TORONTO
ascendant descendant Rediscovery in the Age of Pizza with Chris Getchell by Sean Jeremy Palmer
P
izza has been the big culinary success story of the pandemic and raves for Toronto’s Descendant Pizza, commonly referred to as the BEST pizza in Canada, has seen unparalleled success. Their secret? I sought to find it with my scheduled call with Chris Getchell, Descendant’s chef, founder and owner. Put aside the brick cheese, artisan sausage, sherry vinegar and the like, Chris’s vulnerability disarmed me as he leaned in to grace, sharing with a stranger a glimpse of his personal challenge at a time when his business has never been better.
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“Testing, testing, I am recording this,” I begin. “Let’s get started. So where are you right now?” I ask. “I live in Markdale,” he replies. Markdale is a community in the heart of central Canada cattle country, population 1,216. “It’s a couple hours north of Toronto. I go in a few times a week right now, kind of in the middle of changing my life. And yeah, just trying to figure out what my next steps are as we’re growing the business.” “These last two years, I think many of us are at a crossroads,” I reply. “Are you open to discussing the challenges you’re facing? I was thinking we’d talk about pizza, but life may be a bit more interesting.“ “What kind of questions?” “You said that you’re at a crossroads, making some different decisions and figuring out what’s next. I’d like you to expand on that if you can.” “That’s a tough one without getting too personal. It might be best to stick to the pizza.” Chris pauses then continues. “I just had to get out of the city for a little while, you know, I’ve signed only a year lease just to see if it’s something that I’m interested in; it’s farmland, right. I, you know, I, had to make a change. The pizzeria’s running really well with the great managers we have down there now. We actually grew during the shutdown, by 20-25%. It was a lot of pressure. And, you know, everybody here’s kind of beat down by this whole pandemic, and the morale is different. Yeah, it’s just – I don’t even know where I’m going with this.”
