A GREAT PIZZA is all about flavour layering. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to pile high the toppings – you can also create pizzas that will stand out from the competition through innovative ‘flavour fusions’.

Adapting different cuisine styles to work on pizzas, and experimenting with the flavours of ingredients which may not seem like an obvious choice as pizza toppings, can work wonders and deliver a pizza which will keep customers coming back.

Flavour fusion can also extend to your use of cheese – the key ingredient which holds the toppings together. While a good quality Mozzarella is the ideal base cheese for pizza due to its subtle flavour and stretch, you can also experiment with combining it with other cheeses to create a distinctive flavour profile that sets your pizzas apart from the crowd.

COMBINE CHEESES TO CREATE YOUR ‘SECRET BLEND’

This is the approach Zain Ghumra takes at Sam’s Gourmet Pizza and Manoush in the Brisbane suburb of Kuraby. “We don’t just buy in the cheese and put it on top,” he says. “We use predominantly Perfect Italiano Mozzarella, but then we add two other cheeses to create our ‘secret blend’. The cheese plays a big part not just in holding the pizza together but in delivering flavour.”

In addition to traditional pizzas, Sam’s serves manoush, which is a Middle Eastern equivalent to pizza. “It’s a very simple approach with no sauce, but ingredients like chicken and cheese, or cheese and olives on a very thin base. We use Middle Eastern ingredients like zata – which is a combination of dukkah, sesame seeds and oregano – and we mix it with oil and spread it on the base to cook it. And we’ve created our own flavour fusions which are a mix of traditional Middle Eastern with some Aussie influences.”

MIX AND MATCH TOPPINGS FOR THAT FLAVOUR FUSION

At Tonino’s Pizzeria in the Melbourne suburb of Pakenham, owner Tony has added his own special range of gourmet pizzas to the menu. “It’s all in how you combine your ingredients to get that fusion of flavours,” he says. “How you mix and match your toppings, from roasted capsicum and salami to olives and get everything to work together. We do one pizza which is just a garlic base with a sprinkle of chilli, oregano, pesto and buffalo cheese – and people just love that! Essentially, it’s garlic with a bit of spice, but it’s just really eatable.”

BREAKFAST PIZZA
From bacon and eggs to sausage and ham, potato and onion, meatballs and ricotta, breakfast pizzas are a great way to take advantage of this growing day part.

Advice
Make sure your delivery ingredients are ‘fit for purpose’

WHEN IT COMES TO PIZZA AND PASTA, not all ingredients are created equal –some hold up over time far better than others. This becomes an important consideration when the food has to go on a journey to reach the customer.

Take for example your choice of pizza cheese. You need to make sure you’re using a quality cheese that’s going to hold up from oven right to the customer’s door – rather than lower quality ingredients which might save you money in the short term but aren’t truly fit for purpose.

Choosing a pizza cheese like Perfect Italiano Mozzarella will ensure that your home delivery customer enjoys the same quality meal that you’re providing to a customer who’s dining in. It will maintain both its presentation and performance over the time it takes to go from your pizza oven to the customer’s address and deliver on visual appearance as well as taste.

The same is true for pasta. In preparing your pasta sauces, you should be choosing ingredients that are specifically designed for home delivery – such as Anchor Extra Yield Culinary Cream, which has been developed to deliver a superior coating consistency, making it the perfect choice for thick, creamy sauces which will withstand the rigours of the delivery process and arrive at the customer’s premises with their presentation uncompromised. And as it’s fully pre-reduced, there’s no reduction required for it to reach optimum coating consistency – simply add it to your dish and it’s ready to serve. This great time-saving solution delivers up to 30 per cent better yield than regular thickened cream.

Perfect Solutions
Is your packaging tamper and spill proof?

TAMPER AND SPILL PROOF packaging has become increasingly important in recent months as more and more consumers have turned to the home delivery market for their pizza and pasta fixes. Here are some tips to ensure your packaging is up to the job: 

Tamper proof pizza boxes are now available on the Australian market. They utilise an innovative locking mechanism to prevent the box being opened in transit. To unlock the box, customers tear open a perforated panel on the lid. This provides your customers with the reassurance of a contactless pizza delivery.

Food delivery seals give your customers the peace of mind of knowing their food has been properly maintained and not handled. You can use special delivery seal tape which you stick to each container or delivery bag. As the customer breaks the seal and removes the tape, it leaves behind a residue which spells out a message such as “Opened” on the packaging. Once removed, it can’t be resealed as the message is already showing on the packaging – again reassuring customers that their food has been delivered tamper-safe.

Australian manufacturers are increasingly turning to other materials than plastic to make eco-friendly delivery containers which are suitable for both hot and cold foods. These include bio bowls made with paper sourced from managed plantations and with leak-proof lids to prevent spillages, and clamshell packaging made from reclaimed sugarcane pulp that are certified as home compostable – choices that will resonate with discerning millennial consumers.

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