There’s already a thriving farmers’ market, community garden, orchard, salmon habitat, zero-waste composter and Italian honey-bee hive on the grounds surrounding the Italian Cultural Centre (ICC) on Grandview Highway. While that’s an impressive set of green credentials for a community group whose primary focus is promoting Italian language, heritage and culture, however, it’s not exactly news.
In a first for Vancouver, though, you’ll soon be able to bake bread and pizza in a public bake oven in the sprawling park behind Il Centro, as well.
For Mauro Vescera, executive director of the ICC, the community bake oven has been a long time coming.
“We have approval from the Parks Board, [but] when you build something in the park you need to, you know, provide DNA samples,” he says, with a playful wink. “It is the first one in the city,” he adds, “so maybe that’s why it’s taken longer.”
The oven is exactly what you’d imagine: domed, tiled and made in Italy, of course. It will adhere to specifications set out by the Vancouver Parks Board and Vancouver Coastal Health, but will be managed by the ICC. A grand opening is currently scheduled for Friday, June 17, to coincide with Il Mercato, the centre’s on-site Italian farmers’ market, that evening.
Modelled after successful programs already in place in Toronto, the oven is intended to be a community amenity, open to the public and educational groups to book and enjoy in Beaconsfield Park.
Due to restrictions around the burning of wood in Vancouver, the oven will run on propane, and a modest fee of $10 has been suggested so far, to cover the cost of the fuel and for maintenance and cleaning. Picnic tables and a work surface for your dough and food stuffs will also be provided, and just steps away is the ICC’s licensed bistro, if you’re looking to savour a glass of wine as you wait for your sourdough or pizza napoletana to bake.
Meanwhile, the oven will make a well-timed addition to the centre’s Italian Heritage Month festivities, which include pasta-making classes, Italian Day on the Drive, an evening of Italian opera, the farmers’ market, wine tasting, a culinary series featuring chefs from around Vancouver, and more throughout June.
“We envision people coming here, maybe having a picnic; we envision using [the oven] when we do our films in the park to bake bread to sell to people,” Vescera explains. “And of course we also have Italian Heritage Month, where we have a whole bunch of programs and activities, and food is a core piece.”
• For more details, go to ItalianCulturalCentre.ca
