I haven’t posted in a long long time but the cheese question made me want to post.
Let’s first look at how many square inches each size pizza has (this is all the way to the edge)
10" =79 square inches
12" = 113 square inches
14" = 154 square inches
16" = 201 square inches
For accurate portion control and consistency between sizes you should base your ounces of cheese on the actual area of the pizza you are topping. So, let’s say when you sauce and cheese your pizza you go to 1/2" from the edge all around. Now the area of each pizza that you are actually topping is the following…
10" = 64 square inches
12" = 95 square inches
14" = 133 square inches
16" = 176 square inches
I like to use the most common 14" size as my guide to figure out the rest. Since you use 8 ounces of cheese on your 14" pizza I’ll do the calculation for you… That is 8 oz divided by 133 square inches = .06 ounces per square inch of area that you actually top. That means you should use the following ounces on the other sizes…
10" = 64 square inches x .06 = 3.84 oz (say 4)
12" = 95 square inches x .06 = 5.7 oz (say 6)
14" you do at 8 ounces which is the most popular size.
16" = 176 square inches x .06 = 10.56 oz (say 10.5)
You are to be commended as you are very consistant on your cheese throughout the size range. You are only off by 1.5 ounces on your 16". You are adding 1.5 more ounces than you need on your 16" pizzas to maintain consistency. Cut that 1.5 ounces out and about every 11, 16" pizzas you sell will save you a pound of cheese. At todays prices that adds up over a year.
As far as extra cheese goes… no one ever said how much extra cheese needed to be added to qualify. When you charge for extra cheese on a 14" pizza you may be charging a standard topping price or a seperate extra cheese price which is more and more common… All depends on how you charge for it. The key is presentation, and giving the visual impression that there is alot more cheese. Take your standard 8 ounces & train your staff to lay down 3/4 of that as your cheese base. Add toppings and then put the remaining 2 ounces in the cup on top plus another say 2 ounces. The toppings will appear more burried under the cheese, you’re adding more cheese so you’re honest but not that much more and making more $ which is what toppings and extra cheese are all about.
Depending on how you want to do some marketing, you may want to get rid of the “Extra Cheese” option all together and offer a “Real Double Cheese” promotion with the saying, “When You Order Double Cheese You Get It… How about An Entire Pound of Our Premium Mozzarella on Our 14”. And charge for it appropriately. Who the heck else does that? You’ll stand out from the crowd. Cheese lovers will pay for that cheese when they know you aren’t playing the “extra cheese” game. You can play the game with the rest but the Real Double Cheese promotion builds word of mouth advertising which is the best and costs you nothing… In fact, YOU’RE MAKING $ ON IT! Just an idea. Hope I helped.
