Don’t forget about make-line speed, cross-utilization and marketing
As we gear up for Pizza Expo, you are going to walk a show floor full of vendors pushing great new items to add to your menu lineup. They’ll direct you to one ingredient that is going to transform your menu and have customers lining up around the block. And look, some of those ingredients are legitimately great. But before you sign a purchase order for 50 cases of white truffles (see “Edible Mushrooms”), let me share what I have learned from running 12 locations about how to evaluate, introduce and maximize a new ingredient.
Speed Is Your Friend …
and Your Algorithm Ranking
Here is a reality that did not exist five years ago: Third-party delivery apps are either going to upgrade or downgrade your pizzeria based on how long drivers are waiting. Drivers themselves are going to prioritize your restaurant if they know orders move fast. This means every single ingredient you add to your line is now a decision that affects your digital visibility.
We are very cautious when deciding to add a new ingredient at Andolini’s, since speed of our line matters more than ever. We need to make sure we are cross-utilizing that ingredient and minimizing waste. If an ingredient is only going on one pizza, it had better be the star of the show. Think speck, prosciutto or a premium olive that justifies its own existence. Otherwise, we need that ingredient working across pizzas, salads, calzones and Strombolis.
Questions You Should Be Asking
Before you commit to a new ingredient, run through this checklist:
Can you source it dependably?
This is important not just today but also six months from now, when your menu has it printed and your customers expect it.
What happens when your primary vendor has a supply-chain hiccup?
Is there a backup supplier?
What is the shelf life, and how does that match your volume?
I have seen operators bring in beautiful ingredients such as squash blossoms, only to throw half of them away because they could not move through product fast enough. That is not just wasted product, it’s wasted money and wasted labor from everyone who prepped them.
What other menu items can this ingredient complement naturally – not shoehorned in but genuinely enhance?
There is no magic number for how many applications you need. The real question is whether this ingredient makes sense on those items or whether you are forcing it to justify the purchase.
Look In Your Own House First
Here is something that changed how we think about new ingredients: You might already have them. When we wanted to add a lemon element to our chicken piccata pizza, we did not have to go source lemons. We already were using them at our bar. That one realization opened a whole new way of thinking. What else do you have at the bar station that is not being utilized on the food menu – and vice versa?
That thinking led to our San Marzano Tomato Bloody Mary. Same tomatoes we use on our pizzas, now starring in a cocktail. No new vendor relationship. No minimum order concerns. No waste issues. Just smarter utilization of what we already had.
Make It Yourself When You Can
One of our best cross-utilized ingredients is smoked mozzarella that we make in house. We take the same bricks of mozzarella we already are buying and smoke them ourselves. Then, that smoked mozz shows up on multiple pizzas and multiple salads. Because we control production, there is virtually no waste. We are not waiting on a vendor or hoping our magical ingredient is available. We are not paying a premium for someone else to do something we can do ourselves.
If you can make it in-house and control the production, it is almost always better than depending on an outside source. You control quality. You control timing. You control cost.
My Path to a Menu Item
Once you have decided an ingredient is worth bringing in, you need a system for actually launching it. Here is the process we use at Andolini’s, which takes about two months, when done right:
- New item conceptualized
- Tested and agreed on
- Process created
- In-house menu description and price finalized
- Recipe documented in Excel
- Any new ingredients added to order guide and sourced
- Kitchen managers trained so they can train their staff members
- To-go menu matches in-house menu
- Catering menu updated
- Menu release coordinated with POS price update
- Online menu updated
- Online ordering description and photo updated
- Third-party delivery menus updated per store
- Staff food tastings
- Social media push across all platforms
That process sounds like a lot because it is. But skipping steps means a sloppy launch, confused staff, inconsistent pricing across platforms and a new item that never gets the chance to succeed.
When It Does Not Work
Not every ingredient is going to be a winner, no matter how much you want it to be. We were absolutely convinced we could make duck confit work on our menu. It would look amazing, it would set us apart, it would be this elevated offering that showed what we were capable of. We tried multiple times, and it never came out right. Eventually, we had to admit defeat and move on.
The lesson there is not to avoid taking risks. The lesson is to know when to cut your losses. Your ego wanting something to work is not the same as it actually working.
How to Game the Items You See at Pizza Expo
When you see something interesting on the show floor this year, keep all of this in mind. Ask about minimum orders and shelf life. Ask about supply consistency. Think about where else on your menu that ingredient could live. And before you chase something shiny and new, take a hard look at what you already have in-house that you might be underutilizing.
The best new ingredient might be one you have been sitting on all along.
MIKE BAUSCH is the owner of Andolini’s Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Instagram: @mikeybausch
