Contemporary presentation styles and quality ingredients taking pizza to the next level

Pizza has long been a mainstay of the foodservice menu, but in recent times we’ve seen a move away from the old days of ‘Aussie super supremes’ piled high with every conceivable ingredient, to a ‘less is more’ approach which focuses instead on complementary flavours, artisan-style presentation and lighter, tastier bases – as creative chefs continue to reinvent pizza in recognition of its profit-making potential.

“There’s always been a presence in the market of that very traditional, authentic Italian approach with woodfired ovens and all imported ingredients, but where it was once confined to Italian neighbourhoods and family-run pizzerias, today it’s become embraced by the mainstream,” points out chef Peter Wright.

“Conveyor pizza ovens are money makers because you can put them through so fast, but woodfired ovens are the traditional approach and they give you a beautiful toasty crust, and that’s certainly trending right now.

“With that comes thinner bases and in fact the variety of pizza bases we’re seeing now is amazing – from gluten free bases to sourdough, to flavoured and coloured bases made with vegetable ingredients such as green cauliflower bases, or others made with rice or chickpea flour. These are not traditional doughs but are made in a pizza style and are definitely on trend as vegetarian and plant-based dining is huge now.

“Pizza also has a distinctive mouthfeel that really hits your senses. That’s the case with virtually any pizza no matter what other toppings you add on.”

Pizzamaking is ‘simple yet complex’

Restaurateur and chef Mark Normoyle from Luna’s Food & Wine Bar and St Kilda Beach Pizzeria in the famed Melbourne beachside suburb is a keen advocate of the artisan approach to pizzamaking and uses a traditional woodfired oven. He describes pizzamaking as “simple yet complex” and makes the point that while pizza is relatively easy to make, there are still important rules to follow.

“Start with the base: a good quality pizza dough is imperative, and a lot of people work hard on getting their dough just right before they even think about the toppings. I’ve worked with a lot of pizza chefs over the last few years and they all have their own techniques, different levels of hydration vs the amount of olive oil vs dry yeast – it all comes down to the individual chef and the oven you’re using. But it’s so important to get it right.

“A lot of pizza chefs will also make their own tomato sugo sauce base rather than buying in a premade one because it gives them more control over the flavour profile. They might add a little more garlic, a little more salt – some use whole peeled tomatoes, blend them with salt, pepper and garlic and that gives a distinctive flavour. 

“When it comes to toppings, generally less is more. One of the most popular pizzas to this day is a margherita, which is basically dough and three other ingredients – that means the quality of each has to be amazing.”

Mark says an emerging trend in pizza toppings is the introduction of Middle Eastern ingredients along with Asian flavours like miso spiced cauliflower. “Pizza has become a truly international dish, it’s no longer Italian but belongs to the world,” he says. “So it’s no surprise that chefs are trying to evoke all kinds of different cuisines with their pizza toppings. Basically you can take any style of cuisine and adapt it to pizza, it’s just a question of working out which ingredients will complement each other and work on the base.

“You don’t need a lot, but what you do need is strong flavours. How you season a pizza is important as well – it’s like making a steak or fish dish. A squeeze of lemon juice, a few capers to impart saltiness, a few olives to help season or finish it nicely is going to add that signature touch you’re seeking. Pizza is an economical meal to produce to start with, so it will give you a strong profit margin, and if you’re using good quality ingredients you’ll find customers are happy to pay a little more for the superior flavours. You can also take advantage of seasonality – figs on top of some beautiful prosciutto make a delicious topping, or if you’re doing a dessert pizza, you can use fresh seasonal fruits.” 

Mark echoes Peter Wright’s point about woodfired pizzas having grown exponentially in popularity in recent times. “They are more artisan, cooking them is more of an art than a science - controlling the heat of the fire and cooking them on a stone base requires a certain degree of skill. What I’ve noticed with our clientele recently is that, just as Melburnians are known for being very discerning about their coffee, this is now also the case with pizza – they have a definite idea of what a good quality pizza is, and the more Italian style with a nice thin crust is very much on trend.

“A good, even spread of ingredients is what most customers are seeking – if you’re serving up a lamb shoulder and goat’s cheese pizza with basil and tomato, for example, you should be able to taste all of those ingredients on each bite of each slice. So make sure your toppings are well-balanced – you don’t want them to fall off when people are eating it! It also works out more economically that way – the idea is to even out those ingredients which don’t cost as much with the animal proteins, which are typically the most expensive components.”

The quintessential share food

Gary Johnson, National Executive Chef for ALH Group, says pizza is the quintessential share food: “When a few mates are in the pub having a couple of jars watching the footie, they’ll often share a few pizzas between two, three or four – and of course it’s a great meal to have on your own too.”

Gary’s advice is that pizza should always be cooked very fast and at a very high temperature – “then, when it comes out of the oven, brush the rim with a little olive oil and put it on a cooling rack and just let it sit for a minute or two before you cut it. That allows the steam to come off the base and the top and if there’s any residual water in the sugo, it allows that to temperature so the crispness of the crust is maintained. My other rule is that water is the enemy of pizza, so if you’re using ingredients like tinned pineapple or corn you want to make sure you’ve squeezed all the water out before you use it so you don’t have that problem.

“The trend of vegetable and pasta colours in pizza doughs is giving rise to some really eyecatching bases, like beetroot in deep red, basil and spinach flavoured green bases, and even black bases using charcoal – you can make a really cool presentation with a charcoal base, sauce bianca and garlic cream on the bottom, then fresh wild mushrooms over the top followed by some delicious mozzarella and fior di latte, then a drizzle of olive oil – when it comes out of the oven your customers will be in heaven!

“And when it comes to topping, always go for the best quality you can, and two to four ingredients is plenty – a handful of great flavours makes for a delicious pizza.”

Another important innovation in the pizzamaking space is the availability of high quality premade raw pizza doughs. “Parbaked pizza bases tend to go ‘biscuity’,” Gary says, “but there are some great suppliers making raw doughs that you can buy in frozen and thaw out overnight in the fridge. Once they’re brought up to room temperature, they’re extremely workable, and with the technology used in the yeast they’ll activate at 10°C rather than 30. Then you can handstretch the dough, which is really part of the romance of making a wonderful pizza, add your toppings and put through a very hot oven – preferably an impinger at around 270° to 300°C. We always say 300° for three minutes will give you a perfect pizza.”

Napoli style pizza very much on trend

Riccardo Morretti of RDM Pizza, Australia’s leading manufacturer of pre-made dough balls and pizza bases, is a highly experienced and award-winning pizza chef who spent many years as resident pizzamaker at La Piazza restaurant in Bankstown Sports Club. Riccardo says traditional Napoli style pizza is very much on trend: “What has happened is that the Australian consumer has started to become more accustomed to the Italian approach to pizzamaking. Aussies used to go for very crispy bases with lots of topping, but over the past seven years or so we’ve seen a real move towards more traditional pizza. Customers have become more sophisticated, more aware of quality.

“Napoli style uses a very hydrated dough which you cook fast – blitz it in the oven for about a minute and a half and you’ll have a pizza which has more moisture and a superior mouthfeel. And don’t pile it up with too much topping – when I train pizzamakers I tell them you should still be able to see down to the base when you’ve added the toppings. It’s all about choosing the right ingredients – we’ve moved towards a more artisan style.”

Good pizza starts with the dough

RDM’s pizza dough recipe is essentially the same one that was a key component of Riccardo’s winning the title of Best Traditional Pizzamaker in Australia in the Best of the Best National Pizza Challenge at the age of 17 back in 2008. “Growing up with Italian heritage, making fresh bread when I was five and having all that knowledge around me, and then training as a chef made it possible to refine the recipe into what we have today,” Riccardo says.

“Our doughballs are made in Napoli style and go through a 72 hour fermentation process, then are snap-frozen. It’s the process that makes it special. For a chef to be able to make an authentic Napoli style dough takes a lot of experience. And you might get Luigi from Italy who makes a cracking dough, but he realises he can get $60 an hour because of staff shortages and you say, ‘I can’t pay that much’, so he takes his recipe and goes somewhere else. Then Sam comes in to replace him but his dough recipe isn’t as good, and the customer can tell the difference. Now suppose the customer has had your pizzas before when Luigi was making the dough and they were so good he brings his friends along to experience them. But when he comes back Sam is making the dough so the pizza isn’t the same. The customer might say, ‘Maybe they’re having an off night, they’re short-staffed’ and try again a third time -  but once he’s had that inferior experience, nine times out of ten you’ve burnt your bridge to that customer.

“What we are able to do is provide a full solution service – not only a consistent Napoli style doughball that has gone through the process a traditional pizzaiola would take, but which will last 48 hours in the fridge and up to 10 days in the coolroom. That gives the chef peace of mind knowing that if it’s been a slow week, they still have time to use that dough up – they don’t have to throw it out. In fact the longer you leave our dough, the better it is – the more it relaxes, it’s like aging a wine. You get a nice puffiness in the crust and blistering around the edges.”

Riccardo and his team not only provide the doughballs but also hands-on training for staff. “We teach them how to stretch it by hand and if there’s a staff changeover at the business, we’ll go back and retrain. And we provide this service free of charge to our customers, because the more pizzas you sell, the more dough you’ll buy – it’s a win-win proposition for both parties. We’ve trained newbies who’ve never stretched dough before in their lives and within 40 minutes they’ve got it right.”