My boyfriend and I are currently enthralled with making our own pizza’s at home. I cut up the veggies and put them in bowls while he gets the cheese, sauce, two pans and the already made Boboli crusts (wheat!). I remember doing this on occasion when I was younger and forgot how much fun it is! We each get to make our perfect pizza, and usually devour the whole thing within two days. It has become a pastime of ours and I highly suggest it. This led me to thinking about all of the different ways one can “decorate” a pizza and how this sport has become increasingly popular in our culture. An article entitled “The Versatile Pie: Pizza Fits Varying Taste Trends”, examples of this are given. Before reading this article I assumed that most were branching away from the traditional sauce and mozzarella to maybe spinach and ground beef…this article really opened up my eyes to the new pizza world.
Beginning with the most extravagant pizza decorating is Nino’s Bellissima located in New York City. This elegant restaurant offers a pizza that costs…are you ready for this…$1,000 ! The reason? It is topped with caviar, lobster, imported cheeses, and 14K gold leaves. Yeah, I said it was extravagant. Although this is outrageous, it proves the point that pizza is definitely versatile and also, sells!
Because of this rise in pizza decorating, chefs are looking outside the box at different ways to improve and impress their customers. Some newer combinations include red pepper, shrimp, avocado, orange marmalade and brie and believe it or not, even peanut butter and jelly!-mmmmmm.
Pizza as an art: how can you best position the flavors of the ingredients to satisfy the feeling of a sophisticated dinner. Gourmet chefs are beginning to use meats to accomplish this, such as lamb, meatballs, Mediterranean flavors, Moroccan flavors all topped off with feta cheese, or goat cheese. Now I personally would never order pizza with any of these toppings, because to me traditional pizza will always be the best and most satisfying.
Even though these new ideas are becoming more popular and there is a rise of creativity in the pizza industry, I still think the traditional-style of pizza is more popular and will always be more popular. It is simplistic, yes, however it is familiar, and still very tasty. I do like to decorate my homemade pizzas with banana peppers, and mushrooms not only because it is yummy, but it is also very fun and rewarding.
A quote from the article says it best, “choice is what people want and pizza can be whatever consumers want it to be.” I think this is the exact reason people are drawn to pizza. How would you decorate your pizza? E-mail me your thoughts/comments at sally.k.dwyer@gmail.com. Chaio!
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