Are Canada's Italian restaurants ditching pizza?

However much new trends and innovations may show up in the Canadian restaurant sector, there will always be room for traditional staples. This is particularly true when certain occasions call for a very specific food type.

With September almost upon us, many will be looking forward to some autumnal culinary treats, whether it is the traditional Thanksgiving turkey or pumpkin pie on Halloween. 

Some dates are even more specific and September 5th will be one of these, as it has been designated National Cheese Pizza Day. 

True, some people might decide this is something they can give a miss, should they not be fans of fromage or partakers of pizza. But for others, this may be the perfect time to visit a pizza restaurant.

Of course, there is a huge choice of pizza outlets, from takeaways on every highway to specialist chains. However, some might want to enjoy a pizza on this - or indeed any occasion - as part of a night out at a restaurant. Indeed, many will look to their local Italian outlet as a likely provider of a great pizza, alongside the various other seafood and pasta choices that will feature on a traditional Italian menu. 

However, this may not be the case when it comes to the best Italian restaurants in the country. Several Italian and Mediterranean eateries made the list of Canada's 100 top restaurants produced by Canadas100best.com in April. But anyone looking for pizza might need to look elsewhere. 

Whether at Salvio Volpe or Ask for Luigi in Vancouver, at Corso 32 or Uccellino in Edmonton, or Impasto in Montreal, top Italian and Mediterranean restaurants are producing menus from which pizza is absent. Indeed, to spot an Italian on the top 100 list that offers pizza, it will be necessary to visit Buca in Toronto, which has a list of nine options from funghi and cinghiali to its in-house speciality Salumi di Buca. 

The implication seems to be that at the higher end of the range, more exotic tastes like lobster and octopus are taking pride of place, offering something different to what may now be regarded as simply a vernacular of North American menus. 

Indeed, it could be that pizza, once the most Italian of dishes, has become so integrated into the North American diet that it has become regarded as much as an American or Canadian food as an Italian one. This is despite the fact that the essential ingredients are just the same; there is no equivalence, for example, with the popularity of curry in some western countries where the typical dish is made much milder than it would be in south Asia, in order to cater for the western palate. 

Of course, the absence of pizza from most of the top restaurants does not mean that this trend will be copied by all outlets. 

Moreover, as 35 per cent of this year's top 100 were absent from the 2017 list, it is perfectly plausible that 2019 might bring something very different. Perhaps that will include many Italian restaurants who are only to happy to serve up something involving a baked crust coated with bubbling, melted cheese.