Industry News

Industry News

Winnipeg retailer completes $2-million expansion
By Myron Love

Winnipeg’s Piazza De Nardi recently completed a $2-million expansion, which includes an expanded baking kitchen and a new oven imported from Italy.
From the outside, Piazza De Nardi looks like an Italian villa. Inside, shoppers will find a wine store, a fine chocolate counter, deli counter, and meat, cheese and bakery sections.
“Ours from the beginning was an Italian market concept,” says Tom De Nardi, Piazza De Nardi manager. “A fresh bakery was a natural part of that concept.”
Piazza De Nardi makes all of its breads, cakes and pastries from scratch.
“It’s very labour-intensive,” he says, “but we want to put out the best
products.”
The bakery, adds De Nardi, seems to fill a real need in the market for quality baked goods, especially cakes and pastries.
“We have received a lot of requests from hotels and restaurants,” he says, “but we’re not sure that we want to go that route. Almost all of our customers are retail customers.”
One of the goals of the De Nardi expansion was to create more kitchen space for an expanded line of baked goods.
“We are planning to introduce some new bakery products,” De Nardi says. “Our new multiple deck oven will give us more flexibility by allowing us to bake different products at different times and under different conditions. We will probably be hiring some more bakers, too.”
The De Nardi family has been in the retail foodservice business for several decades and opened Piazza De Nardi Winnipeg 10 years ago.

An evening of chocolate
Puratos Canada’s decadent Belgian Chocolate Night at the lovely Graydon Hall Manor in Toronto was a decided success with attendees. Guests were presented with a map upon entry, which led them to a number of chocolate stations, where they could sample everything from a maple walnut white chocolate mousse from Dolcini, to chocolate tarts from Rahier Patisserie, to spicy Mayan hot chocolate from Soma, all featuring Belcolade chocolate, the definite star of the night. The evening was hosted by the Belgian Ambassador to Canada, Jean Lint, who, joked that, “nine out of 10 people say they like chocolate – and the 10th person is lying.” See more pictures from the evening on the Bakers Journal website, www.bakersjournal.com.

Food safety site

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched a new food safety website aimed at businesses with 500 employees or less. The new Predictive Microbiology Information Portal (PMIP), portal.arserrc.gov/, offers information on a variety of food safety issues, such as foodborne pathogens, microbial data and U.S. regulatory policies.
“This builds on our extensive efforts to provide more resources and better tools to the small and very small plants so they can enhance the safety of their products,” says Al Almanza, administrator of USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).