandmother inspired his love for pizza.
'My grandmother was Italian and my earliest memories of pizza were us making it together,' said Nadherny.
By 15 years old, Nadherny worked in a fine dining restaurant in the Niagara region before studying at New York's Culinary Institute of America. He then studied regional Italian cuisine in Jesi, Italy.
Nadherny said all his experiences have shaped the care he puts into his work today.
'
There's just like so many little things that we try to do ourselves,' he said.
This includes dicing the pineapples for the pizzas and choosing quality ingredients.
For about five years, the shop did not offer a traditional pepperoni pizza because the couple could not find the right one, he said.
'We enjoy the pepperoni that's dry, it's heavily spiced, it cups and chars a little bit on the top and it's more of a cured salami versus a deli meat,' said Nadherny.
These are decision the two make together, he said.
The couple met in Washington, D.C., where Nadherny moved after Italy, and instantly bonded over food. At the time, Nadherny still worked in restaurants.
'She was like, 'Why don't you have your own place?' and she really pushed me to do it,' he said.
The couple has now gone from making doughnuts in their little condo kitchen in Washington to owning Son of a Peach Pizzeria and their doughnut shop, called The Sunshine Doughnut Co.
After a decade at the pizza shop, Nadherny has entered the competing part of his career.
In March 2026, he will take Son of a Peach to Las Vegas' International Pizza Challenge. He will also compete in Montreal and Ohio.
Although Nadherny is used to working under stress, competing is a new ball game, he said.
'It's just like thought after thought after thought; meanwhile, you're trying to erase all those thoughts to put the sauce on nice and relaxed. Lay the cheese on nice, and relax,' said Nadherny.
The chef told himself he wouldn't compete again, but he now thinks otherwise, realizing its value in showing others how they run their shop with integrity.
'Do you put that salt in or do you cut that basil properly? Do you roast those mushrooms?' he said.
'Every little bit is important and the less ingredients you have on the pizza and the more flavour-foreign your pizzas are, the more each one of those ingredients is amplified.'
Cheyenne Bholla is a reporter at The Hamilton Spectator.
cbholla@thespec.com
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