By John Gutekanst
Photo by Josh Keown

I have been involved in a complicated relationship for 14 years. My partner is fickle, moody, unstable and inconsistent, but I can’t get rid of her. Because of her voracious greed, she takes all my money, squanders it and I never see it again. Unfortunately, my customers adore her and cannot get enough of her, but they don’t understand the cost I bear to keep her around.

Her name is cheese.

My usual mozzarella/provolone cheese mix costs me from 60 to 70 percent of every single pizza and because I use more than 1,000 pounds each week, I am at the whim of the volatile cheese market. To put it bluntly, cheese affects the money I feed and clothe my kids with. I wanted to cut back on the halfpound I place on each large pie, but instead I decided to do the opposite of what any sane person would do. I added Artisan cheese to my menu mix! By embracing these cheeses, my menu-mix has exploded and my customers can get real gourmet pizzas and I get more sales. Before we get started, here are a few tips when starting an artisan cheese program:

• Price. Just because a wonderful cheese is expensive by weight doesn’t mean it’s too expensive to use. Strong cheeses are perfect to use with your existing cheese profile and it doesn’t take much!
• Preparation. Most purveyors have ready-shredded cheeses and American-made variants of European cheeses. If you get cheese by the block, buy a professional cheese shredder and grate it yourself — it doesn’t take much time!
• Marketing. With the increased sophistication of diners these days, your customers will be wowed by these new and intense flavors. They see these cheeses on cooking shows every day and, from my personal experience, they may not be able to pronounce these cheeses right but are usually bowled over by the taste!

Here is a list of cheeses that I have marketed on pizzas in my pizzeria. I have used all of these cheeses on top of a smaller amount of my existing cheese mix:

• Ricotta. Too awesome to describe! Chef Jeff Freehof did a wonderful article on this at www.pizzatoday.com. This versatile cheese is relatively easy to make yourself — and if you do, you should be marketing that fact.
• Asiago. This Italian cheddar named after the town in Italy comes shredded at 27 cents an ounce and adds a great pungent compliment to chicken, basil pesto, bacon, onions, ham and is even strong enough to complete a killer taste profile with pepperoni.
• Feta. The Greek Pizza will always be a fab seller in any pizza joint. I get the cow’s milk feta crumbled in two- or five-pound bags for 27 cents per ounce and pair it with a béchamel sauce for feta cream or with spinach, tomato and black olive. Our Avalanche “Godzilla” Pizza that won “Best Pizza in the USA” at the World Pizza Championships in Italy features feta with sun-dried tomato, spinach and chicken. I also use local feta paired with applesauce, mint, honey, grapes, nuts, local paw-paw or zucchini.
• Goat Cheese (Chevre). This creamy goat cheese is less aggressive than feta but the nuanced sour taste is perfect for dolloping on fruit pizza with cherry, apple, apricot and strawberry. I sometimes stretch this expensive cheese folding it into ricotta for use with basil, bell peppers, fennel, garlic and broccoli. This cheese does burn if you have a high-heat conveyor oven, so watch out!
• Manchego. All my Spanish dreams come true with this cheddar-like cheese. Great with cilantro pesto, roasted red peppers and anchovies, I serve it with homemade chorizo meatballs, provolone and Valorosso tomatoes for a psycho- delicious pie. Manchego with quince paste and Marcona almonds is a favorite.
• Yellow Cheddar. A stalwart on my menu with a Hawaiian pizza or rock the house pairing it with ham or bacon. Cheddar comes in 20-pound cases for 13 cents an ounce for regular or up to 20 cents for aged cheddar. Beware — the cheap stuff burns, especially in a conveyor oven.
• Gorgonzola. Never underestimate the public’s appetite for stinky cheese! Just like anchovies, this major taste sensation is very economical — between 15 and 22 cents an ounce — and melts you right to the bank with traditional “agra dolce” (Agra-DOLchEE- meaning sweet and sour) effect with fresh pear or apple, figs, honey, walnuts and prosciutto. Mint, nuts, cream and mushrooms and balsamic are also great with gorgonzola. (I use Stilton also. It is a British version of the killer, creamy blue taste.)
• Fresh Mozzarella. I’ve learned to transform any pizza using a base of my cheese mix and small chunks of fresh mozzarella for a cool look. Most fresh mozzarella in brine can be had for close to 20 cents per ounce. I like the mozz logs because they don’t leach that white water all over a pie.
• Burrata. This pricy mozzarella ball filled with fresh sticky cream can be obtained for 90 cents to $1.12 an ounce and is now made in Wisconsin. At that price, it’s imperative that you broadcast this as Burrata. It’s perfect for dolloping on any Italian pizza after the oven with garlic, basil, tomato, vin cotto or balsamic.
• Gruyere: This is my new best friend, even at 70 to 93 cents per ounce. The outstanding strong taste pairs with onion, fresh spinach, ham, chicken, apples, garlic and arugula. (This is the cheese of fondue.)
• Fontina. At 28 cents per ounce, fontina is best used sparingly or with another cheese. It is great with salami, fruit, ham or with truffle oil. Fontinella, which is a younger, less expensive cheese, melts great but doesn’t have that grassy, fruity quality of aged fontina.
• Brie. Excellent name recognition! Only a few slices after the pie exits the oven will sell like gangbusters.
• Mascarpone. Mix with a grainier ricotta to dollop and tastes like creamy heaven.
• Other cheeses like Finlandia Swiss, Emmental, Colby, Pepper jack, Gouda, Muenster, Pecorino, Piave Vecchio and Tellegio are also great sellers.

So, if you’re tired of the same old cheese run-around, go rogue and create havoc using artisan cheeses to spice up your menu mix and your bank account.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio. He is speaker at International Pizza Expo and a member of the World Pizza Champions.

By John Gutekanst
Photos by Josh Keown

At an old used restaurant warehouse in West Virginia, I stared into a dark corner at several three-foot stacks of blue-steel pizza pans piled like greasy towers. Their thick, bumpy sides indicated that they were at least 15 years old, probably older. With much effort, I pulled one from the middle of each stack and saw that even in this dingy restaurant purgatory, the pans reflected their respective pizza makers in a way no one could fake.

Some pans were beaten, bent, scratched and rusted while other stacks were still shiny, well seasoned and free of debris. The pans’ former owners may have moved on or even died, their secrets lost forever. But, their pans still distinguished the great pizza makers from the mediocre. The well-kept pans had a much thicker patina on the outside, indicating that they were used longer — no doubt that a legacy of commitment, passion and craftsmanship kept their businesses alive longer.

It was then that I knew that I didn’t know jack about pan pizza. So I looked up a few friends, the best of the best pan pizza makers in the world. Here are their secrets. It’s amazing to see that regionality plays absolutely no role in these great pizza recipes because this is the evolution of pizza.

Pizza Teglia
Luigi Vianello
Jungle Pizza, Favaro Veneto, Italy

The pan Luigi uses is a 22-by-14 inch, lightly olive-oiled aluminum square. He uses a direct method with a poolish, (wet pre-ferment) for a 26- to 28-ounce dough featuring red-bag, 5 Stagione flour, salt and water. The dough is always given at least 48 hours of maturation with 36 hours in a refrigerator at 39 degrees and 12 hours at 55 degrees. Luigi rests the dough in the pan for three hours at 68 to 72 degrees along with olive oil on top of the dough. He par-cooks the dough in an electric oven at 536 degrees for five minutes and then lets it rest. He tops the dough with fresh buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil and with either Greci canned tomatoes or fresh ciliegino cherry or datterino, small plum fresh tomatoes. Then he finishes it for another four minutes at that same temperature.

“I have no secrets for a good pizza — just water, flour, yeast, salt, oil and a natural passion for this job,” Vianello says. He sure had passion enough to win the best pizza at the International Pizza Challenge in 2011, so I believe him!

Detroit-Style Pan Pizza
Jeff Smokevitch
Brown Dog Pizza, Telluride, Colorado

Telluride, Colorado, is a long way from Detroit. But thanks to Jeff “Smoke” Smokevitch, owner of Brown Dog Pizza, folks in this tourist town have been enjoying an amazing amount of Detroit-style pizza for almost three years. Identified by the soft, airy interior and crisp exterior, the aged white cheddar, Wisconsin brick cheese and whole milk mozzarella create the famous thin carbonized bark that crunches its way around these square beauties. At Brown Dog, Smokevitch uses a high-gluten milled from northern hard red spring wheat. His dough is made with a starter and mixed to a sticky, 70-percent hydration, even though he says a lot of Detroit guys use lower hydration. “We use 8-by-10-inch and 10-by-17-inch pans ... All are blue steel pans that were cast-offs from the auto industry and some of them are 20 years old and seasoned so well they produce a great crispy crust with just a thin coat of vegetable oil.” Smokevitch says. He is quick to point out that the altitude is always a factor in proofing dough.

After proofing, Brown Dog par-bakes the pizza with the aged white cheddar around the edge of the pizza. “This sounds strange but the cheese acts like a glue against the wall of the pan so the dough doesn’t shrink when par-baked which, in-turn, enables me to get a fabulous blackened crust,” Smokevitch says.

The Detroit-style pizza is also different from other pan pizzas in that the toppings are put on the pizza under the layer of more cheese, usually a mozzarella and brick cheese blend. This is to keep flavors in the pizza and avoid charring when the pizza hits the 550 to 650 F oven for the final bake. Brown Dog puts the sauce on last that has been kept hot on a steam table so the pizza arrives at the table hot, for a finishing finale.

Pizza Romana
Bruno di Fabio
Re Napoli, Old Greenwich, Connecticut

Bruno di Fabio is the best pan pizza maker I know and he has the awards to back it up. His Pizza Romana is a specialty at Re Napoli and starts with a 20-year-old seasoned Sicilian pan made with a double-gauge steel measuring 17 inches by 11 inches.

His dough method is a very intricate “four-phase” rise. Bruno first uses flour with 14 percent protein and mixes a poolish with 100 percent hydration into a soupy consistency and then lets it sit at room temperature for 12 to 15 hours before adding 25 percent more flour to the poolish with yeast for a secondary rise at 80 F. Bruno then mixes in the rest of the flour (he wouldn’t tell me how much) with sugar, salt and Frantoio olive oil to a soft 55 percent hydration. It goes into his walk-in for a 48-degree cold-rise (he wouldn’t tell me how long). Now is time for the final phase that Bruno calls the “pan proof.” Using lots of Frantoio again in the pan, he pushes the dough into it gently and lets it sit atop his gas deck oven at 110 degrees for three hours, using another pan as a buffer to keep the dough from cooking. This pizza treatment, which he won with at the French World Pizza Championships, starts with a quick cook in his deck oven at 500 to 550 degrees until the dough just starts coloring. It is then taken out and topped

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio. He is speaker at International Pizza Expo and a member of the World Pizza Champions.

By John Gutekanst
Photos by  Josh Keown

Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens once said: “What garlic is to food, insanity is to art.” I’m so crazy about garlic that you can’t go three feet in my pizzeria without bumping into it.

Brown bags filled with local organic garlic hang in my walk-in waiting to be infused in bread or garlic pudding (read on — trust me).

I keep garlic scape pesto made from the springtime trimmings of the plants for use in my freezer. Five-pound tubs of raw, skinned garlic from California that costs approximately 12 cents an ounce sit chilling in my walk-in for roasting and eventual topping on pizzas. Our garlic butter is bought in one-gallon tubs for nine cents an ounce and the garlic powder we store at room temperature can be obtained in seven-pound tubs for 32 cents an ounce. This powder is used in almost all of our sauces, sausage, meatballs and even dipping sauces.

Last year I prepped and sold 1,695 pounds of purveyor-bought garlic for my specialty pies, single topping pizzas and calzones. I also used 184 pounds of local, organic garlic for my infused breads and artisan pizzas. But still, my ignorance of garlic reared its ugly head when I recently visited Rich Tomsu at his organic garlic farm in Shade, Ohio. I followed Rich through the woods before we came to a large field overgrown with waist-high weeds. Rich stopped in the tangle of high sharp brambles as the thorn stabbed at me. “So, how far is your garlic field?” I asked impatiently, slapping at a mosquito.

“Are you kidding me, John?” Rich chuckled in reply as he stopped. “We’ve been walking in it since the forest!” He started to guffaw loudly and doubled over in laugh-pain. After a few more minutes, he straightened and asked: “Dude, how long have you been familiar with garlic?”

“Ah, like 36 years.” I said meekly. “But I’ve never seen it grown in weeds.” Rich straightened and said: “John, we farm organically and don’t spray toxic chemicals.” Then he reached down and grasped a three-foot sugarcane-like weed stem from the earth. He pulled with very little effort and shoved it in my face. It was the largest garlic bulb I’d ever seen. “Elephant garlic?” I stated ignorantly. “No, this is called German Hardy,” he said proudly. “You won’t find this in any grocery store. The best garlic in the world only grows without chemicals.” That afternoon was an eye opening experience for me. Now I try to obtain organic garlic locally, but when I cannot, I try to at least buy from American growers.

There are so many ways to prepare garlic and, like the onion, this simple clove can be rendered into many forms, one recipe atop another. This is what I call “the mushroom cloud effect” or a compilation of ever-expanding recipes starting with one item and stepping it up a culinary ladder to Mount Scrumptious!

“Gnudi Patooties”

Yes, this is a real dork of a name but my customers love these at catered events. Don’t get frustrated if you mess the first one up, they get faster to make as you go. (Add one pepperoni for a more complex flavor profile if you want.)

1 9-ounce dough ball
1 cup shredded mozzarella/provolone-mix
½ cup pizza sauce
20 gnudi from recipe on page 38
1 cup egg wash (70 percent whipped eggs with 30 percent water)

Take a full sheet pan and place parchment on it. Roll out the dough ball thinly into as much of a square as possible. Cut 10 to 20 small 2½ x 2½ inch squares with a pizza cutter. Place five strands of cheese in the middle of each square. Dab a small dollop of pizza sauce the size of a dime on the cheese. Place the cooked gnudi on the pizza and top with five more strands of cheese.

Grab two corners from polar opposite sides and fold one atop the other. Repeat with the final two corners and press the dough on top to stick the corners together.

Eggwash the dough and place on the parchment. Cook at 475 F for six or seven minutes to a golden brown.



Roasted Garlic Cloves and Garlic-infused Oil

Let’s start our first date with you, some garlic cloves, oil, an old pizza pan and your oven ... and maybe a Barry White song for ambiance.

2 cups (14 ounces or about 135 cloves) raw, skinned garlic cloves (If they are small, use less time to cook.)
1 cup extra virgin olive oil or canola-olive oil blend

Pour garlic cloves into a pan and toss with half the oil. Cook in your conveyor or deck oven for 7 minutes at 475 degrees. Take out and toss the garlic again. It will start to color but still be hard. Pour the rest of the oil in the pan. Set aside for the garlic to cool.

After 15 minutes, toss again and cook for another 4 to 7 minutes. The garlic will now be golden brown and soft to the touch.

Separate the oil from the garlic using a colander with a bowl below it to catch the oil.

Uses: Reserve the garlic for bread dough, toppings or the garlic pudding, (recipe on page 39). Cool the oil to infuse any liquids, pizzas or breads with that great garlic taste.



The Garligula

This Tuscan gnudi and sausage pizza layers all the garlic recipes in this article together.

Form your own pizza dough and top with a thin sheen of your proprietary pizza sauce. Over the sauce, spread fresh spinach then dollop quartershaped splotches of garlic pudding (recipe on page 39) around the pie.

Place just enough mozzarella/provolone mix to barely cover. Place Italian sausage chunks, roasted red pepper strips and black olives around the pizza then place one gnudi (recipe on page 38) in the middle of what will become each slice in a spokewheel effect.

Before serving, drizzle with a little garlic oil. Enjoy warm but don’t talk to anyone too closely the rest of the day!



Garlic Pudding and Spinach Gnudi



In Tuscany, the love affair with pasta is more sublime than the rest of Italy. That’s probably why they came up with a pasta-less, or nude ravioli- “gnudi” (NU-dee). The classic gnudi is a combination of fresh, wilted spinach, ricotta, egg and breadcrumbs and formed into an egg or small disc shape. This is poached and then sautéed in brown butter with truffles and Parmesan. Our garlic pudding (recipe on page 39) will be the star in our gnudi today and we’ll take an unnoticeable shortcut by using thawed, frozen spinach.



3 cups garlic pudding (from recipe on page 39)
3 cups frozen spinach, thawed and pressed of all moisture
2½ cups grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons flour
½ tablespoon salt
¼ tablespoon pepper
4 whole eggs

Bring a pot of water to a boil. While the water heats, place garlic pudding, spinach, Parmesan, salt, pepper and flour in a large bowl. Add whipped eggs and mix. This should have the consistency of loose dough. Pull a tennis ball-sized dollop out and gently roll in flour into a cigar-shaped log measuring a quarter inch in diameter. Using a dough knife, cut into half-inch long pieces then dust with more flour. Each piece should weigh about one ounce. Form each into a football shape making sure they are firm.

Working in batches, load the gnudi into the boiling water with a slotted spoon and boil for three to four minutes or until they float. Remove and set aside to cool.

Uses: These can be held in your walk-in for up to a week and sautéed in butter with truffles or flavored oil. We’ve used them in two other recipes in this article!

Avalanche Garlic Pudding

2 cups roasted garlic cloves from recipe on page 35
2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
1½ cups grated Parmesan cheese

Put all ingredients into a large, straight sided measuring bucket and blend with an immersion blender or food processor. Blend to make a pudding-like texture. No salt needed.
Uses: Use this pudding with stuffed breads topped with aged white cheddar or in calzones in place of ricotta. Dollop on pizza or as the garlic and spinach gnudi (recipe on page 38).

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio. He is also a speaker at International Pizza Expo and a member of the World Pizza Champions.

By John Gutenkanst
AVALANCHE PIZZA // ATHENS, OHIO

I’m a pizza guy. Like many of you, I spend a good amount of my time with my hands and arms in a
485 F oven or bent over sticky globular masses of dough. After 11 years making pizza, I know my place in the strata of celebrity chefs, culinary pundits and artisan bakers. It’s a place well hidden in mid-America far away from the prying eyes of the New York Times’ “Best Pizza” list. Some knuckleheads may think pizza is the bottom of the culinary ladder, but I look at it as the most important rung.

There are thousands of pizza places like mine, all making different types of food depending on locale. My customers are neighbors who gladly frequent my business once or even three times a week. They are my cheerleaders and I see them at the store, gas station and my kid’s school. I know I’m a lucky guy, but sometimes I still run into that one attitudinal perspective that a large majority of Americans have toward the work of their pizza guy; the “It’s only pizza” syndrome.

It hit me hard one nice spring day when a very well dressed young lady with an impeccable resumé had come in for a management interview. She hit a home run on every question I threw at her, and I was ready to hire her on the spot. But I still had reservations (because she had never worked in a restaurant).

“So, do you think you will be able to pick up the way we manage our business here?” was my last question before offering her the job.

Without missing a beat, she said with a chuckle; “Well, it’s only pizza, how hard can it be?”

Needless to say, I didn’t hire her. This was my first foray into that sinking feeling that my life was worth less than nothing; all those 14-hour days kissing butts, listening to lame excuses from employees, coddling every pizza to make sure it was perfect. I recoiled at the lack of empathy and respect for all the hours I worked. But as I progressed through another year of business and we got busier and busier, something happened to me. My attitude changed.

The night was beautiful; we had $2,500 in the till and were headed for $2,000 more. The call came at 7:30 — a man wanted to forgo two toppings on a specialty pizza and add banana peppers without paying extra. The phone went from the order taker, then to the manager, then to me.

“Let me get this straight, your dumb employees won’t let me get banana peppers because of your policy?”

“Yes sir.”

“I can’t believe you’re willing to lose me as a customer because of banana peppers.”

“And I can’t believe you won’t pay a measly one-fifty for banana peppers,” I said.

“Okay, you’ve lost my business @#$%^&, how do you feel about that?”

“Listen man, you need to lighten up. It’s only pizza,” I said ... and almost choked on my words.

That night, I sat quietly in my pizzeria feeling foolish. I knew I had to turn my attitude around.

It was then that I started slowly to become the biggest, baddest, most psycho pizza guy around. I pull myself out of my business frequently to gain new perspective. I visit other, better pizza places. I read about pizza and baking. I enter contests with my best creations. I listen to others and suck up their enthusiasm. I steal great ideas with abandon — and I now treat my community like family.

Why? Because, it’s not only pizza … it’s my life.My Turn is a monthly guest column. This installment is written by
John Gutekanst, owner of Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio.

If you are interested in submitting your own column, e-mail Jeremy White [jwhite@pizzatoday.com] and let him know what you want to say and what qualifies you to say it.

By John Gutekanst
Photos by Josh Keown

My pizzeria’s love affair with steak began over eight years ago when restaurant consultant Big Dave Ostrander convinced me to put steak on my menu. Of the 53 toppings I offer, it’s a standout. In fact, in the past 10 months, steak has been responsible for the sale of 1,043 large single steak topping piz- zas, 3,170 specialty pizzas and 577 steak sandwiches! If I hadn’t taken this chance on steak, I would still only be offering just ground beef like every other pizza place.

Steak is what I call my “pizza loss lead­er.” It’s a topping that not only increases sales of pizza, but also boosts sales of other toppings I partner it with — even though it is not as profitable because of a high food cost. Unlike many pizza toppings, steak has the “heavy-heavy topping syn­drome.” Because everything is priced according to weight, heavy toppings need to be cheaper — like pineapple, which is heavy but cheap. The opposite is pepperoni (which is light, but heavy in price). steak has a heavy price and heavy weight. In my experience, a top­ping with these two variables had better perform fabulously and produce some bodacious revenue.

My priorities, (besides taste) for any new pizza topping are:

• How will this help me capture more customers and revenue? 
  
  
• How much does it cost per pound, per ounce, per pizza? 
  
  
• Does the price I would have to charge jive with my market? 
  
  
• How many man-hours will it take to prep? 
  
  
• How many different styles of pizza can I make using my other existing toppings? 

I tried all the different types of pre-prepared steak on the market as well as cooking, slicing and holding a steak topping myself. The variation in steak flavors and cuts differ with preparation, shrinkage, texture, chew, marinade and price. all have the trade-offs that every pizza owner such as yourself must calculate to fit their own menu-mix and market.

Let’s take a look at a few cuts you might consider:

• Loin. expensive cuts like this are tender and delicious but contain less fat to melt on the pie. not many pre-prepared products on the market contain strip loin. loin can rocket from 56 cents an ounce for untrimmed strip loin to $1.20 an ounce for untrimmed waigu beef strip loin. Tenderloin’s tex­ture is delicate but adds minimal flavor to a pizza and costs almost 75 cents to 90 cents an ounce. This represents a minimum of $2.80 for each five-ounce portion before figuring labor prep. 
  
  
• Philly steak or top round. By far the most popular and recognizable fast food steak, the Philly steak has morphed from a thinly sliced top round to ribeye in some places. a big haunch of top round spiced with Italian season­ings and garlic cooked to less than medium rare and rendered thin on a slicer is magnificent on a pizza because the huge slice envelopes the pizza in a beefy cloak. The downside is that wet meat may turn harmful in the hands of anyone without sanitation training or with slow sales. Philly steak can be found in several thaw-and-serve variet­ies where you can peel like ham and top as you wish. It can cost between 25 to 40 cents an ounce (which, at five ounces, would cost a minimum of $1.25 a pizza). 
  
  
• Ribeye. This is probably the best thin sliced product for pizza because the meat is tender and fatty. If raw, it produces a wonderful beefy sheen on the cheese that permeates the whole pie but shrinks. If used pre-cooked it has a little less taste with less shrinkage and no hint of “blood stain” on the cheese. untrimmed ribeye in bulk costs 58 cents an ounce uncooked, but there are good chopped and formed products for as little as 28 cents an ounce. This costs as little as $1.40 per pie (5 ounces) — without any labor — to prep, and it doesn’t contain any of those scary chemicals like TBhQ, BhT or Bha. 
  
  
• Chuck eye roll. This obscure cut is a secret in the sandwich industry, especially in some Boston steak sand­wiches. It is a combination of layered muscles with the top being the end of the ribeye called the “chuck eye,” while the bottom is a bit tougher. The tougher texture lends itself to slicing, marinat­ing, then braising like Italian beef, but the fat has real lasting flavor. Prices are great during the summer, but go up in winter because they cut this up to produce chuck steak for pot roast. 

Through the use of some very creative and classic steak preparations, you can bring your food cost down and steak pizza sales up while making a delicious pizza. Let’s run a recipe and the numbers for this pizza. Start with your crust, sauce, cheese and box, which will cost you roughly $2.40:

Southwestern Fajita Steak Pizza
Dough, Sauce, Cheese, and Box = $2.40:
5 ounces of steak @ .28 oz = $1.40
2.5 ounces of onion @ .04 oz = $ .10
2.5 ounces of green pepper @ .15 oz = $ .38
(Tablespoon) southwest seasoning = $ .18
Total cost: $4.46


In a good market you’d price this pizza at about $26, with a food cost of 17 percent and a profit of $21.54. In a mid-market, it could be priced at $16 with a food cost of 28 percent and a $11.54 profit. In a discount market, price it at $12 and the food cost would be 37 percent, leaving you with $7.54 in base profits. This illustrates that even at a discounted price, steak can yield over $7 base profit for one pizza!

If you want to make more money from your menu mix, try steak. your customers will thank you.

ENHANCE YOUR MENU OPTIONS WITH STEAK

• Philly Steak Pizza: Cream sauce, cheese, asiago or cheddar, steak, onion, green pepper (Cover photo)] 
  
  
• Gorgonzola Steak Pizza: Cream sauce, cheese, spinach, gorgonzola, steak, balsamic glaze
  
  
• Steak and Potato Pizza: Steak, potato, cheese, broccoli, cheddar, bacon
  
  
• Bulgogi (Korean Beef) Pizza: Teriyaki sauce, provolone, steak, scallions, hot sauce, kimchi
  
  
• Lebanese Steak Pizza: Tahini cream, cheese, steak, onion, (cucumber and tomato after oven)
  
  
• Chicago Steakhouse Pie: Horseradish cream sauce with spinach, cheese, steak and asparagus
  
  
• Spicy Barbeque Steak Pizza: BBQ sauce, cheese, onion, cheddar, bacon, jalapeño.

John Gutekanst owns avalanche Pizza in athens, Ohio. he is also a speaker at International Pizza expo and a member of the world Pizza champions.

By John Gutekanst
Photos By Josh Keown

In 2002, my menu consisted of cheap deals, 23 toppings, one sauce, one crust type, no specialty pizzas, no calzones and no wings. I advertised how good my product was but got tired of tell­ing customers, “That’s all we have, take it or leave it.”Then one day I changed my menu mix in a big way with the help of Porsche and BMW.
That day, the radio declared that the two companies were making cars for yuppies who earned from $50,000 to $70,000 a year. This technique of sales was called “tiered pricing” and offered cars that were smaller and cheaper but sold like hotcakes, ensuring extra revenue for the makers. I decided to try this in inverse and immediately introduced 10 specialty pizzas with four toppings apiece. I priced them higher than if they were ordered by topping only. The food cost was 27 percent but I didn’t have to discount them and sold them in large, small and calzone versions.

Now, ten years later, I have 53 toppings in my menu mix. all of these toppings in my 30-plus spe­cialty pizzas appeal to the following customers:

• Those who watch televised culinary shows (such as “Iron Chef” and “Top Chef”) and have sophisticated palates.

• Those who love ethnic foods such as Chinese, Indian, Italian, French, Japanese, Greek

• Vegetarians and vegans

• Gluten intolerant customers

• Older adults with dietary restrictions

• Risk takers

One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was to introduce a béchamel. It’s easy to make this savory sauce alternative either from scratch, a powder or frozen. a case of frozen béchamel at $50 can yield 240 two-ounce portions at .21 cents each pizza. here are some of the best combinations paired with béchamel for an explosive base on any pie:

• Cheeses. They melt to perfection, stretch­ing their savory flavors more economically than if you had strewn a two-dollar handful of expensive cheese on the pie. feta, asiago, Gorgonzola, cheddar and Gruyere are favorites in my store. Just a few ounces can produce a flavor explosion.

• Pestos/sauces. Basil, sun-dried, chipotle, Indian masala, Jamaican jerk and teriyaki are now available. Pestos are frozen for under $55 for six-30 ounce containers and can be cut with a 70/20 mix of water depending upon the intensity, or you can make it yourself. Just squeeze atop the béchamel and top with cheese.

• Powders and onions. Super fab combo! Con­sider cumin, curry, chipotle and paprika shaken on onions and drizzled with oil. run it through your oven until they are soft. Mix with béchamel or grind up to a sauce then mix.

All this may sound expensive to employ, but I’ve done it for 10 years now. I watch my food cost like a hawk but I also have a better roI (return on investment) from new and exciting pizzas than from expensive ads telling customers how great my products are. Besides –– beating the chains with cu­linary innovation is more fun than mimicking their moves. It’s just a matter of show rather than tell.

The classic béchamel sauce is more than 300 years old, and it can be the base for many other sauces (including alfredo). Check out the recipe at right. once you’ve got it down, it can be custom­ized to include bay leaves, fresh nutmeg, cheeses, egg yolks, onion and other ingredients. u

John Gutekanst owns avalanche Pizza in athens, ohio. he is also a speaker at International Pizza expo and a member of the World Pizza Champions.


BAKED SPAGHETTI WITH BECHAMEL SAUCE


1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup Parmesan cheese (or Parmesan Reggiano), divided
Marinara sauce
12 ounces spaghetti, cooked tender
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup béchamel sauce

In a bowl, stir ricotta cheese, egg and ¾ cup Parmesan cheese. In a baking dish, layer cooked spaghetti, half of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1/3 cup moz­zarella cheese. Repeat with one more layer. Drizzle with bécha­mel sauce and top casserole with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Bake at 450 for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Cook’s notes: You can use a Bo­lognese sauce with this recipe, or advertise it as vegetarian. Watch baking times, since your pizza oven is likely to bake at different temperatures.


BRUNO'S BRUNCH PIZZA


1 cup béchamel sauce
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 12-inch pizza shell
4 3-inch-diameter slices Canadian bacon
1/2 pound mild cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)

Make the béchamel sauce following the steps in the base recipe. Set aside. In a small non-stick skillet, melt the butter over medium heat until it just starts to foam. Stir in the eggs and scramble just until the eggs are set. Set aside. Spread the béchamel sauce evenly over the pizza shell up to the border (leave about 1/4 inch of border). Arrange the Canadian bacon slices evenly over the pizza. Spread the eggs evenly over the bacon. Sprinkle on the cheese. Bake.

More recipes from Chef Bruno

PAT BRUNO'S
BECHAMEL SAUCE

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
Combine until all ingredients are well mixed. (Thickness depends on your ratio of flour to milk and butter.)
Once you’ve got the basic sauce down, you can customize your pizza and pasta dishes.


Looking to upgrade your menu? Pizza Today’s resident chef has the recipes you’re looking for at pizzatoday.com/bruno

By John Gutekanst
Photo by Josh Keown

Two years ago, my general manager, Joel, and I visited the Yellowtail Restaurant in the Bellagio Hotel for a relaxing beer and sushi after a full day at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. We sat next to three women when I heard one of them say: “It’s the sauce, I swear…”

I looked over on the women’s table to what looked like a small red Frisbee with micro greens sitting on a plate in between them. I smiled and asked: “What’s that?”

“The Bigeye Tuna Pizza,” one replied, smiling, “I was just telling my friends that this is so good because of the white truffle oil but they don’t agr…”

“No way, it’s the sauce underneath, the yuzu mayonnaise…mmm, to die for,” a second lady said. She then gobbled up her slice as the third lady spoke up: “Yup, it’s the sauce.”

I immediately ordered two Bigeye Tuna Pizzas, which were served cold on a tortilla wafer crust with yuzu mayo, red onion, thinly sliced tuna and topped with micro cilantro and bulls blood greens. As much as I hate to admit that a sushi chef made this spectacular pie, it was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten and some of the greatest sauce to topping combinations ever.

Since then, we’ve always made the trek to the Bellagio to visit Yellowtail. In fact, Owner/Chef Akira Back and his chefs are now friends we see at every Pizza Expo. This accidental pizza run-in was also a wake-up call to me that behind every great pizza is an even better sauce, and you should take advantage of these outstanding flavor combinations.

Sauces are an easy way for you to sell some great pies to customers who are increasingly more savvy, smart and educated about world foods and cuisine. On the other end of this spectrum is our duty as business owners to deal with rising food costs and find sauces that can both make a profit and make my customers raving fans.

These are the variables I think about when starting a new sauce hunt:

Will the public buy a pizza with this sauce on it?
How much will this sauce cost me by the pizza?
How many ways can I use or modify this sauce in my menu mix?

Here are some cool ideas that can be used as a pizza or dipping sauce:

Basil Pesto. This traditional combination of basil, garlic, oil, Parmesan cheese and pine nut is spectacular paired with your tomato sauce and mozzarella. It can be made in a food processor or by mortar and pestle. There are some great frozen products on the market that do or do not include nuts and can be made into dipping sauces as well as squirt-bottle ready for your make line. This is the best sauce I’ve ever introduced on my menu.

Chipotle Blueberry. Take four cups of sliced white onions from your make line, add three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and hand-grind one 7-ounce can of chipotle peppers in adobo found at any store. Mix and pass through or bake in your oven, stirring frequently until the onions become soft and caramelized. Add two cups of dried or with an immersion blender till saucy. This makes a great BBQ or spicy-sweet dipping sauce. I use this whole onion blueberry mix and fold ciabatta dough around it, cutting vents for steam and then bake it with spectacular results!

Curried Onion and Raisin. Use the same procedure as above except pour some powdered curry on the oiled onions and add a little water to mix well and pass through or bake in the oven. When hot and caramelized, add raisins, which will re-hydrate and plump. Try this curry mix with fresh spinach and chicken topped with melting aged Provolone. It will blow you away!

Jalepeno and Roasted Garlic. We use canned jalepeños with the juice and add roasted garlic, mayonnaise, sour cream, pepper and salt for a very popular dipping sauce.

Spicy Marinara. This can be created by combining your pizza sauce and red pepper flakes. Pour into two-ounce dipping sauce cups and serve. Add onion, green pepper, cumin, taco seasoning and add steak or chicken for some great Southwest Fajita flavors.

Ghost Chili Sauce. All I do is blend five cups of my pizza sauce with four dried ghost chilies, some jalapeño and roasted garlic. Let this sit and macerate for three days for devastating results. I call it the “Beelzebub,” and it has a big customer following. My staff calls it “Haters-Gonna-Hate” sauce or “Sauce of the Damned.”

Tuscan Crema Paradiso

Don’t freak out with the use of raw bacon in this sauce. In Sienna, they’ve been eating this on toasted bread with Chianti for thousands of years. When my sous chef Patty first made this, my initial wariness turned to bovine love at the first creamy bite. This sauce is perfect to dollop on a pizza or cheese bread before the oven for a melting pork paradise!

½ pound of lean back bacon or Italian pancetta
1 teaspoon salt
5 turns cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
3 to 4 garlic cloves, chopped and crushed
1 sprig of fresh rosemary stripped and chopped fine

First, chop the bacon and add to a food processor or in a container with an immersion blender with all the other ingredients. After integration, smash this putty-like mass out between a sanitized stainless steel table and the flat side of a knife, ensuring smoothness. Scrape up with a dough knife and knead like dough for a few minutes. The fat from the bacon will melt but the mass will soon become creamy. Put this in the refrigerator for one day to amalgamate flavors.

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio. He is also a speaker at International Pizza Expo and a member of the World Pizza Champions.

By John Gutekanst
Photos by Josh Keown

“There may be a hundred different stances and sword positions, but you win with just one,” said undefeated Samurai Miyamoto Musashi in 1643. Mushashi would have been a great pizza guy because he described pan pizza to the letter. Every town, village and territory in the world has their own pan pizza style: Chicago style; Sicilian Sfincione; Detroit Red Top; Tuscan Schiacciata; Old Forge style; French Pissaliadiere; Ligurian Pizza all’ Andrea; Philidelphia’s Tomato Pie; the Abruzzan Pizza Rustica from Renaissance times; stuffed pan pizza and pizza Pugliese. Even the centuries-old Chinese Scallion Pizza is baked in metal and some speculate that it was this idea that Marco Polo brought back to Italy to evolve into…(drumroll please) pan pizza!

For 13 years, I have used the 180 seasoned pizza pans in my small place to bake my own Athens-style pizza. Each pan sees action at least twice every day. During the rushes, they get tossed, slammed, slid, stacked and sometimes knocked over which, I will admit, is not a great way to treat the vehicle that crisps my pizza product (but each pan will again eventually don the high protein cloak of cold-fermented dough that it deserves). My pans have straight sides with a “nesting” indentation halfway up to stack the pans very high without harming the dough. I opted for this feature because I only have 1,200 square feet in my pizzeria.



Unlike pan pizzas on the East Coast, ours are not oiled but are just dusted with corn meal. These pans hold the dough crust vertically for a rustic look as it is docked, proofed, sauced, cheesed and topped before heading into our 475 F conveyor ovens. The pan heats up from 390 to 400 F after seven minutes, pushing the crust temperature to 315 F for a nice browning effect. It isn’t as hot as a wood-fired oven but heats up the 19 ounces of proofed dough nicely!

There are as many pizza pan designs as there are styles. If you are buying more than 50 at once, some companies may discount your order or deliver for free. Always ask (I only use credit cards that offer miles also!)



To find the one best pan pizza for your pizzeria, consider these factors:

• Your comfort zone. Are you and your staff willing to enthusiastically craft new pan pizza styles to generate more revenue?
• Your customer. What are they used to? How far can you stretch their culinary comfort zone? u Your market. Who has the best pan pizza in your area? (Be honest.) How can you beat them? These are very personal considerations for you and your pizzeria, but if you wish to take the leap to pan, let’s first concentrate on where the metal hits the road.
• Steel pans. Old-school steel pans are sometimes found in all their black seasoned beauty in the dark corners of used restaurant stores, these are the undisputed kings of golden crispy pizza pan crusts. The steel is strong (but does not conduct heat as quickly as aluminum) and they have better cook-ability and hold the heat longer. With thicker pizzas and larger pans, they don’t have a middle “skip” zone of un-doneness that aluminum pans have because of bending under heat. Some old pan pizzas were made in tin-plated steel pans, but remember that tin melts at 450 F, so these aren’t good for today’s high-heating ovens. I like the steel pans because some high seasoned sides seem to force a nice heat into the upper cornicione, or crust, of the pizza.
• “Nekkid” steel pans. New “bare” steel pans can be cheaper than coated steel pans, but buyer beware: thicker pizza pans with gauges below 16 are getting harder to find these days. If you are buying online, always ask what gauge the pan is. The lower the steel gauge number, the thicker the pan. These new bare steel pans need to be seasoned, which means you crank up your oven and coat each pan with a thin layer of lard, (really old school) vegetable oil or shortening. These have a low smoke point and you must ventilate your place well while doing this all day long until they turn color and eventually get blackened with carbon. (NOTE: never wash seasoned pans or bake with any liquid on the seasoning. If you absolutely have to wash them, use warm water and a weak soap quickly, then rinse and immediately run through another seasoning session.)
• Aluminum pans. Aluminum transfers heat four times faster than steel but I’ve found from personal experience I get a better golden brown crust in a deck oven from the steel. Because non-coated aluminum heats up fast, there is sometimes a “stickability problem.” Large aluminum pans tend to buckle in one corner under brick oven heat and that can affect cooking also.
• Coated pans. Aluminized steel pans offer both the durability and speed at heating up, while the “Anodized” aluminum pans coated with PSTK or pre-seasoned Tuff-kote improve durability and baking performance. These can either be as an electro-chemical process that converts the outside of the pan to aluminum oxide, or through multiple layers of sealant sprayed on an aluminum base that is absorbed into the pores for a tough, non-stick surface. This pan coating comes under numerous names depending on the company but they are all are twice as expensive as “bare” pans and, as I am finding out, will last forever — 11 years and counting for my pizzeria.

As you can see, many options are available for your perfect pizza pan. I’ve barely touched the surface here and most of my information just comes from personal experience. The best pan information will come from the company itself. If you are looking to open a new pizzeria, consider having multiple styles of pizza and don’t forget the pan.

In the next issue, I will delve into the differences in pan pizza dough styles and how the two most important aspects are achieved with the marriage between dough and pan: taste and texture.u

John Gutekanst owns Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio. He is also a speaker at International Pizza Expo and a member of the World Pizza Champions.