OUr story starts with lou pecou…
To understand the story, we have to travel to Marseille, in the South of France, where Cédric, our pizzaiolo, was born and raised.
Growing up, many children of his generation were taught how to cook and were passed on the family traditions by their grandparents. One of the best memories from this time in his life is when his grandmother would wake him up - much too early during summer vacation - to go to the market.
The agreement was that to be in the kitchen, you had to learn everything from scratch. The first lesson was the cooking starts with choosing the finest ingredients. Every year, when tomatoes came into season, his grandmother repeated these words :
“Cédric, go and pick some tomatoes for me. Make sure to choose the ones with the good pécou, otherwise your grandfather will be grumpy”
In Provencale, ‘lou pecou’ is the peduncle or fruit stalk that holds a cluster of fruit. Our grandparents had a special way to pick and feel the pécou to know if the fruit or vegetable picked was local, ripe, and fresh. At our European style pizzeria, you can expect that every ingredient we use is picked with the same care and attention.
For every artisanal pizza, there is an artisan pizzaiolo hard at work behind the scenes. A pizzaiolo is professionally trained, passionate about his craft, and invests his body and soul into his specialty. At Lou Pécou, we have the highest respect for the ingredients we choose, such as our dough, where we use only organic flours for all our recipes.
With increasing changes to global climate and health regulations, we adapt our protocols and recipes in accordance, so that we can guarantee consistent, high quality menu items. We care, and are very enthusiastic, about the integrity of each ingredient and the impact it has on the environment. We believe a good pizza requires nothing more than fresh and simple ingredients and fine attention - honouring the authenticity of its origins.
“As your humbled pizzaiolo, my commitment is to continue to improve my knowledge in order to always offer you ethically produced and unique artisan pizza. ”
LEAD STAFF
Cédric Toullec
Owner / Artisan Pizzaiolo
Cara Stymest
Director of Operations
Ariana Rodriguez
Head Chef