L’Onore Pizza approaches pies with monkish purity
Pizza maker-owner Abhiyan Rajhans mills his own flour for the sourdough pizza at his New Westminster restaurant
Abhiyan Rajhans spent five years perfecting the sourdough starter recipe he uses at L’Onore Pizza. Photo by @romanlanon and @aamir.u
YOU KNOW THOSE rare occasions when you bite into a food so sublime you have to stop, close your eyes, and focus on nothing else but the taste and texture in your mouth, the experience transporting you somewhere else, even for a second? A slice of pizza had that effect on Abhiyan Rajhans, and that piece of pie changed his life course.
Rajhans is the owner of the recently opened L’Onore Pizza, which has fast become a locals’ favourite in New Westminster. The “neo Neapolitan” pies have a naturally leavened sourdough base, yielding the bread’s characteristic chewy texture and crackly, crisp crust, baked in a brick Stefano Ferrara pizza oven from Naples. The dough is made of three types of flour, a large amount of which Rajhans mills himself night after night from local organic wheat sourced from Cedar Isle Farms in Agassiz.
“Most bakers agree that naturally leavened bread is the best one can get,” Rajhans tells Stir. “I wanted to look at pizza with a holistic approach, with monkish purity. Naturally leavened pizza is something which needs care and dedication.”
Rajhans made his way to the West Coast from his native Mumbai via Montreal, where he lived and worked for nine years. Upon moving to Vancouver with his wife in 2014, he began a deep dive into the world of pizza-making. He spent five years perfecting the recipe he now uses at L’Onore.
“That one slice kept coming to my mind, and then someone gifted me a book on pizza, and thus the journey began,” Rajhans tells Stir. “I’ve been to many pizzerias in the U.S.A. and Canada but never idolized any. I always feel pizza is an extension of self; it is a canvas and one needs to paint it without being influenced by anyone.
“I began making pizza once or twice a week, spent my days on YouTube and different blog platforms, just understanding the process. It is so varied that at times you don’t understand what is right and what is not. Then slowly it dawns on you that there is no right or wrong, there is only one way that is the way one feels comfortable. Every recipe is an interpretation of the pizza maker, hence even though it may technically seem perfect, it may not be for you, because it is not you. I think this is with any recipe. Just as every actor’s interpretation of a character is different, it is same with pizza; one can never mimic another.”
After many attempts, his sourdough started came to be; he now has not one but two starters named after the Hindu god and goddess Shiva and Annapurna.
L’Onore Pizza’s Abhiyan Rajhans named his sourdough starters after Hindu deities. Photo by @romanlanon and @aamir.u
L’Onore staples include Bianco Dinapoli Tomatoes from Northern California (which the New York Times deemed the best canned tomatoes in the world last year), Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, and Canadian garlic. He tracked down fresh mozzarella di bufala made by a small Italian family-run venture: “I wanted one cheese from Italy and no one carried it in Vancouver,” Rajhans says. “I used to write to the company every week till I got their cheese. Now it comes to Montreal and then we fly it in to Vancouver. I like to use product where the maker is making it to taste good, not for just volume and profit.”
From there, he builds L’Onore’s pizzas with all kinds of creative combinations.
The Diavola has fior de latte mozzarella, organic tomato sauce, house-made organic pork sausage, Kalamata olives, roasted red pepper, Calabrian chili, and Maldon flaked salt, garnished with onion jam and hot honey.
Low-moisture grass-fed mozzarella mixes with fontina and fior di latte on the Sunrise (In Paradise) alongside shaved garlic, Leoncini ham, candied orange, organic cherry tomatoes confit, and chili oil.
On the Formaggiosa are fior de latte, blue cheese, asiago, and house-made ricotta all topped with walnuts.
The secret to L’Onore’s pizza is the sourdough base. Photo by @romanlanon and @aamir.u_
The menu also features house-made meatballs, oven-roasted chicken wings, Lambada pide (boat-shaped Turkish “pizza” filled with lamb mincemeat), salads, and more.
L’Onore means the honour in Italian, and Rajhans takes the name seriously.
“I feel honoured that pizza and its craft chose me, I feel honoured that my guest chose me to make them their meal, we honour the tradition of pizza making, and it is an honour to be a pizza maker,” he says. “When I make pizza, I feel privileged that an unknown person trusts me so much that they are ready to consume it. It is an honour to be so intimate with an unknown soul.
“My prayers are there in each and every pizza that whoever has a bite they feel the grace, love, happiness, equanimity of mind; they feel happiness; they forget the past and future and be in that moment,” he says. “Sometimes I see it when someone takes a bite and their eyes close and for a second or two they are still and one with the pizza… That is what I make pizzas for.”
L’Onore Pizza, at 28 East Royal Avenue, is open daily from 4:30 pm.
Photo by @romanlanon and @aamir.u_
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