Slices of innovation: chefs raise the bar on pizza styles

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 1, 2003 by Nancy Kruse

It's probably inevitable that the globalization of the food business has sparked a backlash from adherents of artisanal foods concerned with preserving culinary tradition. While the Slow Food movement has generated awareness on an international level for its support of authenticity and sustainability, the less-heralded Verace Pizza Napoletana Association, or VPN, has been working to protect and promote genuine pizza of Naples, the birthplace of the popular product.

The association grants a colorful certification mark only to restaurants that meet its rigorous standards covering everything from how the dough is shaped to the fabrication of the oven to acceptable pizza ingredients, and, while most VPN-certified members are clustered in Italy, they span the globe and include the Massachusetts-based Bertucci's chain.

Despite the best efforts of the VPN, however, it's tough to hold most U.S. operators to such stringent criteria. Pizza long has been part of our food vernacular, and it is the subject of constant innovation by chefs at all levels of the industry.

Crusts are uppermost. While the VPN specifies that pizza dough should consist of flour, yeast and water, operators have focused their energies on more fanciful foundations. Old Chicago serves up a Thai pie on a deep-dish sesame seed crust; Papa Gino's promotes a crunchy Parmesan thick crust; and California Pizza Kitchen offers a honey-wheat dough alternative upon request for any pizza on the menu. Pizza Hut grabbed attention with its introduction of stuffed-crust pizza with the cheese baked right in, a move that caused other quick-service competitors to follow suit and make the crust the center of attention and invention.

Pizza can go from humble to haute. One of the house specials at Godfather's is the humble pie, a wonderful name that describes simple ingredients like sausage, peppers and onions, but the chain also offers the more upscale chicken-artichoke option replete with white garlic sauce, artichokes and red onions. The latter mimics the so-called designer pizza that launched Wolfgang Puck to national prominence some years ago. Many chains have embraced trendy and unexpected ingredients that reflect his influence.

Bahama Breeze recently introduced a colorful, four-tomato pizza featuring vine-ripened Roma, yellow pear, grape and sun-dried tomatoes. Red Lobster makes a signature statement with lobster pizza topped with basil and served on a thin crust, while California Pizza Kitchen offers a pear and Gorgonzola pie with caramelized pears and onions, Gorgonzola and Fontina cheeses, chopped hazelnuts and field greens. Specialty cheeses can take pizza to a higher level by adding both value and flavor, as with Dave & Buster's shiitake-Boursin pie. And Napa Valley Grille in Chicago promotes a seasonal Brie and duck confit pizza that sells well whenever it appears.

It's the perfect carrier. It's clear that operators see almost any menu item as fair game for a pizza topping, and consumers are treated to a staggering array of menu classics on a crust, like chicken-fried chicken at Mazzio's, blackened-chicken Caesar at Miller's Ale House and bacon double cheeseburger at Peter Piper.

Hungry Howie's Philly steak substitutes pizza dough for the traditional crusty sandwich roll, and Fox's Den Pizza goes one better with Wedgies, a cheeky name for a line of sandwiches that replaces the bun with pizza dough. Jerry's Famous Dell merits special mention; the Los Angeles chain long has offered favorite egg dishes on a pizza crust to start the day and salads in a pizza crust for later dining.

Pizza really has legs. Jerry's isn't the only operation that caters to pizza cravings from dawn until dusk. Pizza's versatility and customer acceptance allow for the product to appear in myriad guises. It can be healthful, as with Applebee's ultra-thin veggie patch pizza, or hearty, as with Johnny Carino's sausage cacciatore pizza. Hops' uptown pizza appetizer smartly repackages the ubiquitous spinach-artichoke-cheese dip by putting it on a flaky crust, while East of Chicago's peanut butter and jelly creation is kid stuff of a very high order.

Dessert pizza appears on a number of menus, including the chocolate pizza at Sapori D'lschia, an independent restaurant in Queens, New York. Described as an Italian Pop Tart, the pizza has a filling of Nutella scrunched between crispy, thin layers of crust, all covered with powdered sugar and a drizzle of chocolate.

Pizza also has the legs to travel around the globe: Domino's offers potatoes and mayonnaise toppings in Korea, frijoles and chorizo in Mexico, spicy chicken sausage in lieu of pepperoni in India, and Emmental and goat cheese in France.

While the VPN might not grant its seal of approval to any of the above, the organization at least might take pride in the extraordinary popularity and unbridled innovation that have come to characterize a product that began life as a simple baked flat bread favored by the working people of Naples.