New Perfect Italiano pizza cheese meets the exacting demands of Australia’s foodservice market

Perfect Italiano is a long-established and trusted brand boasting a range of cheeses ideal for pizza, pasta and Mediterranean style cuisine – from Traditional and Ultra Mozzarella to Pizza Plus, Parmesan and Ricotta.

Now this fantastic selection has been expanded with the addition of Perfect Italiano Pizza Cheese, designed to meet the exacting demands of Australia’s foodservice market

Extensive tests have been conducted with different ovens and temperatures across a wide variety of foodservice customers to ensure Perfect Italiano’s new Pizza Cheese performs consistently at the high temperatures employed by many independent pizzamakers. According to Mark Williams, Chef Support Lead at Anchor Food Professionals – the company behind the Perfect Italiano brand – Perfect Italiano Pizza Cheese is the best on the market in its ability to withstand high heat.

“At times we trialled the new cheese in ovens at more than 200°C for up to nine minutes, which are very extreme conditions,” Mark says. “We found it’s a highly adaptable cheese that will work across all oven types from the conveyors used in independent pizza to the more traditional Mediterranean kitchen setup.

Perfect Italiano Pizza Cheese has its own distinctive flavour profile and qualities.

“It offers low oil off and minimal browning and it delivers the perfect melt for an authentic Mediterranean cuisine experience, plus a stretch that’s superior to almost anything else on the market”

— Mark Williams, Chef Support Lead at Anchor Food Professionals

“It’s also an excellent flavour carrier, which means you can use it as a base to blend different cheeses such as a parmesan, feta or ricotta. You can even add other cheeses post-cook for a more artisan effect. And because it comes in a convenient 10kg block, it’s easy to shred to the shred profile and style you want for your business.”

Anchor Food Professionals Executive Chef Mark Normoyle has also conducted testing on the new cheese in his restaurant’s woodfired pizza oven, with outstanding results. “From my perspective, it’s a great high heat pizza cheese – just as suited for a traditional woodfired oven as a convection conveyor setup.”

And while new Perfect Italiano Pizza Cheese imparts the stretch, texture and smoothness that will keep your customers coming back, its flavour will complement your other pizza toppings but never overwhelm them. “This makes it not only a great choice for pizza, but also with seafood, spicy slow cooked meat and Mediterranean style cuisine generally,” Mark says. “You can also use it with Middle Eastern flatbreads, in baguettes or croissants.

“It’s a really good all-round cheese which is totally versatile, and it has the added benefit of superior yield – exemplifying the old adage that when you use quality products, less is more.”

Post-lockdown dine-out trends

EXPERIENTIAL ELEVATION
With consumers now able to dine out once again, top of their list is an experience that they can’t easily replicate at home. That means innovative flavour combos, great ambience, terrific service and a stronger emphasis on making customers feel special.

PLANT-BASED STILL GROWING
The flexitarian meal opportunity is booming, with a new Euromonitor report showing that Australia is the most flexitarian nation in the world – more than 45 per cent of consumers polled said they are restricting animal products in their diet. No wonder then that restaurants are dedicating more and more menu space to plant-based.

LIMITED TIME OFFERS SUPPLEMENTING THE MENU
Limited Time Offers (LTOs) are a great way to build customer engagement and excitement on Instagram and other social media platforms. They’re also ideal for trialling new menu ideas and gauging customer response.

HEALTHIER FOR YOU BACK WITH A BANG
From ‘green smoothies’ packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals to all-natural contemporary flavours like Matcha, healthy options are seeing a resurgence – with lockdowns having given consumers the opportunity to refocus their work-life balance, many are looking to improve their dine-out choices.

Insights
Robotics and AI take foodservice automation to the next level

Automation is rapidly taking hold across the foodservice sector, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technological advancements in robotics at the forefront of innovation. From automated pizzamaking systems and delivery robots to automated ‘dark kitchens’, the market for such applications is evolving at an unprecedented rate. Here’s our roundup of some of the latest:

THE PICNIC PIZZA SYSTEM

From Seattle, Washington in the US comes Picnic Pizza, an innovative system which automates the entire pizzamaking process. It uses a series of hoppers to dispense pre-specified quantities of ingredients from cheese and sauces to slices or chunks of meats and vegetables. The result is consistent, customised pizzas which move along a conveyor belt into a pizza oven – delivering pizzas which have been made virtually hands-free.

The manufacturer says Picnic Pizza makes about 300 12 inch pizzas per hour – equating to around one pizza every 45 seconds. While the fastest human pizzamakers can match this speed, they’d be unlikely to be able to maintain it for hours on end – whereas Picnic Pizza can keep going without slowing down.

ROBOTS FOR MIXING DRINKS AND TOSSING SALAD

Cecilia.ai is an interactive robot bartender which can mix and serve drinks in less than 30 seconds while using AI and speech recognition to talk to customers about their menu choices. The unit is already in use in hotels and entertainment venues in the US.

Salad-making robot Sally by Chowbotics, recently acquired by DoorDash, can mix up to eight fresh ingredients in just 90 seconds – providing an interactive experience for customers while making it easier to expand your salad menu without additional staff or any changes in the kitchen.

ROBOTIC DARK KITCHENS
Beastro is a robot built specially for ‘dark kitchens’ - unbranded kitchen spaces which produce food only for delivery and whose numbers have grown exponentially ever since the first lockdowns in 2020. Beastro is fully customisable to produce any kind of meal automatically and can make about 45 per hour. At the same time it also collects customer analytic data which is passed on to the same manufacturer’s integrated kitchen management software.

PLATE COLLECTING ROBOTS

Robots are also being used at the other end of service – with Japanese company Smile Robotics’ creation the ACUR-C developed to move autonomously between tables, pick up trays and plates on robotic arms and take them back to the kitchen.

DOORDASH INTRODUCING DELIVERY ROBOTS

DoorDash in the US has announced its DoorDash Labs is to focus on the development of delivery robots. Having previously trialled robots created by others, it has now decided to build its own inhouse, utilising a ‘hub to hub’ model which would see delivery robots deliver meal orders in batches to a distribution hub from which human delivery drivers would pick up to take them on to their ultimate destination. The aim is to shorten the distance that the human drivers have to travel, enabling them to deliver more orders faster.

Perfect Solutions
Top five strategies to keep staff engaged and onboard

Given the current prevalence of staff shortages – and no sign of an end to them any time soon – ensuring employee satisfaction is more important than ever. Anyone working in foodservice simply can’t afford to lose valuable staff when they’re so hard to replace. Here are our top five strategies to keep staff engaged and onboard:

ENSURE WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Leaving aside work uncertainty during lockdowns, the long, unsociable hours have been cited as one of the main reasons for staff leaving the industry. With some careful planning and a good rostering system, you can make life easier for staff by allowing them to swap shifts or request time off ahead of time. By letting staff members plan around their kids, personal commitments and other important events, you can help provide them with a better work-life balance which will make it easier when times are tough.

SEEK STAFF INPUT WHENEVER APPROPRIATE

When staff feel you genuinely care about their concerns and are committed about improving their work conditions, they’re more likely to go the extra mile on your behalf. Therefore always seek their input and listen to what they have to say – not only when it comes to processes and procedures, but also for menu changes or suggestions. Longtime staff are especially likely to have great ideas on how to improve things.

LEAD BY EXAMPLE

By rolling up your sleeves and helping out during busy service times or at the end of the night, not only can you show staff you understand what they go through at work, you also have the opportunity to demonstrate better ways of doing things. And by showing you recognise the day to day challenges of their jobs, you’ll be rewarded by a newfound respect.

PROVIDE INCENTIVES AND BONUSES

From instituting an employee of the month scheme to delivering on the spot rewards for great customer service or extra efficient work practices, there are many ways you can build staff loyalty – everyone appreciates being recognised for doing a good job.

STAY COMMITTED TO TEAM BUILDING

Making yourself available to staff at all times and being as upfront as possible in your dealings with them is a great way of team building - it delivers a sense of camaraderie and keeps the lines of communication open. Remember your chef is often a great source of knowledge, so treat them as a trusted business partner. And if you have a large kitchen staff with multiple cooks, you can keep them engaged and stimulated by giving them free rein to develop specials and new menu items. This allows all kitchen staff to feel a sense of ownership and pride in their work.