At the dawn of the pizza age, tomato sauce –– or crushed plum tomatoes –– was what a customer would expect to find on the pie that was put before them. Over time, though, it was simply a matter of trying out new ideas. The fact remains that red sauce and tomatoes are never going to go away –– updating your menu is a simple matter of changing them up. For example, adding crushed red peppers to a basic 7-11 or 6-in-1 tomato spices up any pizza. Garlic adds another flavor dimension to a red sauce. My point is don’t throw out the idea of red when it comes to pizza and pasta. On the other hand, why not expand the repertoire? (Many operators have taken a look at green, as in a pesto sauce for pasta and pizza. And I, for one, am a big fan of a chicken/pesto pizza.) Then along came the idea of white pizzas. Many Chicago pizzerias now set out a separate menu section for “red” and “white” pizzas, but use the same ingredients for both categories. Recently, at a new restaurant in Chicago called Wellfleet, I had a white clam pizza that was almost as good as those I have eaten in New Haven, Connecticut. The idea of fresh clams, garlic, olive oil and thyme is one that was borrowed, in a way, from linguine with clam sauce and put to work on a pizza crust.

Another approach to a white sauce that I like is a garlic cream sauce (crushed garlic swirled into a white sauce). Keep in mind, though, that a white pizza needs to get amped up with a little color to add some drama and eye-appeal. When it comes to pasta and white cream sauces, Primavera works a certain kind of magic. The one ingredient that makes a white sauce for pasta zing is cheese. Whether it is Parmigiano or Romano or Asiago, the possibilities are endless. I make a pasta dish using but three ingredients — cooked crumbles of Italian sausage, heavy cream and grated Parmesan cheese. In fact, it’s the one pasta dish that my wife requests the most often. Another way to approach a pizza or pasta dish is to make a béchamel sauce with cheese (technically a Mornay sauce). This sauce can be made well ahead and kept order ready. For pizza, simply brush the crust with the sauce and bake. And if ever there was a sauce magic made in taste heaven, it is pasta with a béchamel sauce. If, as a chef, I had one sauce in my “back pocket” it would be a béchamel sauce. Try the recipe below:

Béchamel Sauce
Yield: 1 cup (Scale up in direct proportion)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1¼ cups milk, heated
Salt Freshly ground pepper

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the paste cooks and bubbles a bit, but don’t let it brown — about 2 minutes. Add the hot milk, continuing to stir as the sauce thickens. Bring it to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste, lower the heat, and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes more. Remove from the heat. To cool this sauce for later use, cover it with wax paper or pour a film of milk over it to prevent a skin from forming.

Pasta with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce
Yield: Serves 4 as a first course
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup whipping cream
2 ounces (½ cup) Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
8-12 ounces cooked short pasta (gnocchi, rigatoni, penne) In a large sauté pan set over medium heat, melt the butter (do not brown). Add the whipping cream and raise the heat to medium-high. Add the Gorgonzola and bring the sauce to a steady simmer to reduce slightly (about 3 minutes) while creaming the small crumbles of Gorgonzola into the sauce with the back of a wooden spoon. Remove the sauté pan from the heat. Transfer cooked pasta to the sauté pan and set the pan over medium heat. Toss the pasta to coat with the sauce. Add the Parmesan and toss again. Serve at once.

Pat Bruno is Pizza Today’s resident chef and a regular contributor. He is the former owner and operator of a prominent Italian cooking school in Chicago and is a food critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.

If you sell pizza, you’re a craftsman. Just as a painter, writer, architect or designer creates so, too, do you. It is your craftsmanship –– the long hours of perfecting your recipes so that your artisan pizza comes out of the oven perfect –– on which you have built a reputation and a business. And if everyone could taste what you taste, wow, they would love it as well. Marketing your pizzeria is easy –– you make an offer for a pepperoni pizza, maybe add an order of wings and a two-liter beverage and you have it! You’ve probably even seen that coupon from another pizzeria –– or maybe 10,000 other pizzerias! Still, if your pizzeria sells more than just a pepperoni or sausage pizza, you’ve got the opportunity to brand yourself as artisanal. Even though everyone seems to be churning out artisan pizzas, there is a BIG difference in how you market your brand, your craft and your artisan pizza.

True artisan pizza makers follow strict codes of quality assurance and that is where the marketing thought process begins. Take into consideration the freshest local ingredients, your hand-tossed dough, housemade sauce. These and other terms are the foundation of marketing your pizza because your guests identify those terms with quality products. Using other local Artisan products helps increase awareness in your pizza and brand. Rather than saying “Our buffalo chicken pizza has real blue cheese,” consider instead “ We use only the finest (brand name) tangy bleu cheese for our Buffalo Blues Signature Pizza.” Using the actual name of a local purveyor from which you buy gives your guests the confidence that your product is high quality and supports other local companies. Customers will go out of their way to taste these ingredients –– and pay a higher price for high quality products.

We have all heard that saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, and it’s true! So it would make sense to show your guests what awaits them when they visit your location. Use good quality photos in high visibility locations on your menu and in your marketing materials. Remember that we are a visual society –– keep in mind that your end product should look exactly like the picture! This is where most advertisers fall short. Remember that you are a “craftsperson” and your guests will begin praising your products because the quality is there. Using key words like “artisan” or “craft” will help you market your pizzeria with great results as long as your product backs up those words. A great example of this is Tony Gemignani of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, who coined the phrase “Respect the Craft.” That is exactly what he does everyday in his restaurant by using the highest quality ingredients and old world traditions to create artisan pizza.

Marketing artisan pizza can be achieved through outlets other than print. Radio can be used with recorded interviews of guests at your restaurant enjoying your pizza, recorded live and then put into a radio spot. The listener is now hearing a “real” person praising your pizza. If you don’t have a gallery of photos online –– or at least photos with your menus –– then you are leaving a huge audience behind, especially in an era where social media is free and easy. This kind of marketing starts in your restaurant with simple table tents asking your guest to “like” your Facebook page or “follow” you on Twitter. I use a QR code that takes guests right to my site. They simply scan the code with their phone and suddenly I’m marketing artisan creations to almost every person that guest interacts with on Facebook or Twitter!

Marketing artisan pizza goes far beyond getting guests into your pizzeria. Remember that you are building your brand, and brand loyalty is so important in these competitive times. Plus, that loyalty will build your business foundation into a profitable restaurant, one that is known for it’s artisan pizza. Standing out from the crowd is the key to marketing any successful business. Make sure that every pizza your customer receives is the best you can make and your reputation will soar. Guests will spread the word like wild fire! After all, the best marketing tool you can use and the best social network is still word of mouth — and those results can only be achieved when you respect your craft.u

Glenn Cybulski owns California-based Seasons Pizzeria Sports Bar Grill. He is an award-winning member of the World Pizza Championships and a frequent speaker at International Pizza Expo.

Many of you followed along last fall as Art Director Josh Keown and I cycled from Portland to Seattle to raise money for the Karen Mullen Breast Cancer Foundation through Slice of Hope. It was a worthy endeavor that tested our physical limits. Much more importantly than that, however, it did something very special for the pizza industry — it showcased ours as the most giving, caring segment in foodservice.

As pizzerias across the nation got behind the cause, they opened new and meaningful dialogues with their customers. They heard stories of heartbreak and triumph from those who have watched loved ones either succomb to or conquer breast cancer. They cried both tears of sadness and joy alongside their patrons, and the emotion wasn’t some “guerilla marketing” tactic — it was genuine and, therefore, endearing.

Approximately 200 pizza operations supported Slice of Hope in 2011. Together, they raised just a touch more than $100,000 for the Karen Mullen Breast Cancer Foundation, a national organization that supports cutting edge breast cancer research at America’s leading labs. They also made new customers for life by supporting a cause that resonates so strongly with the American public.

After Slice of Hope 2011, I began immediately getting letters asking if we were doing it again. With that kind of enthusiasm brewing for the charitable event, how could we not repeat the effort in 2012? Of course we’re doing it again! But we need your help.

For this year’s event, we’ll be cycling from Jacksonville to Naples, Florida, October 8-12. We’ll finish with a fundraising party at Aldo’s Ristorante Italiano on October 12. The folks at Aldo’s have big plans for a blockbuster night, but we still need help in Jacksonville and all points in between. If your pizzeria is en route from Jacksonville to Naples and you’d like to be involved by hosting a fundraising party with the Slice of Hope cyclists, I want to hear from you.

In the coming months I’ll pass on more details about Slice of Hope 2012. Just like last year we’ll have a pledge form online to accept donations. We’ll also design and sell new t-shirts, with the profits going to the Karen Mullen Breast Cancer Foundation. Last year we sold out of shirts pretty quickly, so we’ll order more this time around! (And, yes, ladies — we know you want pink ones...).

Best,

Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
jwhite@pizzatoday.com

Metal flames shooting from its artistic sign in front hint at what is in store for customers who visit Pizza Rock in Sacramento, California. Once inside, a real PeterBilt semi truck crashes through a wall hovering over its bar with a DJ booth spinning loud, lively music inside the truck’s cab. Balancing the wall opposite the truck are enormous 12-foot black booths. Gazing up at the ceiling, ambient lighting illuminates a recessed mural of Pizza Rock’s version of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel, featuring an electric guitar to represent the “Creation of Rock.”

Pizza Rock is a destination, an attraction. The ambiance is dark. The walls are brick. The hostess stand replicates a toolbox. The men’s room looks like a graffiti-filled alley. Brown paper bags serve as placemats and tomato cans hold silverware wrapped in bright cloth napkins on each table. Pair the atmosphere with Tony Gemignani’s award winning Neapolitan pizza and then toss in some charismatic, acrobatic pizza makers. The result is an energizing pizza experience. “This isn’t Pizza Rock and Roll,” says co-owner George Karpaty. “It’s Pizza Rock, as in rock being edgy, hard, loud. It’s where artisan pizza meets nightlife energy.” Karpaty sat down with Pizza Today recently to discuss Pizza Rock’s debut and its unique vibe. The restaurant opened in January 2011 amid a citywide buzz over its launch. Karpaty and Gemignani not only set out to open a one-of-a-kind restaurant, they refurbished an entire block of K Street in Midtown Sacramento, an area that is resurging as an entertainment district thanks to the city’s redevelopment efforts. Pizza Rock is sandwiched between the partners’ new nightclubs — District 30 and Dive Bar, which opened around the same time. Karpaty, who also owns a successful nightclub, Ruby Skye, in downtown San Francisco, and Gemignani envisioned the Pizza Rock concept more than three years ago and sought out the right opportunity. Confident that Sacramento would embrace the Pizza Rock concept, Karpaty says, “We saw enough high quality, relatively new establishments that were doing fairly well for a downed economy.” Incentives from the city helped create a win-win situation. “So the risk/reward was extremely attractive.” It also provided an advantage for the launch team coming from Karpaty and Gemignani’s home base of nearby San Francisco. “It was very important for us to be close to our homes so we could have a hands-on management approach until we get it tweaked, dialed and perfect,” Karpaty says.

The build out of Pizza Rock cost nearly $3.5 million. By the time it opened, Sacramento chatter was already buzzing about the mural, truck and the mermaid swimming in a huge, live seawater tank next door at Dive Bar. “Putting the truck up and the mural was an absolute grand slam marketing genius homerun, because that is what people talked about,” he says. The features generated a lot of attention from local media and Pizza Rock hit the area with print, radio and billboard ads announcing its arrival. The concept is working in Sacramento. In 2011, the restaurant generated $3.8 million in sales. Karpaty anticipates Pizza Rock will break the $4 million mark in 2012. “We always laugh and giggle because you’d hear negative people talking about, ‘Ah, it’s a schtick’ and we knew that when you came, we were going to blow your mind,” Karpaty says. With the attractive décor, he says the food is what keeps people coming back. Much like Gemignani’s spot in San Francisco (Tony’s Neapolitan Pizzeria), Pizza Rock uses four different oven styles to offer a variety of pizza — Neapolitan, classic Italian, Roman, Sicilian and American. The pizzeria expects to add a Detroit style soon. Despite the broad menu, Pizza Rock’s food cost still stays below 30 percent. The restaurant has backed up its “Respect the Craft” motto with a menu filled with artisanal flare. Most famous for its Neapolitan, Pizza Rock sells Gemignani’s World Pizza Cup Winner, the Margherita, at $14. Another customer favorite is the New Yorker with mozzarella, hand crushed tomato sauce, garlic, pepperoni, Italian fennel sausage, ricotta and oregano at $16. With its traditional American medium hand-tossed crust, the Sacramento (mozzarella, pepperoni, Molinari salami, bacon, mushrooms, red onions, bell peppers, black olives, Italian sausage and cherry tomatoes at $17) has a strong following. The calzones are monstrous, offered deep-fried or baked. The West White is filled with mozzarella, burrata, Parmigiano-Reggiano, crushed red peppers and garlic, and is priced at $13. Sandwiches like the PLT 10 with crispy smoked pancetta, mixed Sonoma greens, tomato, pesto mayo, a balsamic reduction on a house made rosemary focaccia add options for the lunch crowd.

With the state capital and a thriving downtown, Karpaty says Pizza Rock stays full at lunch and has a lively happy hour seven days a week. Initially, Friday and Saturday night waits exceeded two hours. The restaurant has now settled into 30-minute to an hour-and-a-half waits most nights of the week and at lunch. It packs in patrons for an “Acoustic Weekend Brunch.” “We rotate a bunch of acoustic guitarists through the venue,” Karpaty says. “They sit on stools and play the perfect Sunday brunch vibe.” Bottomless Bloody Marys and mimosas are also a big draw for brunch. It has become a place to be and a place to be seen. After the dinner rush dies down, Pizza Rock becomes a hip nightclub with its kitchen staying open to serve its late night crowd. In fact, its bar accounts for 35 percent of sales. Pizza Rock’s employees are part of the dining experience. While its general manager handles the technical interview, Karpaty says he also interviews to look for a certain quality —“a glow, a uniqueness, a human art being that is cool, fun and has an internal smile.” As a customer, he adds: “I get the same 45-second first impression when the server walks up to my table.”

Recently, Pizza Rock introduced its electric bike delivery service with one condition. “We are only doing what is called ‘the grid,’ so that’s anything where we can get to it in eight minutes,” Karpaty says. Still a young restaurant, Karpaty says they’ve had their eyes on a nationwide expansion of the concept since its inception. He says they’ve established consistency controls and its operational procedures have been standardized for growth. While at International Pizza Expo, Gemignani stopped by the Pizza Today booth to announce plans in the works to bring Pizza Rock to Las Vegas as part of a new downtown Las Vegas redevelopment venture. A pizza entertainment attraction may be just the right fit for attraction rich Las Vegas.

Denise Greer is associate editor at Pizza Today.

The Show of Shows

You and your staff did a fantastic job with the expo. We were first time attendees and we were at the expo from open to close EVERY day and didn’t get bored. The information received and contacts made are invaluable — especially for people like us who are just getting into the business. My husband spent a lot of his time in dough seminars and I hit a variety of seminars — especially enjoying Glenn Cybulski’s presentations. He is informative and entertaining. The demonstrations by the world’s greats was also a treat.

We just wanted to say thank you and let you know how great we thought it was. We look forward to next year’s event. Cheers!

Mark & Juli Tuson
Brick House Mobile Pizza, LLC
Shelton, Washington

Thanks for coming to the show. New Operator Monday was created specifically to help people like you. We’re glad to know we’ve played a small part in your future success!

More expo love

Once again you and your team did an amazing job! Pizza Expo keeps getting better every year. I had an opportunity to speak with many exhibitors and attendees. Everyone agreed that the event was great and the line up of seminars just keeps improving.

John Arena
Metro Pizza
Las Vegas

John, Bruce Allar is a new addition to the Pizza Expo team, and the first thing he did was take a look at the lineup of seminars and say, ‘We’ve got to get more pizzeria owners involved.’ It was perhaps the single best contribution to Expo in years … because we’re getting nothing but rave reviews on the speaker lineup. Bruce has a few more tweaks planned for the 2013 show that will continue to build upon this year’s roster and will result in even more for our attendees.

Digital age

I’ve been receiving Pizza Today magazine regularly but was sent a notice that my subscription was going to end. I followed the link, renewed it, and then found your web site. WOW! I never thought to look for it. Keep up the good work.

Scott Peterson via Facebook
Calico & Crème
Hubbardstown, Massachusettts

Scott, you aren’t alone. Lots people hadn’t thought to look for it until recently, which is why we completely revamped it. And now, with the release of our iPad and Android apps, we are clearly the foodservice leader in the digital world as well as the print world. In short, you can continue to enjoy Pizza Today in a variety of forms that is no longer limited to print. Thanks for your interest and for finding us online. You’re the reason we do what we do.

I used to fear technology. Part of my problem was that I assumed every new gizmo would be a passing phase. It’s even worse with digital media — I avoided Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare like the plague because I didn’t want to put the time into developing profiles only to watch them become obsolete in the wake of new fads. By now you’ve probably realized that these sites have staying power. Yet, after speaking with a few dozen of you at International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, I can see that you’re still confused about the value of social media. Let’s clear some things up and talk about how these free platforms can help you stay in touch with loyal customers while simultaneously attracting new ones.

Now that you’ve finally signed up for an account, what are you going to post? Most pizzerias I follow on Twitter love telling me about their daily specials. That’s fine, but please don’t overload me with information I’m already getting from your Web site and door hangers. Twitter is an excellent opportunity to give people access to your restaurant in a way you never could before. Post a photo of your employees having a pizza box folding competition. Show me your chef pulling fresh mozzarella. Just got a batch of fresh tomatoes from the farmers’ market? Let us see it! These things might seem mundane to you, but your customers will love the behind-the-scenes peek at your restaurant.

Social media platforms also give you the opportunity to extend your identity beyond the walls of your location. I love it when restaurateurs post about other restaurants. If I like your pizza, there’s a good chance I’ll follow your hamburger recommendation. Not only does it help me understand your aesthetic, it also helps you maintain relationships with others in the restaurant industry. A friend of mine, who owns a popular pizzeria in Brooklyn, just took a trip to San Francisco in which he posted photos from visits to a dozen different pizzerias. He wasn’t spying on the competition or making the rounds for PR purposes, but seeing how much he supports others in the industry makes me even more excited to support him.

The key to working with social media platforms is presenting a well-rounded picture of what your business represents. If you’re into supporting the community, use Facebook to congratulate the high school baseball team on their big win last night (even if they are sponsored by your competitor). There’s an important council meeting at city hall? Help remind your neighbors via a short tweet. Without getting too political, you can present yourself as a member of a community rather than a business looking to sell products.

When people enter your restaurant they see more than a menu with prices, so please don’t define yourself online by merely blasting out your lunch specials. Use Facebook and Twitter to extend your complete identity into a community that’s based on sharing, as your fans and followers are primed to click a button that will push your message to other like-minded people. There’s no way for 140 characters to match the personal interaction you have with your customers, but imagine the power of extending your reach to an ever-increasing community of people who are just waiting for another excuse to walk through your door. u

Scott Wiener owns and operates Scott’s Pizza Tours in New York City.

Do you ever feel like you are suffering from marketing overload? Ever wonder if you’re on the brink of hitting your social media tipping point? I’ve been there. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, “how many marketing platforms do I really need to master in order to connect with my customers? It’s important for us to examine the basics of who we are and what we want to accomplish. And let’s never forget that we are in the hospitality industry. Hospitality is a relationship between guest and host, involving respect for one’s guests and providing for their needs. Where does marketing fit in? For starters it informs, educates and entertains. And, above all, it sells. So the question becomes, “how can you respectfully meet the needs of people and market your product?” Junk mail, telemarketers and spam are annoyances, after all. What about your marketing, specifically? How many ways can people receive your message without being turned off? Andrew Carnegie once made an insightful statement: “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.” Keep that in mind and be sure to fully assess the opportunities before jumping on the next marketing band wagon.

Ask yourself these questions:

Are enough of our customers using the platform in question, and are they likely to respond to your presence on that platform? While bloggers may tout the latest and greatest as a must for all businesses, is your trade area the Silicon Valley or Anytown, USA? If your customers are engaged on another platform, why not survey them before you jump in?

Do you understand the new platform and how to use it to the enrichment of your customers and your business? A poorly executed attempt will come off as such and will reflect your credibility in other areas, too. If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

Do you have enough relevant material to engage people on each platform? There is a big difference between making impressions and being redundant. Redundancy does not enrich. Business relationships are built when people take the time to share and learn more about each other. That happens more naturally in person than through some platform of technology. What cements the bond? Small talk about the things that make us unique and interesting. It is the premise of hospitality. New technologies allow us to communicate with others more freely and quickly. But as pizzeria operators we need to remember that customers want to deal with someone they can relate to, not just buy from. Once we have acquired that customer base and have a list of names established, then it becomes time to work it. But do so by following your customers. Find a marketing platform they use and make yourself easy to reach and comfortable to be around on that platform. Simplifying things will eliminate the unnecessary. This, in turn, allows your message to be heard loud and clear — and to eventually enrich others.

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and a frequent guest speaker at Pizza Expo.

If you’re a student of the pizza industry, chances are you’ve probably heard of a little show called International Pizza Expo. If you were one of the nearly 7,000 people who attended, you experienced first-hand the knowledge, expertise and excitement the annual show brought to the Las Vegas Convention Center last March.

“This year we had attendees from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada and 23 other countries,” says Bill Oakley, executive vice president of Macfadden Protech, parent company of International Pizza Expo. “We even had a group from the largest pizza company in Mongolia, Mr. Pizza, make the long trip to Las Vegas to experience everything Pizza Expo has to offer. As a result of their experience, they’ve already implemented some of the ideas they picked up at Expo.” Show organizers say that 25 percent of show-goers were first-time attendees, and the show designated a day devoted entirely to those looking to start pizzerias. “Based on the comments to date, it was a huge success with 684 attendees taking part in this day-long educational program,” Oakley says. “This stimulating day of educational sessions and workshops was followed by a reception where attendees could network with fellow ‘newbies,’ industry experts and event sponsors.” Keynote speakers for the three-day show included Nick Sarillo, owner of Nick’s Pizza & Pub in Illinois, and Marla Topliff, president of Rosati’s Pizza. Bruce Allar, vice president of meetings and conferences for Macfadden Protech, says the 2012 line-up of Pizza Expo speakers placed more emphasis on successful pizzeria owners, making International Pizza Expo a true peer-to-peer experience. “The buzz of activity never abated among buyers and sellers on the show floor, or among pizza professionals networking and learning at other Expo gatherings,” says Allar. “Pizza Expo maintained a powerful momentum from the opening bell on Tuesday morning all the way to its conclusion on Thursday afternoon.”

Contestants vied for supremacy in the International Pizza Challenge, a series of culinary competitions designed to highlight the best of the best.

In the traditional division, regional prelimary winners included:

Reál Varela, Brooklyn Pizza & Pasta, Los Angeles, CA – Southwest Region

Tim Silva, Pizza My Heart, Los Gatos, CA – Northwest Region

Mark Briand, Bondi’s Pizza, London, Ont. – Mid-America Region

Giovanni Gagliardi, Pizzeria La Leggenda, San Felice, Italy – International Region

Marlene Smith, Pizza Palace Plus, Emporium, PA – Northeast Region

Keith Coffman, Lost River Pizza Co., Bowling Green, KY – Southeast Region

Frank Baird, Franco’s Pizza, Chardon, OH – Wild Card

Silva took home the title of World’s Best Traditional Pizza Winner.

In the Non-Traditional Division, preliminary winners were:

Joleen Pisner, AJ Barile’s Chicago Pizza, Yucaipa, CA – Southwest Region

John Cammack, Lefty’s Grill, Nevada City, CA – Northwest Region

Rick Mines, Nima’s Pizza & More, Gassville, AR – Southeast Region

John Gutekanst, Avalanche Pizza, Athens, OH – Mid-America Region

Andrew Scudera, Goodfella’s Brick Oven Pizza, Staten Island, NY – Northeast Region

Tsutomu Inayoshi, Home Delivered Pizza, Aichi, Japan – International Region

Scudera took home the title of World’s Best Non-Traditional Pizza.

In the new American-Pan division, finalists included:

Shawn Randazzo, Cloverleaf Pizza of St. Clair, St. Clair Shores, MI – 1st Place

Matthew Heard, Humble Pie, Edmond, OK – 2nd Place

Alex Abellan, Pizza Zone, Victoria, BC – 3rd Place

The Italian-Style Division Finals Winners were:

Umberto Fornito, Italy – 1st Place

Saverio Ciampi, Italy – 2nd Place

Alessandra DeBellis, Italy – 3rd Place

Finalists from each division competed in a blind-box challenge in the Pizza Maker of the Year Bake-Off. The competition’s mystery ingredient, Cattlemen’s Carolina Tangy Gold Barbeque Sauce, proved to be a challenge for the four finalists, who presented the judges with unique pizzas created from a table of provided ingredients. Shawn Randazzo of Cloverleaf Pizza of St. Clair in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, walked away with the title of World Champion Pizza Maker and a cash prize. The International Pizza Challenge also pitted four former winners –– all industry experts in their own right. Tony Gemignani of San Francisco-based Tony’s Pizza Napoletana was named the “Best of the Best” Master Pizza Maker of the Year.

The popular World Pizza Games trials culminated at an event on Wednesday, March 13. Winners were:

1st Division Freestyle Acrobatics: Kazuya Akaogi, Red Japan Co., Japan

Masters Division Freestyle Acrobatics: Jay Schuurman, Pizza Rock, Sacramento, CA

Fastest Dough Stretch: Ingrosso Simone, Pizzeria Del Mille, Italy

Fastest Box Folding: Jimmy Xang, Pizza Guys, Rancho Cordova, CA

Largest Dough Stretch: Mario Sigmorile, Pizzeria Del Centro, Italy

Longest Spin: Kazuya Akaogi, Red Japan Co., Japan

Throughout the three-day event, show attendees visited sponsoring booths and turned in gamepieces for the $20,000 MEGA BUCKS Giveaway. Frank Sastano of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Savastano’s Pizzeria took home the cash prize.

“This year’s Pizza Expo was the biggest and best show ever, breaking records for attendance with 6,901 pizza professionals, 940 booths and tons of excitement,” says Oakley. “Words just don’t do it justice; you really have to experience Pizza Expo to understand the interaction that takes place between our attendees and exhibitors. Everyone is truly anxious and motivated to get into discussions about new products, new technology, the latest industry trends and hot-button issues facing the industry today.”

For Brixx, a southeastern-U.S.-based chain of brick-oven restaurants, having a performance kitchen was just a natural extension of the restaurant's branding strategy. "Making the pizza in the brick oven is all part of the show," says Eric Horsley, Brixx managing partner and lead design strategist. "Guests are fascinated by the inner workings, and it's just fun for them to watch and get to see how their meal comes together."

For Casa Nonna, a restaurant with locations in New York and Los Angeles, the open kitchen and pizza bar are also a draw for customers. "Our display kitchen energizes the dining room and adds a sense of show to the overall experience," says Keith Treyball, president of ESquared Hospitality, which owns Casa Nonna.  

Because of the activity and interest they add, seats near performance kitchens are hot properties. "The pizza bar area has some of the best seats in the house," Treyball says. "These seats offer a mesmerizing view: flames of the pizza oven, an unobstructed view of ladling tomato sauce or careful application of mozzarella … it's a promise of a show all night long."

Kids and families especially love to be near the kitchen action at Brixx, Horsley says. Sometimes at his restaurants, diners at one of the highly coveted tables right next to the kitchen will score an impromptu appetizer from the chef, just as a treat for sitting there. Why? Other than being a customer-loyalty-inspiring gesture, "we want dining at Brixx to be more of an interactive experience," he explains.

Because performance kitchens are more "interactive," there are different expectations of employees. "The interaction with guests sitting at the pizza bar can require the same social skills you find in a bartender," Treyball says. "It demands a certain level of performance — you are on stage."
And while you don't necessarily hire different people than you would for a closed kitchen, it is important to make sure prospective employees clearly understand the performance expectations. "When we're hiring kitchen staff, we always tell them, 'hey, you guys are part of the show, you're on display,'" Horsley says.

While you hire the same types of employees you would in any setting — those with good experience, good work ethic and good attitudes — you still have to emphasize certain aspects of training that are more critical in performance kitchens.
Proper uniform guidelines, sanitation and cleanliness standards and careful work habits are important in every restaurant, whether you can see what's happening in the kitchen or not. But since people unfamiliar with the inner-workings of a restaurant will see your kitchen on display, Horsley says employees need to keep in mind how everything they do will look to diners. "We remind employees that how you talk, what you say, how you act…it's all being watched, all the time," he says.

Finally, it's important to emphasize proper communication, not just with guests, but also with co-workers. "You really want to stress the importance of speaking clearly and communicating in a positive fashion," Horsley says. Because while inside jokes, loud voices and even expressions of frustration are common in closed kitchens, that's not the side of your restaurant you want guests to remember when they leave.

One of the most critical roles in the performance kitchen show is manager: running a performance kitchen comes with challenges beyond the norm. "You really need someone who is comfortable managing and who understands that a performance kitchen might need a little more hands-on style," Horsley says.
Understanding both what your employees need to get done and how everything is perceived by customers can be tricky, but a good manager will balance these needs and find solutions he or she can make work. "The last thing you want is to spend capital on a performance kitchen and then have it work against you just because your manager wasn't up to the job," he says.

But by and large, employees wholly embrace the starring roles they're playing in the performance kitchen experience. "They love that they get to know the guests, that they're out there interacting with the customers," Horsley says. "They take a lot of pride in that." Customers, as well, appreciate it, he says, and this interaction fosters a sense of loyalty and community that you don't get with traditional restaurant settings.

Performance
Kitchen Design

Customers love them, employees take pride in them and they give your restaurant tons of personality. But performance kitchens need to be designed well to offer the biggest bang for your buck. Some tips for staging a five-star performance kitchen:

-Lighting. Cooks needs ample light to prepare food, but what works in the kitchen isn't always good for dining ambiance. To solve this lighting dilemma, Brixx restaurants install work lights near the counter-level so these harsher lights stay focused only on the work surface.

-Noise. Kitchens are noisy, and performance kitchens can bring that not-so-pleasant noise out into the dining area. To counteract this, Casa Nonna uses special acoustic tiles to absorb loud noises common to commercial kitchens.

-Finishes. "Open kitchens require finer finishes," says Keith Treyball, president of ESquared Hospitality, which owns Casa Nonna. So instead of typical kitchen subway tiles, his Casa Nonna restaurants have savoy mosaic tiles wrapping the pizza bar and the stainless steel hoods are enclosed in an antique copper cover. While these types of changes aren't cheap, the owners say they're worth it because they increase the value of the performance kitchen to customers.

-Seating. Don't assume you'll lose seating to add a performance kitchen: Treyball says when Casa Nonna added theirs, they knocked down walls and actually ended up with a net positive seating capacity. Eric Horsley, managing partner and lead design strategist at Brixx, says it probably does lose some potential seating capacity with their design, but because of the importance of the performance kitchen to the overall restaurant experience, it's worth it. After all, even if there are fewer seats, you have added those highly coveted "best seats in the house."


Alyson McNutt English  is an award-winning freelance writer specializing in home, health, family, and green topics. She is based in Huntsville, Alabama.