A new trend is forming within pizzerias and even four-star restaurants that have everyone’s mouth watering: crazy and extravagant toppings. These toppings include anything from peanut butter and jelly to steak and even sweet candies. Research analysts from Pizza Marketplace, an online site for buyers and sellers in the restaurant industry, are saying that 2009 will be the year chef’s and owners of pizzerias as well as high-end restaurants begin to shy away from the traditional pizza toppings (cheese, pepperoni, sausage).
Experts have broken down this tasty-topping trend into 4 categories:
1. Healthy toppings
2. Spicy toppings
3. Fruit and Vegetable toppings
4. Seafood topping
1.) Part of Your Complete Diet
Some reasons for the shift in toppings, experts from Pizza Marketplace claim, are due to the effort in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In Richard Slawsky’s “Top Pizza Trends for 2009,” people have been more health conscious during the current ‘going green’ phenomenon. This results in choosing healthier options when dining out and restaurant owners are adapting their menus to fit these types of consumers.
Slawsky describes this change in menu by interviewing Ed Martino, the owner of Carminuccio’s
Pizza and Subs in Newton, CT. Martino admits that their BBQ Pizza remains a top seller but told Slawsky, “we offer an Insalata Pizza with mozzarella, red sauce and topped with fresh garden salad,” that he sees rising in popularity.
To keep up with competition operators will begin to find more of a demand for healthier toppings on their pizza including the types of cheeses and sauces they will use.
One way pizza operators are finding new ways to differentiate themselves is through the levels of spicy toppings. Topping pizzas with ethnic flavors not only adds a zing, but a distinctive characteristic only they possess.
Expert’s from Pizza Marketplace say regional flavors specific to countries around the world, such as Korean and Vietnamese, Mexican, and Indian are a few ways operators can add variety to the traditional-style pizza.
More locally, in Austin Texas, DoubleDave’s Pizzaworks boasts spicy hot pizza.
Chuck Thorp, CEO of DoubleDave’s, told Slawsky
In Slawsky’s article on pizza trends, Chuck Thorp, CEO of DoubleDave’s, said the drive to produce toppings of such flavor was inspired by the growing population of Latino customers. Jalapeño-topped pizzas are now a necessity of DoubleDave’s in order to please the customers and have actually become a top-seller.
3.) Back to the Basics: Fruits and veggies
Veggie pizzas have been around for years, pineapple and banana pizzas have been a top-seller, and yet pizza operators are still finding new and innovative ways to use these veteran foods.
Experts say when decorating a pizza with veggies the cosmetic and textural presentation are what people are drawn to. It adds color to the meal, and as the old saying goes, “the more colors on your plate the healthier life you will lead.” The added crunch of the veggies also makes it appealing.
Slawsky also suggests in his article on trends that, “veggies provide a savory-sweet edge that complements the mounds of meat that pizza fans love.”
Howard Olivier, owner of Flying Pie’s was quoted in this article as saying, “pepperoni is still king here, but we do lots with vegetables.”
Fruit can add class to a pizza giving it elegance. What’s even more popular than fruit toppings are entire breakfast pizzas and even dessert pizzas topped with fruit covered in sugar and frosting.
4.) The Ocean-Front Pizza
Nino’s Bellisima in New York City boasts a pizza topped with lobster, caviar, and shrimp covered gold leaf’s. This sells for $1,000 a pizza. This may be an extravagant way to eat, but seafood pizzas are on the rise and will be a new trend of 2009.
Seafood is a category that gives the appearance of elegance and fine dining. By adding seafood to pizza, an operator gives off an ambiance of the restaurant; usually stating ‘we are an elegant restaurant that serves high-end pizza’.
Howard Olivier, owner of Flying Pie’s told Pizza Marketplace, “it’s just nice to have seafood for people who want it.” Adding variety is the goal of each pizzeria. Differentiating the variety makes them unique.
John Poulimas, chef at Carminuccio’s in Newton, CT notices the change in customers. “A lot of them are going for toppings rather than crust, he said. “We pile on our shrimp, others don’t do that.” Poulimas credits their clientele on making pizzas according to their customers’ suggestions. The reason they come back, he said, is because of the taste of the toppings and the amount of the toppings.
Todd Frampton, 42, of Batavia, Il has been an avid pizza-lover since childhood and exemplifies this new pizza trend of 2009. “I am always ready for a pepperoni pizza, but lately I have been trying Pizza Hut’s…and other’s…new pizza’s,” said Frampton. “It’s fun to try new toppings even if they sound a bit weird. You never know, you may actually like it,” he said.
No statistics could be found for the increase in sales due solely to toppings.
Top photo by Associated Press
Middle photo by Larry Crowe/Associated Press
Bottom photo by Associated Press
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