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Cheese Can Add Variety and Signature Flavors to Your Pizza Menu
Posted 11/12/2009
by Gordon Food Service
Historians can trace the origins of pizza back to the ancient Egyptians, who discovered wild fermentation more than 5,000 years ago, leading to the creation of beer and unleavened bread. 
Archeologists have found what appear to be brick ovens and flatbreads cut into eight slices preserved in the ruins of ancient Pompeii. But, as many experts would agree, pizza did not truly become itself until old-world Italians combined their flatbreads with mozzarella di bufala after crusaders returned to the peninsula with water buffalo in tow more than 1,000 years ago. Today, we know pizza as a cultural expression of myriad flavors, styles and ingredients, but the component that still holds the food’s identity intact after so many generations is, without doubt, the cheese. John Arena Jr., owner of Las Vegas-based pizzeria Metro Pizza, who teaches a class at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas titled “The History and Culture of Pizza”, points out, “Pizza adapts to its host; whatever country or time it’s in, it’s always going to become whatever it needs to become.”
While mozzarella may always reign in the pizza world for its adaptable flavor and gooey texture—a cornerstone of traditional pizza—learning how to mix, experiment with, and occasionally replace this time-honored staple is an essential skill for modern pizza makers who seek to create signature recipes. Whether you want to craft a simple five-cheese pie that incorporates mozzarella, Romano, provolone, Parmesan and white Cheddar, or wish to conjure up a pie with Gorgonzola, grapes and hazelnuts, exploring what types of cheeses are out there will equip you to innovate your menu, and hopefully bring in new customers.
All in the Mix
If you want your pizza to stand out, the trick is to blend your cheese with your own flavors—at least in the beginning. Mark Todd, who is also known as “The Cheese Dude,” a pizza specialist and cheese consultant, encourages owners to add specialty cheeses in order to give the recipe its own accent. “There are ways to use almost any cheese in the world on a pizza,” he says. “Creating your specialty pie need not be done by throwing on 15 different types of meat or other toppings; just change the base blend.”
Unlike other cheeses, mozzarella and provolone cheeses go through a curd-stretching process in their production, which gives them a stretchy, stringy texture when hot—ideal for pizza applications. When creating a base blend, Todd says, one easy approach involves the 80-10-10 style: take 80 percent mozzarella and add 10 percent each of two other cheeses—Asiago, Gorgonzola, or maybe even goat cheese. You could even try a 60-20-20 approach or another combination; as long as you think the secondary cheeses complement the texture and flavor of the dominant cheese in your base, you will be pleased with the results.
Todd thinks smoked cheeses have been underutilized by pizza makers today. Incorporating 10 to 15 percent in a mix distinctly changes the flavor—you can even mix smoked mozzarella with fresh mozzarella to add a unique twist. In his 20-plus years of experimenting with pizza recipes, Todd says that he hasn’t found any cheese combination that didn’t have at least a glimmer of merit to it. “Pizza is the ultimate Velcro item; you can put anything on it,” he says. “When you can add anything from coconut and chocolate to clams and anchovies, you have a pretty amazing food.”
Defining Your Range
Understanding your restaurant’s brand is key when establishing what cheeses will add to your pizza’s flavor profile. If you run a mom-and-pop operation in Brooklyn, you will probably be attracted to different flavors than owners of a Los Angeles-based restaurant who want to add pizza to the menu. However, Sam Morphy, owner of The Red Grape in Sonoma, California, says there are no limits to what cheeses he is willing to try. “In the past seven years, we’ve tried between 40 and 50 different cheeses,” he says. “Some were more popular than others, but we found a place for all of them.” Morphy mixes his basic mozzarella with local cheeses from all over the wine country, and he generally keeps seven to eight different options on his menu at one time, with frequent experimentation. For example, when a trip to a friend’s ranch revealed six pear trees, he picked, shaved, and baked the fruits with a Gorgonzola cheese mix, resulting in one of his restaurant’s more popular white pies. “The only thing you don’t want to do is overwhelm your pizza with cheeses—especially if that’s not the focus of the meal,” he says.
Making the Call
So, if you’re looking to spice up your appeal and your food simultaneously this year, take the experts’ advice and do it from the bottom up—with cheese. Staying true to traditional flavors is expected, but don’t let yourself or your customers get bored with mozzarella alone—because pizza is a dish designed for change and can support an endless array of flavors. If you are happy with your current blend, maybe adding the right ingredient or refreshing your list of specialty pizzas can magnify the current flavor profile. Your customers may not know what to expect when tasting your newly improved pies, so take a minute to tell them on the menu and before the meal; they’ll likely notice the difference after one mouthful.
Pizza is a popular and profitable menu addition, and Gordon Food Service offers numerous products and services to help make that part of your business successful. By becoming a customer, we can assist you in this pursuit as well as in many other areas. If you’d like more information, visit the Become a Customer page.
This information is provided by PMQ Pizza Magazine, “reaching over 55,000 pizza industry decision-makers around the world on a continual basis throughout the year. Their magazine, Web site, and newsletters provide an ideal platform to promote and market the Pizza Show to pizza professionals. Information can be segment-specific and it is important that operators understand the segment to which they belong in order to determine how this particular data may or may not impact their own operation.
Source: PMQ Pizza Magazine, September 2009
