Well i have found that i really dont see my self opening a pizza shop any time soon. Which brings me to another thought can you sell pizza recipes at an expo or something? Are pizza owners into that sort of thing? I was going to open a gourmet themed pizza place so im not sure if my pizza recipes would be of value to the mainstream. Its just that i spent a lot of time researching breads cooked around the world, different mozzarellas, I designed several tomato based sauces, several Alfredo based sauces, and a number of other ones. For example: I found a really neat way to make bread which i learned in the mediterainian (its like a bowl shaped pizza dough which makes a bowl pizza its kinda like a flat bread and if you make it right you can crack it like a chip, sauce and cheese will stick to the bread so it becomes almost like a big nacho). I have many good recipes for cooking flavorful ingredients right into the dough. For example what would you say if i said you could actually enjoy a pizza with a butternut squash and cinnamon base, with maple wood smoked dough and seared apple slices?
My family loves my pizzas and they always beg me to make them for family gatherings. they always tell me to get into a pizza business, but they dont buy pizzas either if I had to actually charge them say 30 to 40 bucks for 14-18 inch they might not think there so good lol.
Anyone have any experience with a gourmet pizza business model? Anyone think people would spend more on unusual pizzas (provided it tasted good)?
There are always places where more “unique” items sell but they are in limited pockets. Just find out where there are like-minded existing restaurants and there you are. Its a narrower market, however. I’d say at that price range you are even narrowing your market even more no matter where you are.
Not sure who would buy recipes from someone unproven and untasted. I suppose if you could somehow give samples out of your pizza at an “expo” or something you might entice some people to buy recipes.
Not sure this is going to entice any business owner to buy your book. If this is just something you really enjoy put up a web site.
P.N.;
Gourmet, or up-scale pizza is a lot like real estate, it all depends upon location, location ,location. If you follow the pizza competitions you will find some truly great pizzas being made by operators who are selling them just about mainstream through their stores. I’ve seen some really great, up-scale pizzas being sold in New York City for almost $25.00 for an 11-inch pizza…however, with the existing economy, all bets appear to be off as even the best restaurants are suffering.
There are some up-scale pizzerias in Arizona and California that still seem to be going great guns, so all is not lost, but like I said, location, location, location.
As for selling formulas/recipes, lots a luck. There are already a plthera of printed formulas/recipes, and with the limited interest, at least for right now due to the economy, I just can’t see where there would be all that much interest. Maybe I’m all wet, but that’s may personal take on it.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
I’d say I would love to make and eat one. One. In my marketplace, such creative and enticing sort of innovation would not be welcome enough to put the processes and inventory into place to serve this sort of thing. If you could make the case and show me where it could be labor friendly and profitable, I’d be right there ready to listen to your pitch. I love the concept, but cannot see where it fits into my economically depressed micro-marketplace of 2600 to 3000 people.
Id have to agree with all ur posts, and if and when i do start up my own pizzeria when i say gourmet i mean i will probably only make the crusts and the sauce with out too much concern for costs. After that i may offer organic and non organic staple ingredients such as the pepperoni, sausage, cheese, and veggies. From there i would provide the normal toppings and some of the lesser seen ones just to help stand out a bit (feta cheese, Blue cheese, maybe shrimp, crab meat, clams (breaded mixture or non), Basil, garlic (chopped), artichoke, Prosciutta (Italian ham), philli cheese steak pizza?, brat N crout pizza?. Nothing is written in stone but in my opinion just having different stuff on your menu to help you stand out can be a great form of passive marketing, even if you keep very little of the more bizarre ingredients in your food stores and no one ever orders it, people will think your…the “cool” place just for having the option.
Im not saying anyone would buy a crazy pizza like the squash one, in fact if i did try and sell it i would think they are weirder for buying it than me selling it (even though its good, when it comes to business im just not that stupid to try it). I think if you add a few “chef specials” that are pizzas that just come a certain way like a signature dish.
There are many things you can do to be gourmet with out spending too much money, for example if you make your own mozzarella you can add herbs such as chili pepper, basil, or other fresh herbs to the curd to flavor it before forming it There is probably cheese mixing companies just like there are BBQ mixing companies that can do all this for you to your specifications and even package it with your own label that you can sell to customers, the point being to add some flair to your food. Also i have seen marinated fresh mozzarella: I have taken a ball and soaked it in garlic oil and pesto and it was pretty good but i did not break it up and cook it so i dont know if the flavors would translate well onto a pizza. i make some pizza dough with toppings baked into the dough so its a bit different taste and delivery of ingredients this could give your place a higher class image without the higher cost prices. As i say, In a world where everything is gray the guy with the red shirt gets the girl.
You could advertise buffalo mozzarella A.K.A mozzarella di bufala campania, some gourmet cooks swear it has more flavor than reg mild-mozzarella but either way it is the authentic pizza cheese used for centuries before pizza came to america. Here in the USA your getting good old hormone laced cows milk (also note if you buy water buffalo mozzarella( di bufala) in the states it is commonly a mixture of cows milk and buffalo milk so you must research where to get the true form of di bufala). The bufala compania is simply like a nationally patented name for the highest quality mozzeralla cheese much like Champaign could only come from france. Bufala compania can only come from a certain region in Italy. I dont know what would happen if you marinate the mozzarella then cook it on your pizza? Anyway these are few low energy but perhaps higher cost ways to make ur self gourmet.
I am right there with you on a bratwurst & Kraut pizza with grainy brown mustard base and caraway seed. Same with other uncommon toppings and features. Limited availability features is a fun way to add variety, minimize food waste, and create a sense of urgency.
Now, the imported mozerella di bufala campana is another story at somewhere around $18+ a pound. You will need a special market and customer base to float that out on a pizza. I like it for a highlight or feature . . but a bank-buster for every day 16" pies
Yea the buffalo mozzarella from italy is way to expensive but i hear there are supplies here in the states that sell full buffalo mozzarella that is not mixed with cows milk. I think vermont, and Cali both have producers of this type of mozzarella.
Another weird thing i thought of is using a giant puff ball mushroom filling it with a small 12 inch pizza. lol that would be neat, puff ball is supposed to taste like cheese or tofu when cooked. They sell them at markets in England but you must be careful as mature puff balls are toxic. On a side note the largest living thing in the world is a honey mushroom in oregon. And even more of a side note Oregon is also home to something cool called the Oregon vortex, Interesting state I must say.
One thing an old mentor told me was to never build a pizza shop in a town with no pizza shops. Always build in the town with 10 pizza shops, because you know people eat pizza there.
With that in mind if you go to Amazon.com and search for pizza books, you will see 128,918 hits in the book category alone. Now all of those aren’t going to be specifically about making gourmet pizza, but that number alone is enough to prove the market for pizza books.
Your target market really isn’t existing pizza shops. Anyone with their own shop probably has their own recipes that the tend to be pretty attached to, and barring the occasional experimentation, have a small set of menu items that they rely on.
With low cost publishing alternatives like Lulu.com and Amazon’s print on demand, it is a lot easier to break into that market and target the back yard pizzaiolo.
One thing an old mentor told me was to never build a pizza shop in a town with no pizza shops. Always build in the town with 10 pizza shops, because you know people eat pizza there.
With that in mind if you go to Amazon.com and search for pizza books, you will see 128,918 hits in the book category alone. Now all of those aren’t going to be specifically about making gourmet pizza, but that number alone is enough to prove the market for pizza books.
Your target market really isn’t existing pizza shops. Anyone with their own shop probably has their own recipes that the tend to be pretty attached to, and barring the occasional experimentation, have a small set of menu items that they rely on.
With low cost publishing alternatives like Lulu.com and Amazon’s print on demand, it is a lot easier to break into that market and target the back yard pizzaiolo.
