Kevin Moreira takes home first place in World’s Best Cheese Slice and Daiya Non-Traditional Dairy-Free divisions
On the heels of Kevin Moreira’s double win in Las Vegas, he returned home to work overtime ahead of one of the biggest sales days of the year at Boa Bakery. Moreira, who claimed first place in both the World’s Best Cheese Slice and Daiya Dairy-Free Traditional divisions, is the owner of Boa Bakery in Binbrook, Ontario, Canada – and Easter was approaching.
“Easter is always a busy time for us, but obviously with the awards, it was even busier,” Moreira tells Pizza Today, following his wins during Pizza Expo. “Our most popular items for Easter … we did a mini-egg cannoli, mini egg cookies, mini egg cheesecakes. Our pastel de nata (Portuguese custard tart) is always a big seller but definitely popular on Easter.”
Pizza Background
Boa Bakery began offering pizza about two years ago. Currently, pre-orders go live Thursdays at 9 a.m., with customer pickups exclusively on Fridays from 4 until 6 p.m. Moreira says the shop began selling out “almost from Day One” of its pizza offerings. With high demand, why was availability so limited? It turns out the pizza was a big lift for Moreira; until recently, the pizza side of the business was “a one-man show.”
“I was stretching, dressing, baking, cutting, finishing and boxing the 25-30 pizzas solo,” he says, adding that he “had to find the time between our bread production and the start of our bread-baking.”
The baker says the pizzas at Boa tend toward artisan New York style, with plenty of lessons from bread-baking mixed into the dough. His winning creations from Pizza Expo are “pretty much exactly what I make at Boa – the only difference being the cheese brand.”
Award-winning Pizzas
Moreira creates a sourdough crust using a blend of three different flours, salt, honey and extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO). He ferments the dough for 72 hours and did not change his recipe ahead of the International Pizza Challenge.
World’s Best Cheese Slice
The pizza maker says he “really wanted to keep it simple and let the dough do the talking” in the World’s Best Cheese Slice Division. So, he used a New York-style pizza sauce made with peeled tomato, fresh basil and EVOO. He topped the sauce with whole-milk mozzarella and fresh basil pre-bake, then finished the slices with more fresh basil on top.
Daiya Non-Traditional Dairy Free
In the Non-Traditional Dairy-Free division sponsored by Daiya, Moreira used the same tomato sauce, Daiya Dairy-Free Mozzarella, crumbled vegan sausage and Spanish onion. He baked both pizzas for seven minutes in an electric oven set to 570 F.
Winning Response
In Moreira’s home bakery, the bread oven maxes out at 530 F, which he describes as “not ideal.” The capacity of the bakery’s electrical panel means that a new electric pizza oven is not in the cards – at least not yet. “We are working on getting more power so we can get a pizza oven,” he says.
In the meantime, Boa Bakery is re-arranging the production schedule to allow extra time for making pizza. Also on the wish list? More staff, new equipment, a larger walk-in cooler and the ability to make pizza five days per week.
“Unfortunately, it’s not something that can be done overnight, and it’s not something that is inexpensive,” Moreira says. “We did an entire renovation of our retail shop in December, but now will need to do the same in the back bakery area.”
Pizza Expo Experience
Reflecting on the International Pizza Challenge and Pizza Expo overall, Moreira is grateful to the pizza community. “Thank you for welcoming me with open arms,” he says. “From pizzeria owners, fellow competitors to pizza fans, I am truly blessed to be a part of such a great community.”
Moreira tells Pizza Today that Boa Bakery “has never been busier” – and his win has driven interest not just in the pizza (still served just once per week) but boosted sales of all baked goods. This has been life changing.”
