How Pizza Has Changed

Pizza by the slice at Pennington Pizza in Pennington, New Jersey, paired with a regional Stewart’s root beer. Pizza used to be regional. If you were in New York, you just got New York pizza. If you were anywhere else in the country, there was a …

Pizza by the slice at Pennington Pizza in Pennington, New Jersey, paired with a regional Stewart’s root beer.

Pizza used to be regional. If you were in New York, you just got New York pizza. If you were anywhere else in the country, there was a different style.

New Jersey pizza can be folded and the oil runs down your arm. It’s sold by the slice, and paired with a Stewart’s root beer or maybe a birch beer. At one time, there was a neighborhood pizza pie place for everyone, run by somebody’s Italian uncle.

New York-style is pretty much the same, until you bring coal-fired into the picture. Some swear by the char.

Midwest pizza is all over the board. There was the cracker-thin crust that places like Ken’s popularized in the 70s. More recently, there are attempts at New York-style pizza, without the Italian uncle. It depends on your part of middle America.

The fun thing about Chicago pizza is arguing about it—all friendly, of course. Deep-dish is what they are known for, but Chicagoans beg to differ about which pizza maker is best. Giordano’s? Nancy’s? Lou Malnati’s? Pizzeria Uno? Do you want cheese in your crust? What’s worth standing in line for…because that’s a likely scenario.

Detroit-style pizza is square or rectangular, and often eaten with a fork. Otherwise it’s closely aligned to Chicago pizza.

California pizza—oh, now there’s a different pizza. Describe California toppings to someone from New Jersey and they won’t believe you are talking about pizza. These pizzas arguably started the trend toward fresh spinach, pineapple, artichokes, roast red pepper, sundried tomatoes, and goat cheese.

All this regionality made pizza distinctive. You knew where you were when you ate it. Times have changed.

Now you go to New Jersey and everyone raves about the wood-fired pizzas, thin crust and all. You go to Chicago and the deep-dish rivalry continues, sure, but they’ve branched out to skinny versions to appeal to the masses.

Pizza, in all its forms, has become ubiquitous. Want deep dish in Alabama? Go to Tortugas in Birmingham. Want Detroit-style on the West Coast? Try Purgatory Pizza in Los Angeles. Want New York-style in Missouri? Try The Big Slice in Springfield.

Understand, this is not a complaint, but rather a commentary on the melding of flavors and tastes that has taken place. As our world gets smaller, our access to the finer things in life—like our choice of pizza—is getting larger.

On a personal note, when I was transplanted from the East Coast to middle America, I missed “real pizza” terribly. What I could find was mostly described as cardboard covered in ketchup. Now, budget notwithstanding, I could use Goldbelly to get Pequod’s or John’s of Bleecker Street or a dozen others. But I don’t even have to do that. Pizza is offered in all its various forms at many local restaurants. It may not be the stuff of memories, but it usually satisfies the craving.

We are an amalgamation of tastes. And now, good or bad, we can access what we want. Without a road trip. Without necessarily packing it in dry ice to mail. Without using your imagination.

When it comes to pizza, it may no longer be regional. But it’s almost always good, in all its permutations. Go grab a slice.

The opinions of the author are just that—opinions. Feel free to nicely express your own.










Mid-2023 Trends from The Food Channel

Insight companies (which The Food Channel has partnered with since its inception), base their trend reporting on data: surveys, analysis of consumer behavior, scientific advances, and the numbers behind the behavior. Food manufacturers and others …

Insight companies (which The Food Channel has partnered with since its inception), base their trend reporting on data: surveys, analysis of consumer behavior, scientific advances, and the numbers behind the behavior. Food manufacturers and others pay big money to access those reports.

Two things, however, have made trend reporting muddy. First, the internet. Sure, online polling and observation offered new ways of watching the trends. It also put new voices on the scene, some trained and some not-so-trained. Second, the COVID crisis, when all bets were off and consumers went into survival mode, where trends just didn’t seem to matter as much.

Now, companies are tentatively finding their way back. With that in mind, we are publishing a mid-year trend piece just to get the juices flowing again. Here are five of our Top Food Trends for Mid-2023:

Photo by Simon Hermans on Unsplash

1) Food & Travel Changes. Yelp and TripAdvisor have gotten cluttered, and TikTok has added to the mix to the point that many no longer know where to turn for reliable information. What’s sponsored and what is truly a consumer experience? Do you use Expedia, Travelocity, Hotel Tonight, reward apps direct to the hotel…and when are they all the same thing/owned by the same parent? As more Boomers enter retirement and have time to travel, how do they figure it all out?

Many are falling back on traditional travel agents, even though they are often hidden behind a .com name. Companies such as cruisetraveloutlet.com, and others, are offering bundled options and all-inclusives that recognize that some people travel specifically for the food experiences. Culinary tours continue to spring up, and we expect to see more. Travel has changed, and food travel has become its own niche opportunity.

(To begin your research on culinary tours check out sites such as these: https://www.exploreworldwide.com/experiences/
https://www.culturediscovery.com
https://www.zicasso.com/italy/food-tours-vacations
https://www.foodnwinevacations.com/culinary-tours-italy)

2) The Conversation Around Tipping. We first called this out in a column in 2015, then in our Trends Report in 2016. We’d been following a conversation started by noted restaurant entrepreneur Danny Meyer, among others, and saw early hints that there would be a call for change. Now, with tip jars on counters and machines that ask for your tip before they move forward, well, consumers are starting their own conversation. We’re hearing words like “enough,” and “I draw the line.” At the same time, consumers recognize that workers often rely on tips, and want to help. When will the conversation move into action, and what will be the final impetus for change?

3) Customer Service. Granted, this has been iffy for years, and the fallout from recent events has made it worse simply because companies are short-staffed and don’t always have time for advance training. Restaurants are focusing on the need to create a place where people want to come. Consumers want to be around people who appreciate their patronage. This is the opportunity area: Nurturing staff members who are excited to help customers find what they may not even know they want. Less shrugging of shoulders and more extensions of consideration. It requires knowledge, training, but most off all attitude.

This is crucial as restaurant service is recognized as a long-term career, not an interim or high school job. That means the incentives have to be better, and the industry has to work harder at this.

Photo by ArtiSims Boards, Boxes & Bites (available on Facebook)
Artisims@yahoo.com

4) Charcuterie anything. For a while it was food flights, where bars and restauranteurs offered tastings. They can be fun, actually—pancake flights, beer flights, cheese flights, dessert flights, and more. The next step seems to be putting them all together on one big board…or into something innovative (snackle box, anyone?). Celebrity Chef Tyler Florence has reportedly even called out “tin fish boards” as the new charcuterie—using cans of caviar and other tinned fish.

People are playing with size, too, making mini-boards for personal feasting and table-length boards with multiple options beyond the traditional meat and cheese. TikTok Influencer and “private chef in the Hamptons” Cooking Classy (also known as Meredith Hayden of Wishbone Kitchen) has been known to comment that “cheese chunks and crackers are not charcuterie,” and she’s not wrong. After all, the origins of charcuterie are about charred meat, paired with cheeses and any number of sweet and savory items for flavor and texture. That includes pickles and olives, various spreads and preserves, mustards, honey, fresh fruit, and more.

Presentation is part of making food fun, and it’s a great way to make food both entertaining and safely sharable. So, bring on the Charcuterie Brunch and the Charcuterie Chocolate boards.

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

5) Pickles. We always try to offer at least one specific food item that answers the question, “What’s the on-trend food item?” When the Chick-fil-A app allows you to remove its famous pickles from a chicken sandwich, it makes you wonder how popular that option would be, because pickles are in the limelight right now. It goes along with our previous trends that identified an interest in brining, although the latest interest extends to the pickle juice itself—cooking with it, reusing it, even drinking it. And it’s not just cucumbers. Sandwiches have pickled onions, as do tacos. Pickles and all-things-pickled are turning up as something more than a condiment right now, and are worth watching.

That’s our top five for a mid-year checkpoint of food trends. We’re also watching as more and more restaurants begin charging an additional percentage to use a credit card. We’re watching AI and the pros and cons and how they will affect the industry. We keep an eye on the kinds of grocery stores where people collect their merchandise and even shop and ship for others (yes, Trader Joes, but it’s catching on). Food prices and availability are still discussion topics, and lots more.

In the past we’ve brought you mushrooms/mushroom coffee, plant-based, seafood, nostalgia foods, mocktails, food as medicine, THC, Ube, African food, fermented, hatch chilis, and more—all before they were regularly talked about. For fun, go back and look at a few from the past. After all, knowing what has come before is often the first step to understanding what’s next.

Of Picnics & Turnpike Food

A story for summer road trippers… We recently made a trip down the Pennsylvania Turnpike, something we’d managed to avoid for years. It seems the turnpike is always under construction, and the tolls get higher. But it reminded me of the numerous …

 

A story for summer road trippers…

We recently made a trip down the Pennsylvania Turnpike, something we’d managed to avoid for years. It seems the turnpike is always under construction, and the tolls get higher. But it reminded me of the numerous trips we made as a family over the years, traveling from one point to the other.

As we drove, we watched for one of the old stone hospitality stations. Here’s why:

When the kids were little we’d do roadside picnics. They became a tradition—one born of budget constraints.

If we had a long road trip, we’d go to the farmer’s market and get deli meat and cheese, fresh bread, and chips. We’d pack the cooler with cans of soda, the deli food, fresh chocolate chip cookies, and plenty of ice to keep things cold.

Then, when it was time for a break, we’d find a roadside park or rest stop and pull it all out.

Gradually the budget increased and so did the kid’s appetite. Sandwiches no longer satisfied; they wanted fast food. That’s when we found Roy Rogers chicken along the Pennsylvania turnpike, and it became our go to place. We loved the crunchy breading and the always-hot and tender chicken inside.

You all probably have those types of places, those memories, in your mind. Your own family likely found a way to stretch the budget, a way to make travel doable, and a way to change your habits as needs changed. Food is what marks many of those moments of your life. Food brings back the scents, the tastes, and the happy faces enjoying themselves.

And that’s why, as we traveled the PA Turnpike recently, we stopped at a Roy Rogers and shared a two-piece box of chicken…and a memory or two.

Photo by Paul K. Logsdon 

Amazon Kitchen Deals for Prime Day and Beyond

Best kitchenware deals on Amazon? We spotted a coffeemaker, cast-iron pan, air fryer, Vitamix blender, espresso machine, and instant pot.

Should you finally buy that kitchen gadget you’ve been eyeing for months —now that the price has been cut for Amazon Prime Day? There are two schools of thought on this.

 

No, don’t buy it.

Just because the price has been cut on Amazon doesn’t mean this is the lowest price you can find; other shops (Walmart, Target, Best Buy) are offering their own bonanzas now and Amazon will have more deals around Labor Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

 

Yes, you should buy it!

You waited to see if it would ever be affordable. Now it is. End of story: Pounce!

 

Here are the details that might help you make an informed decision: Amazon Prime Day takes place from Tuesday, July 12 at 12 a.m. PST to the end of the day Wednesday, July 13. Don’t forget that you can activate AmazonSmile, which will designate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to the charity of your choice (they support over a million public organizations).

What did we find? We spotted a coffee maker, cast-iron pan, air fryer, blender, Vitamix blender, Dutch oven, espresso machine, instant pot, and Sodastream system, among other things. The deals we found will save shoppers anywhere from $12 to $100 per item. Ready, set, shop!

 

Keurig K-Mini Plus Coffee Maker

Prime Day Deal: $89.99
Original Price: $109.99

Keurig-K-Cup-Single Serve

 

Lodge Cast Iron Dual Handle Pan

Prime Day Deal: $24.90
Original Price: $37.35

Lodge Cast Iron Dual Handle Pan

Phillips Premium Airfryer XXL

Prime Day Deal: $250.01
Original Price: $349.95

philips-airfryer

Ninja NJ601AMZ Professional Blender

Prime Day Deal: $69.95
Original Price: $99.99

Ninja-Blender

 

All-Clad HA1 Nonstick 2-Piece Fry Pan Set

Prime Day Deal: $69.85
Original Price: $109.98

Allclad-pans

Vitamix E310 Explorian Blender

Prime Day Deal: $289
Original Price: $349.95

Vitamix

Lodge 5 Quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Prime Day Deal: $44.90
Original Price: $67.35

Dutch Oven

Sodastream Fizzi One Touch

 

Prime Day Deal: $91.99
Original Price: $129.99

SodaStream

De’Longhi Stilosa Manual Espresso Machine

Prime Day Deal: $99.95
Original Price: $129.95

Espresso-Delonghi

Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Steamer, Sauté, Yogurt Maker, Warmer & Sterilizer

Prime Day Deal: $74.95
Original Price: $99.99

Instant-Pot