While some say pizza making dates back to the Stone Age, for Canadians, pizza is a snack that was introduced in the 1950s when the first commercial pizza ovens were built. Canadians started making pizza with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce, and a variety of toppings such as mushrooms, peppers and spinach. In 1957, a woman named Cathy Brady had the idea to record a pizza recipe while working on a cooking segment for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). More than 60 years later, a video of her recipe was posted online and quickly went viral.
Speaking to CBC about her newfound internet fame, the 90-year-old Brady said she was surprised by how popular her recipe videos had become. Brady first found out about her videos’ popularity through her daughter-in-law, Debbie Butt. Butt said she saw a retro-style, black-and-white recipe video pop up on her social media feed and it caught her attention. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s my mother-in-law.'” She then posted the video to social media and was inundated with questions about the woman in the video. “It’s been so much fun,” Butt said. “My grandma comes over for dinner every Sunday night, so I just wanted to let her know.”
A widely shared video shows a young Brady demonstrating the recipe for a “popular Italian dish” known as “pizza pie.” “Pizza pie has become very popular, especially in America,” Brady says in the video. “There are even restaurants that specialize in pizza pie. They’re called pizzerias. When you drive around on a Saturday night, you’ll see cars lined up for miles waiting for pizza.”
Brady’s Canadian accent caught the attention of viewers of the old video clip. Some pointed out that the way she said “pizza guy” sounded like “Pete Cilia,” and viewers found it cute. “It sounds like I have a little bit of an accent, but I don’t actually have an accent,” Brady said with a laugh. “I don’t know how it happened,” Butt said. Such comments have become an inside joke among the family.
When asked what inspired Brady to record a pizza recipe, she said, “Pizza was just starting to become popular when I was in college,” adding, “Everyone was talking about pizza and trying to make it at home because you couldn’t get it in the stores or in restaurants. So I thought it would be a really unique and interesting subject.”
It was one of her professors at the University of British Columbia who recommended her for a TV pilot for CBC, where she was studying in 1954 and taking a dietitian course in the home economics program that included cooking demonstration lessons. After a brief stint in television, Brady worked as a dietitian for 30 years, mainly in hospitals and private practices. Butt is grateful that the video has given her the opportunity to share her mother-in-law’s story with others. “I’m glad I had the chance to see my mother-in-law shine,” Butt added.
A dish called “pizza pie” is just a type of pizza, according to Pizza Oven Reviews UK. A typical pizza pie is a flatbread layered with tomato sauce and various toppings, baked at high temperatures. Brady’s 1957 recipe describes the dish as having a base of “biscuit or yeast dough” and topped with tangy tomato sauce, oregano, and “tangy cheese,” which Brady describes as “rich cheddar.” More cheese, please!
