Consumers who buy pizza from limited-service restaurants are turning such flavorings as Buffalo sauce and Asiago cheese into the pie ingredients of the moment, but peers who prefer pies from full-service places are demanding comfort options like traditional tomato sauce and cheddar cheese.
That was one of the takeaways from a new report on pizza trends from Technomic, the Chicago-based research sister of Restaurant Business. The study shows that patrons’ options depend greatly on where they’re buying the pizza.
For instance, the researcher found that chicken perceived as being more healthful is an increasingly common topping in limited-service places, while prosciutto is becoming a familiar customer-pleaser in full-service places.
We are all over the board in our offerings, We do the classic “Joe & Betty Sixpack” style of pizzas, and we do some more unique offerings too, we see about a 50/50 split.
I would love to offer a proscuitto & Marinated artichoke heart pizza here, but have an idea my area is not quite ready for that yet, but we’ll get them there eventually
On the subject of toppings, which one of you guys is using fresh pineapple? We have been doing pizza in the same location for 14 years now and pineapple has always been one of our toppings. Never had a question or complaint about the pineapple, which is pretty good considering our customers, until now. Last weekend I get a call and the customer has a question before she orders. “Do you use fresh pineapple or canned?” I tell her canned, packed in natural juice. She orders, but does not order pineapple as a topping. I did not give it much thought other than to think how much hassle it would be to cut up fresh pineapple. Last night, a different customer asked one of our employees if we used “real” pineapple or that crap in the cans. 14 years without a question or comment about the type of pineapple we use and now two in about a week. I am not really concerned about it but I am just curious, does anybody use fresh pineapple?
Sure it wasn’t the same customer again ? or someone in the same family ? In all my years i have heard pretty much everything, and yes i have heard that question before.
I tend to just ignore those types of people. They are the extreme fringe and not worth the effort to please. Now if what they are asking for is actually cost effective and doable, i would seriously consider the change. But this, no.
We also use pineapple packed in 100% pineapple juice. Never had the question that I know of. I would answer politely and not think about it again if I did. It’s like the people who ask if you use a separate cutter for the pizza made with gluten free crust that someone mentioned a while ago. (Never mind that a true gluten free pizza simply can not be made in a kitchen that uses flour to begin with!)
Thought about trying fresh pineapple about a year ago, that thought lasted about 10 seconds. I do however only buy dole pineapple tidbits as they always taste great.
Has anyone tried those marchino cherries on a hawaiin pizza?
We use fresh pineapple. It’s easy and works well for us. We first butcher pineapple down around the core into about 6 big pineapple “steaks”. We vacuum seal the steaks and store them like that in the walkin. They stay fresh as can be vacuum sealed for i’m goona guess up to 2 weeks. Never counted though. We dice up what we need for the day daily. Customers ooh and aah when we tell them that, and it’s something we can say that no one else in town even comes close to doing.
What does your health inspector have to say about that?
“Modified atmosphere Packaging” requires a HAACP plan and/or a variance granted by the state in my area
They haven’t said anything yet (insert fingers crossed emoji here). Even if they did, we would just have to do a bit more day of. It would just take some more knife skill training for the night crew, which isn’t too hard for us to do.
If they do say something, Another option is freezing the fresh cut pineapple, seperated on a sheetpan , I bet you could go from frozen to oven with no problems.
I’ve been wanting to do fresh pineapple, but I need to find another outlet for it besides just on pizza. I’ve been toying with the ides of broiling some fresh pineapple slices brushed with honey as a dessert item
When I fire up my smoker at home I almost always soak some pineapple in a lemon juice, honey and cinnamon concoction, smoke for 30-45 minutes and serve as a dessert.
If I ever find myself in a store doing less volume I will certainly consider cutting fresh pineapple but cutting the equivalent of 12 cans of tidbits a week just doesn’t fit right now.
Excellent ideas, but we are so tight on space and competent labor that I’ve had to limit our offerings to match the talent level of the labor. And that is only getting worse, many restaurants here use work-released convicts from the local prison, and something hinky is going on with that work program right now, so the other places in town will be taking anyone with a pulse this summer. I never brought on convects, never will.