Industry Headlines
February 20, 2013

The Case for Portion Control

Free-handing cheese can cost you thousands in lost profits annually. It’s a proven fact, and we’ve demonstrated it time and again. So, why do we still run into a plethora of operators at International Pizza Expo each year who prefer to do it that way “because we get busy and it’s faster”?

“Implementing a simple and concise portion-control program can literally save you tens-of-thousands of dollars!” says Michael Shepherd, International Pizza Expo speaker and owner of Michael Angelo’s Pizza in Kenton, Ohio.

Read Michael’s case for portion control here:


Move Them With Music

The type of music you play in your restaurant, if any, doesn’t just impact ambiance — it could also impact your table turns. Want guests to linger? Soft lighting, comfortable seating surfaces and low-tempo music is the way to go. Need them to get in and out? Then faster music, brighter lights and harder surfaces do the trick.

Regardless of which type of music you play in house, though, it’s important to be on the right side of the law with regards to artist copyrights. Think your customers would love to hear an old Beatles album? They might … but you are not supposed to simply put one through the speakers and play it. Why? Because that constitutes a musical broadcast for which you did not pay the artist royalties. May sound silly to you from your perspective as a small business owner, but those are the rules.

Click here to learn more about background music in your shop and how to do it without getting yourself into trouble.


Dough Management

How can something be so simple and so complex at the same time? We’re talking about pizza dough, after all, right?

When it comes down to it, dough is a living organism. As such, it has a birth, maturity & death. These stages of life are controlled by time, temperature and fermentation rate. Pizzeria consultant Big Dave Ostrander believes the only way to control the many variables is to develop a process that will ensure consistency from batch to batch. “I strive to remove all of the human variables possible,” he says. “I only use flour that has been in my storage area at least two days. If I were to use flour right off the delivery truck it would be 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This cold flour would stunt the fermentation of the batch. I want flour that is around 60 -70 degrees. In the winter I invariably get calls from operators that state their dough won’t raise and won’t brown during the baking process. I ask them where they store their flour. Is it outside, in the winter, near an exterior door? If so the dough will not be consistent from batch to batch.”

For a slew of dough management articles that address a variety of issues, click here.


10,000 and Counting!

Pizza Today’s innovative and industry-unique iPad and Android tablet apps now have more than 10,000 monthly subscribers — and growing! Have you downloaded yours yet?

“The beauty of the apps? They are free and they allow our readers to see the magazine and interact with it like never before,” says Pizza Today Editor-in-Chief Jeremy White. “I’m always amazed at how crisp and downright beautiful the food photography looks on the backlit screen. Plus, each month we add additional photos, recipes and videos that are not in the print version of the magazine.”

To download the iPad app, click here.

Android users, click here.