The True Flavor of Pizza

Pizza is one of the most popular foods in America today. According to a recent report, more than three billion pies are sold in the United States every year. Though chain “restaurants” like Pizza Hut and Dominoes along with several other top chains are the industry leaders, the vast majority of pizzas sold in America are made in small, family-run pizzerias.

To the average outside observer pizza-making may seem like a fairly simple process, but many of the skills necessary to make a good pie take years to perfect. In fact, it is not uncommon for pizza recipes, skills and techniques to be kept in the family and passed from one generation to the next. That is why chain restaurants like Dominoes and Pizza Hut come up short when they face off against quality, family-run pizzerias every time.

The average American consumer can smell and taste the difference. Unlike with fast food hamburgers where it’s easy enough to mask the quality of the beef under piles of lettuce, pickles and assorted condiments, the average consumer can spot a poorly-made pie like a three-dollar bill. Really, with pizza there’s nothing to hide behind.

So when pizza chains try to conceal the fact that their pies are bland by adding melted cheese to the crust or overloading them with inexpensive toppings, the average consumer can see this for what it actually is-a lot of unnecessary additions to a plain, ordinary pie.

On the other end of the quality spectrum is the neighborhood pizza shop that cares about tradition and makes each and every pie from only the freshest ingredients and homemade recipes. Sure, they might cost a bit more than the pizza you get at the chain stores, but we’re talking about quality here. And even though the price of the average pizza has gone up in recent years, the cost of a regular pie is still affordable. I mean, how many other ways are there to feed a family of four for less than twenty dollars?

This is why a true pizza lover rarely stops at one of those so-called pizzerias where frozen, processed ingredients are shoved into microwaves to cook/defrost. No, they want to see a trained professional who has pizza-making in his blood actually create their pie from scratch using fresh ingredients and original family recipes.