Grandma Pioli’s Meat Pie…A Wonderful String of Connections

This has been a story in the making for many years partly because I could not confirm what I had been told until yesterday.

My grandmother was born in Fucecchio, Italy (near Florence) and at the age of 16 she travelled to Marseille, France to stay with family and then to attend the Cordon Bleu School of Cooking in Paris. She graduated with two degrees…Master Chef and Pastry Chef.

In 1913 she married my grandfather Angelo Pioli and came to live in Kelowna, B.C. My grandfather had already bought land and built a house on Coronation Avenue.

Grandma would come to Oliver on occasion and when she did, Mom and Dad would take her to Tuck’s Café for dinner and to have a visit with Rose and Phil Crucetti.
Through conversation, Phil found out that Grandma had a fabulous meat pie recipe. Grandma had no problems sharing it with him and to this day, Crucetti’s Restaurant still serves that very special meat pie.

What I could not confirm was the next part of the story but thanks to Marie Crucetti, I now know that what I had been told was the truth.

Nick Szmata became the Chef at S.O.S.S. and made some pretty fabulous meals. One day he was in Tuck’s and discovered the meat pie and asked Phil if he could get the recipe. Phil knew Grandma would not mind and gave it to him.

Nick made the meat pie in long pans as he had a lot of little mouths to feed. I remember helping him with the pans one day and he told me that he got the recipe from Phil Crucetti who got it from an Italian lady from Kelowna. Being a teenager, I never thought any more about it but always looked forward to meat pie day as it was delicious and exactly like my Grandma’s. I often wondered if it was from my grandmother.

In a separate conversation on facebook, a group was talking about the meat pie and Marie Crucetti confirmed that the recipe came from my grandmother and Phil did indeed give the recipe to Nick which he used in the Cafeteria

What a wonderful feeling to have this information confirmed. It is a small part of the history of Tuck’s, Crucetti’s, S.O.S.S. and Nick. Thank you Grandma for sharing.  Thank you Phil, George, Mark and now Danny Crucetti for continuing to make this special meat pie on Thursdays just like the old days. I understand that only the men in the family have the recipe!!!  I Thank you Nick for giving us great meals at our school cafeteria.  Where else but in a small town would you find some pretty great connections.