PIZZA HAS NEVER BEEN BIGGER – this once humble cuisine style with its origins in Italy has truly become a global food. And given Australia’s diverse multicultural mix, it’s not surprising to learn that many of pizza’s international variations have also found their way to our shores.

Manoush, which is Lebanese style pizza, is made from dough which is topped with oil and zaatar, a combination of thyme, sesame seeds, oregano, sumac, salt and several spices, which gives it a distinctive flavour and aroma that customers love. It’s usually topped with minced meats, vegetables and eggs as well as cheese.

Lahmacun (Turkish pizza) is made from a flat bread base with minced lamb the traditional topping, but ground beef is also becoming widespread today. The meat is mixed with onions as well as sweet red peppers, shallots, garlic, tomato paste, herbs and spices. This spiced meat topping is spread thinly across the dough, then the lahmacun is briefly baked until the dough is crispy around the edges and the topping is cooked through.

Greek pizza typically has a puffy, oily crust similar to focaccia as opposed to the traditional thin and crispy pizza base. Toppings are drawn from Greek cuisine and include feta cheese, olives, red onions, capsicum and seafood.

The US has a wide variety of regional pizza styles. One of the best known is the Chicago Deep Dish pizza developed in the 1940s, which has a thick doughy crust almost like a cake, with the cheese placed near the base (under the sauce) so it doesn’t burn.

Okonomiyaki, which is popular in Japan, is a version of pizza made with a cabbage base and topped with seafood such as octopus, prawns and katsuobushi (fermented tuna). Flavours are further enhanced with the use of kimchi and yam and sauces.

All these are now making headway in Australia – so they’re worth considering adding to the menu, especially if your customer base seems willing to look beyond the traditional Italian inspired pizza to try something new!

NON WHEAT INGREDIENTS
As pasta made from quinoa, lentils, chickpeas and even vegetables such as zucchini or cauliflower becomes readily available, inventive chefs are adding it to the menu.

Advice
How SEO can help promote your foodservice business brand

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION or SEO for short makes it easier for potential customers to find out about your foodservice business brand via online searches. When you consider the fact that there are more than a billion websites on the internet, you can see how important it is to optimise the likelihood that search results will bring up your business.

The key to understanding how SEO works is the realisation that search engines like Google use different algorithms to classify websites based on how useful they think they will be to someone seeking information. The idea behind SEO is that you include information on your website which enable search engines to identify it as being relevant to include in their search results.

The most important element in SEO is keyword research - identifying which words and phrases your potential customer might use when searching.

You can do this using a keyword research tool such as Moz Pro or SEMrush or conducting your own google search for keywords relevant to your business. You can also look at the categories used by Google My Business listings in Google Maps, TripAdvisor and other sites used to search for foodservice businesses, and list those.

Once you’ve found your keywords you can think look at optimising the content on your website for better search engine results. But be careful to avoid over-using keywords – search engines are likely to identify that as potential ‘spam’.

Perfect Solutions
Waste not, want not.

REDUCING YOUR FOOD WASTE is a great way to cut down your operating costs and increase profitability, and the first step in achieving this is to conduct a food waste audit. This will tell you not only how much food you’re wasting, but exactly what food is being wasted and how you can reduce that. It also provides you with the opportunity to divert food which would otherwise go to waste and instead donate it to organisations devoted to feeding people who would otherwise go hungry.

To conduct a food waste audit you first need to nominate the team who will be responsible for it. It’s best to use kitchen staff who are already involved in your meal preparation because they’ll be familiar with the amount of ingredients used.

You then set about tracking and analysing all food waste. This can be categorised into:

• Spoilage waste – such as excess stock and food which has passed its use by date or spoiled during storage.

• Food preparation waste – from spillages and accidents in the kitchen, parts of ingredients which can’t be readily used, and what’s left behind after the meal’s been prepared. 

• Customer waste – this is the food left behind on customers’ plates at the end of their meals.

By separating your waste into these categories – such as by using separate colour-coded bins for each – you’ll be able to identify where the majority of your waste occurs. 

It’s recommended to do this over at least a three day cycle to ensure representative data given that all foodservice businesses have quieter and busier periods. If possible, choose a timeframe which includes high service periods such as weekends.

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