How to Take Pizza from Table Stakes to Star 

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There are plenty of ways to slice today’s pizza trends to suit your menu. Read on for six tips to elevate your pizza offerings and tap into your diners’ ultimate cravings: 

Expand pizza across dayparts

Pizza all day? It’s not just a pipe dream: Breakfast continues to be the fastest growing daypart in the industry, and breakfast pizza grew 59 per cent on menus over the last four years.* Consider adding traditional breakfast elements to pizza for a savory start to the morning. An independent restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta offers “Canadese” pizza with Yukon Gold potatoes, pancetta, mozzarella, rosemary oil and an over-easy egg.

Deliver ‘best in class’ crust

Pizza toppings are often the star of the show, but research shows that crust quality ranks higher in consumer appeal. In fact, 46 per cent of consumers believe a truly great pizza starts with great crust.* Consider crust premiumization to differentiate your pizza. Independents across Canada are experimenting with crust made from fermented, artisanal dough.

Bring the heat

Authentic, Neapolitan-style pizza is also on the rise, and Ardent Mills offers both a Primo Mulino® Neapolitan-Style Pizza Flour and Pizza Mix perfect for this regional style. Ideal for creating authentic thin pizza crusts, flatbreads and breadsticks that bake quickly in high-heat ovens, Primo Mulino Flour is milled from a blend of select Canadian prairie wheat varieties. It creates the signature crisp exterior and delicate bite Neapolitan crusts are known for.

Cater to dietary preferences

Having gluten-free pizza options means avoiding the “veto vote” among diners with a gluten- free eater in their party. Using an Ancient Grain mix of amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, sorghum and teff creates a gluten-free option that works well in most dough applications while boosting whole grain nutrition and fibre. Working with gluten-free grains means experimenting to learn their impact on water retention, volume and crumb structure in finished products.

Experiment with American regionality 

Pizza can be a partisan issue in the United States – are you on team Chicago deep dish, or on team NYC thin crust? Passion for U.S. regionality carries over into Canada, providing operators with an opportunity to cater to specific cravings. A majority of consumers say they are interested in trying Detroit-style pizza.* This style is great for loading up; some pizzerias top this deep-dish square pizza with globally inspired toppings like kothu roti, mango chutney, cilantro cream, green onion, Calabrian chilis, fresh cilantro and coconut sambo.

Swap savory for sweet

As mentioned, true pizza fans know that pizza works at any time of day and for any meal part – including dessert. Experiment with sweet crusts and toppings to deliver unique flavor combinations in a tried-and-true pizza format, sure to satisfy any sweet tooth. A regional chain based in Ontario offers a sweet pie with Neapolitan dough topped with Nutella and candy.

* Source: Ardent Mills Proprietary research 2017

Author: Elaine O’Doherty

At Ardent Mills, we know Pizza. We mill some of the most trusted flour brands in pizza. We’ve recently added to our line of pizza crust mixes with our new Simply Milled by Ardent Mills™ certified Organic Universal Pizza mix to complement our Classic, Hand-Crafted and whole grain pizza crusts mixes. For more information, contact me: Elaine O’Doherty, Marketing Manager at Ardent Mills Canada: [email protected]

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