Meet Matty Matheson's pizza recipes at Maker - NOW Magazine (2024)

Matty Matheson can pretty much pull off anything he sets his mind to: Game meats, pub food and everything in between at Parts & Labour dirty cheeseburgers at P&L family-style Cuban cuisine for Bacardi-sponsored pop-ups and now, the classic delivery pizza. Maker Pizza just opened up shop in an otherwise-silent side street between Kensington and Queen West (their closest neighbours are an auto garage and the back entrance of a Chinatown hotel).

From this nondescript storefront, owner Shlomo Buchler and his team turn out delivery-ready pies made from Matheson’s own recipes. “Matty’s just a friend of mine – I’m not a chef by any means,” says Buchler, who nevertheless knows a few things about the ‘za business (he used to be an owner at FBI Pizza in Mimico).“I’ve been trying to get him to do something with me for quite some time.”

Buchler gave the chef pretty much free reign on the menu, which features a dozen or so white and sauced pies, each with a good seven or eight ingredients listed. (There’s also wings, salads and Italian sandwiches, including an eggplant parm he swears will be the shop’s sleeper hit.)

Buchler’s two faves off the pizza menu are the Tropic Thunder, which converted him with its pineapple/onion/jalapeño/fior di latte mix, even though he’s not big on Hawaiian pies.He also recommends the Frank’s Best, which melds caramelized onions, garlic, goat cheese and rosemary with a drizzle of honey.There’s Tipo 00 flour in the dough(proofed at the same time daily for uniformity and optimum flavour) and imported Italian tomatoes in the sauce. But that’s just the behind-the-scenes trickery that sets the stage forbig, chunky, punchy toppings –a style thatstrikesme as classically Mathesonian.

I order a Napoli Dynamite off the “red” menu (at 6 pm on opening day, they only have large pizzas left, the gal at the counter tells me). With tax, a nice tip and a co*ke, it comes to an eyebrow-raising$40, but the beast that shows up has me satisfied after just two of the six slices. And what slices: Fiery roasted jalapeños strewn in half-lengths around the pizza, ping pong ball-sized sausage bits, whole basil leaves purple from the oven andsuper-briny green olives that recall antipasto platters at Sicilian Sunday lunches (and notsupermarket shelf cans). All of this is on a densecrust – thin in the middle, chewily substantial at the edges – that recalls classic delivery pizza. It’s like a tattooed strongman with the soul of a little Italian nonna.

Oh, yeah, and they deliver (with their own people, like a real pizzeria – none of this third party lunch courierbusiness). Three bucks, and they’ll take your pizza within a 5 km radius in each direction of the restaurant.

59 Cameron, 416-782-2000, makerpizza.com