App eti z e r
Idaho Potato Commission
of
SLICES
LIFE
Pizza is on first at some restaurants,
allowing for more liberty with crusts
and ingredients.
By Jody Shee
The National Culinary Review | May 2011
WHILE PIZZA makes the best
entrée, some chefs find that with a switch
in thinking and ingredients, it makes an
equally great appetizer—perfect for sharing
and potentially quick and easy. The curiosity
is that more restaurants don’t offer pizza
appetizers. Some chefs, who are highly in
favor of the starter pizza and who have had
great success with it, admit they don’t see a
lot of other restaurants jumping on board.
“I’ve tried to figure out why,” says Bart
Goldberg, president/chief executive
officer of Welldone Restaurant Concepts
Inc., Los Angeles. “It has to be made to
order, and it will take almost as much time
to stretch a big dough crust as a little
one. They are sequenced to be ordered,
cooked and turned back around in a
very brief window of time— 8-10 minutes,
maximum.” He also speculates that
perhaps pizza appetizers are too filling,
and guests might stop after the appetizer.
It doesn’t make sense for a restaurant
that serves pizza entrées to simply offer
a smaller version of the same as an
appetizer. “You could get better food
cost out of the entrée portion later,” says
Brett Corrieri, corporate chef/catering
director for MAFIAoZA’s and proprietor
