Volume 18 Issue 1 January/February 2012
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12 Top 10 pizza Trends The big trends making an impact on the industry.
16 a closer look aT local food 8
What you need to know to find local fare and get it on the menu.
20 Training your TasTe
Setting the scene for an exceptional sensory experience.
22 Talking Tech wiTh
16
Tumblers A Q&A with one independent on how its using technology to grow the business.
20
www.canadianpizzamag.com ON THE COVER: Gourmet pizzas go mainstream as artisanal items appear on quick service and fast casual menus.
DEPARTMENTS 6
editor’s desk
8
pizza bites
10
the pizza chef
19
marketing insights
26
making dough
28
new products
30
pizza on fire
January/february 2012 pizza 3
“Packed from Fresh Tomatoes, Not from Concentrate”...
President Tom Cortopassi (kneeling) and “Coach” Dino Cortopassi (standing) in one of our
Since 1942, our Restaurateur customers’ success has depended on the superior taste of the food they serve and of our products. As a family-owned business, it feels good knowing that so many of our customers have relied on our “Packed From Fresh Tomato” products from generation to generation.
Whether your restaurant has a long family history, or whether you’re the founder, you can depend on our family making the best “Real Italian” tomato products...always Packed From Fresh Tomatoes, Never From Concentrate...generation after generation!
Tom Cortopassi President/Owner
Dino Cortopassi Coach/Owner
Generation after Generation.
tomato fields in Stanislaus County, California
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from the editor’s desk January/february 2012, Vol. 18, no. 1
Happy New Year ’ve got a good feeling about 2012. For starters, we’re cooking up something over here at Canadian Pizza that the industry is going to love. We can’t tell you about it just yet but we’re up to something. I can tell you that we’ve decided to go from eight editions a year to seven. We’ve done this to funnel our resources into a special new project that will help ensure we’re serving the pizza industry in the best way we can. We’ll give you more details about it in the March/April issue! Although the biggest non-surprise of the year is that dairy prices went up 1.5 per cent, the good-news angle is the determined lobbying of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association over the price of milk. I’ve got to applaud the organization, which started a website called Free Your Milk and has been tireless over the years in pushing for equal costing for frozen and fresh pizza cheese. Nonetheless, there was still an increase, and with the Harper government fiercely guarding our protectionist tariffs in Trans-Pacific trade talks, let’s call this battle ongoing for the foreseeable future. Best be measuring your cheese. On a brighter note, there is much to be excited about on the events front. Our columnist Tom Stankiewicz shares some great tips in this issue for navigating Pizza Expo in March, and if you’re not excited about or considering attending this great event after reading his words, I’ll be surprised. I share Tom’s enthusiasm for the expo, and his sentiment that it’s a wonderful and worthwhile experience for any pizzeria owner. Plus, it’s Vegas. What more can be said? Closer to home, here at Canadian
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Pizza, we start the new year with a look at your top 10 pizza trends on page 12. There are some surprises on this list, some that even go against conventional thought, so it’s a must-read. A lot of the looking ahead comes down to how important innovation is. Innovation is a funny, loaded word. I’ve found that people often think it means doing something revolutionary or never seen before. We think of the late Steve Jobs as the dictionary definition of innovator. But innovation has subtler levels, and perhaps best relates to pizza in terms of how to continually keep things “fresh”: not just fresh food, but a fresh way of looking at your menu and your operation. A lot of innovation merely comes from twisting the existing to keep it fresh, and in doing so, making it new again. It’s the job of the boss to be tireless in looking for a better way to do things – perhaps the most important aspect of the job. We’re also exploring the science of taste and how to fine-tune this critical sense on page 20. I love science and this is an area we haven’t explored much in Canadian Pizza yet, but we plan to bring you more stories this year that focus on the combination of ingredients and science: a little molecular gastronomy for the pizzeria, if you will. Welcome to another year of Canadian Pizza magazine. This is my fourth January/February edition as editor, and I’m very happy to be ringing in the new year with our readers again. A toast to all things pizza (cue raising glass of adult beverage) and Happy New Year! •
editor Laura Aiken laiken@annexweb.com 416-522-1595 assistant editor Brandi Cowen bcowen@annexweb.com 888-599-2228 ext.278 publisher Christine Livingstone clivingstone@annexweb.com 519-429-5173 888-599-2228 ext. 239 sales assistant Sandy Mels smels@annexweb.com 519-429-5183 888-599-2228 ext. 219 production artist Kelli Kramer group publisher Martin McAnulty mmcanulty@annexweb.com president Mike Fredericks mfredericks@annexweb.com mailing address P.O. Box 530, 105 Donly Dr. S., Simcoe, ON N3Y 4N5 PuBLICAtION MAIL AgreeMeNt #40065710 returN uNDeLIVerABLe CANADIAN ADDreSS tO CIrCuLAtION DePArtMeNt, P.O. Box 530, Simcoe, ON N3Y 4N5 e-mail: cnowe@annexweb.com Published seven times per year (Jan/Feb, March/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov, Dec), by Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. Printed in Canada ISSN 1203-6838 circulation e-mail: cnowe@annexweb.com tel: 866-790-6070 ext. 207 Fax: 877-624-1940 Mail: P.O. Box 530, Simcoe, ON N3Y 4N5 subscription rates Canada – 1 Year $ 19.26 (includes gSt - #867172652rt0001) uSA – 1 Year $ 40.00 Occasionally, Canadian Pizza Magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above.. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission. ©2012 Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. www.canadianpizzamag.com
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HOOD is a registered trademark of Smucker Foods of Canada Corp used under license. ®ROBIN The HORIZON MILLING logo is a registered trademark of Cargill, Incorporated, used under license. ® © 2011 Cargill Incorporated.
pizzabites Dairy Commission hikes prices by 1.5 per cent he Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) has announced support prices will rise by 1.5 per cent starting Feb. 1. The support price is the price at which the CDC buys and sells products to manage seasonal demand. Provincial dairy marketing boards use it as a reference for industrial milk used to make cheese and yogurt. “Our data show that the cost of producing milk in Canada has increased by 2.2 per cent over the last 12 months,” CDC chair Randy Williamson said in a statement. “In particular, the cost of feed increased by almost 10 per cent and the cost of fuel, by over 20 per cent. This 1.5 per cent increase in support prices is about half of the current inflation rate for food.” A recent survey by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices
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Medd is Chef of the Year ory Medd is the 2012 Canadian Pizza magazine Chef of the Year sponsored by Saputo Foodservice and Moretti Forni Canada distributed by Faema Canada. Medd, owner of Two Guys and a Pizza Place in Lethbridge, Alta., won with his ‘Louisiana Cajun Chicken’ pizza: Cajun sauce, mozzarella, cheddar, Monterey cheese, white chicken breast, Canadian bacon, green peppers, jalapenos, cilantro and parmesan. For crafting the top recipe, Medd will receive a trip to Las Vegas, March 13 to 15, to attend the International Pizza Expo, plus $1,000. The prize includes a guaranteed spot in the International Pizza Challenge non-traditional final. Three finalists competed in the bake-off, hosted by Moretti Forni Canada distributed by Faema Canada at their Euro-Milan Inc. location in Mississauga, Ont. Last year’s runner up, Marina Rondinelli of Rondo’s and Pizza Plus in Bright’s Grove, Ont., nabbed second place again this year. Her ‘Backyard BBQ’ pizza featured a hickory maple chipotle BBQ sauce, chicken breast marinated in Caribbean jerk sauce, caramelized red onions, roasted sweet red peppers, roasted corn, portabella mushrooms, hot banana peppers, and asiago, smoked provolone and mozzarella cheeses.Rondinelli has also won a trip to the Expo and entry into the traditional final. In third place was Richard Ames of Daddio’s Pizzeria in Grand Prairie, Alta., with his ‘Pollo Loco’ chicken pizza. Each pie was scored by a seven-judge panel of representatives from Canadian Pizza and contest sponsors Saputo Foodservice and Moretti Forni Canada distributed by Faema Canada.
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Association (CRFA) found rising food costs are the biggest headwind for the $63-billion restaurant industry. “We have told the Dairy Commission what our customers are telling us. In these economic times, Canadians are increasingly looking for value-priced menu options,” said Garth Whyte, the association’s president and CEO. The CRFA recently launched the Free Your Milk campaign to raise awareness about inflated dairy prices, which it blames on Canada’s supply management system. For decades, government marketing boards like the CDC have protected Canadian farmers from price volatility. Critics say the system artificially drives up prices, while supporters say it protects farmers’ way of life. –The Canadian Press
the pizza chef
Spotting a scam Diana Coutu s if pizzeria owners don’t have enough to do every day, we must always be on high alert for scams. I’m not talking about people who call and say they ordered a pizza and it had the wrong toppings on it when they didn’t actually place an order. I’m talking about unscrupulous companies that prey on small businesses like ours. While we’d like to believe that when the phone rings it means that someone is placing an order, that’s not always the case. Calls during daytime hours are often someone attempting to sell us something. There’s nothing quite as frustrating as a call during lunch hours asking to speak to the owner. When someone calls and asks to speak to the owner, we immediately think it’s a complaint, but most of the time it’s a salesperson. My husband and I have a rule: if you’re a salesperson calling or coming in during our busy hours and expecting to sell us something, you’ve started off the relationship on a bad foot. Nothing speaks more to the fact that you haven’t done research about our industry than showing up during our busy hours and expecting to steal our time. Want to book a meeting with me? Come back on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. You don’t work on weekends, you say? Too bad. The worst types of phone calls are from companies that have absolutely no value. Their entire day is spent trying to scam small business owners. Typically this is how one of the scams goes. A salesperson calls and asks to speak to a manager. When they get the manager they ask for the person’s name. Beware – this company is recording your call. The company asks the manager to confirm the mailing address and the name of the business. Two to three weeks later a box of old, unusable debit/credit machine paper arrives with an invoice for $300-$400, which is 10 times the going rate for paper for your
a
debit/credit card machine. You call the company and tell them that you didn’t place an order with them and you want to return the paper. They tell you that they have a recording of your manager placing the order and that you cannot return it. You decide that you simply aren’t going to pay the invoice, and so you shouldn’t. But this unscrupulous company then sells the debt to a collection agency, which gives them cents on the dollar for the outstanding invoice. Then the debt collection company harasses you every day to pay the balance. This is when a lot of business owners give in. They pay the bogus debt and swear to never allow someone to take advantage of them again. But your company is now on a list of customers for the unscrupulous company and they’ll keep calling you again and again. Currently there is a federal case against one company perpetrating these scams. If you’ve been a victim of this company, refuse to pay the invoice and the fraudulent debt. This company sent us a box of unwanted paper and we insisted on hearing the recording of the order being placed. They played a recording of our manager stating his name and our business address, but not placing any order. Under current Canadian law, if a company sends you something you didn’t order, you must inform them by fax or mail that you do not want the item and they must make arrangements to pick it up. If they don’t pick it up within 30 days, it’s considered a gift. There are other companies that pull similar scams. Instead of sending you a box of POS paper, they tell you that you or your manager agreed to be listed in their online directory. One of these scammers falsely told my husband that we were listed with them the previous year and could have the same rate of only $395 this year. When my husband informed them that we did not agree
10 pizza January/february 2012
to any such listing, past or present, the caller hung up. Other scams offer listings in specialized directories for everyone from lawyers and doctors to architects and accountants. I always ask the salesperson if they think that these professionals don’t know how to use Google. I called my attorney and my accountant to see if they use these directories and neither one had ever heard of them. We’ve also found that when the school year begins there is an increase in the number of guides for children. In my opinion, some of these are ridiculous. One salesperson began his pitch with stats about kids using drugs and needing to be informed about the different types. He offered a business card listing in the back of an “informative guide on drugs for kids” for $800. We asked questions about the number of guides that would be printed and how they would be distributed. The answers were vague and ambiguous. When we declined the offer, the salesperson said, “I can’t believe you don’t support keeping kids off of drugs!” How can you protect yourself from these and other scams? Never agree to anything when a salesperson shows up uninvited. Request more information be sent to you by mail, by fax or in person ahead of a pre-scheduled meeting time. Always ask questions. If the answers are vague and ambiguous, decline to participate. • Diana Coutu is a two-time Canadian Pizza magazine chef of the year champion, internationally recognized gourmet pizzaiolo, co-owner of Diana’s Gourmet Pizzeria in Winnipeg, Man., and a member of the board of directors for the CRFA. In addition to creating awardwinning recipes, Diana is also a consultant to other pizzeria owner/operators in menu development, creating systems to run a pizzeria on autopilot, along with marketing and positioning to help operators grow their business effectively and strategically. She is available for consulting on a limited basis. For more information, contact her at Diana@dianasgourmetpizzeria.ca.
Burke offers more than 1,200 ways to create your pizza with fully cooked meat toppings. And we’ll personally help you find just the right ones. Ask us for a sample. For Canada, Chase Global Foods www.BurkeCorp.com/CP or 800.263.1964
©2011 Burke Corporation. All rights reserved.
feature
Top 10 pizza trends Looking back at 2011 to gear up for 2012 BY BrANDI COweN
T
he new year always generates a storm of lists of what will be hot (and what will not) in the year ahead. It’s easy to get swept up in the endless trend spotting, predicting what will bring in the big bucks and what’s on its way out. To kick off the new year, Canadian Pizza brings you a trend list you can count on. We chatted with Linda Strachan, a Toronto-based industry analyst for foodservice with The NPD Group. She shared the lowdown on where the pizza industry has been and where it’s headed. 1. CHAiNS lOSiNg gROuND, iNDEPENDENTS HOlDiNg STEADy Year after year, pizza remains one of the top items ordered from restaurants across Canada. In fact, for the year ending August 2011, NPD reports that pizza was ordered at six per cent of all restaurant meals or snacks. However, Strachan notes demand for pizza shrank by 3.7 million eating occasions – or by one per cent – between August 2010 and August 2011, the most recent reporting data available. The data show that chains, which serve 67 per cent of all pizza occasions, experienced declining demand during that period. Independents didn’t gain any ground, but they didn’t lose any either; consumer demand stayed flat throughout the year. “The big broad trends that are affecting pizza in a negative way are things that are going on in the marketplace. Number one, consumers are just using restaurants less at supper – that’s been in decline since pre-recession days,” Strachan says. Evening meal restaurant visits have been in decline for three years running. This could reflect more cautious con-
sumer spending in an uncertain economic climate, but Strachan says it could also be that consumers are choosing convenience foods from the grocery store over restaurant visits. When they do opt for restaurant visits, more parents are choosing to leave the kids at home. This phenomenon is really making its mark on the pizza industry – 11 per cent of all restaurant meals consumed by Canadian kids include pizza. 2. AgiNg APPETiTES As consumers get older, they tend to eat less pizza. NPD reports that kids under 13 and adults between the ages of 25 and 34 are the country’s biggest pizza eaters, logging 17 and 20 pizza meals, respectively, between August 2010 and August 2011. Compare that to 12 occasions for the 35 to 44 set, 10 for 45- to 54-yearolds and nine for 55- to 64-year-olds. In that same time frame, the 65-and-older group averaged just five pizza occasions in 12 months. To capture aging consumers as they move into their lowest pizza-eating years, Strachan suggests expanding your menu to include a wider range of items, such as pastas and salads. Many of the big chains already offer salad options, and Pizza Hut has moved into the pasta market with single-serve and familysized options. 3. FiNgER FOODS Supplementing a pizza menu with finger foods that are easy to snack on and share with others is a trend that shows no sign of going away anytime soon. Wings and breadsticks have already established themselves as menu fixtures, and Italianinspired sandwiches like the spicy Italian sausage, meatball marinara and veal
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offerings rolled out at Pizza Pizza last summer are starting to gain volume. Strachan recommends repurposing your pizza dough to create new items for your menu. Cheesy breadsticks to snack on between slices or cinnamon-sprinkled breadsticks that end a savoury meal on a sweet note are both gaining traction on menus. 4. TOP TOPPiNgS Today’s consumers tend to consider themselves adventurous eaters, but when it comes to pizza, the classics still come out on top. According to NPD’s data, the 10 most popular toppings are: 1. Pepperoni 2. Mozzarella 3. Mushrooms 4. Cheese blend 5. Green peppers 6. Onions 7. Bacon/back bacon 8. Ham 9. Pineapple 10. Italian sausage Despite their affinity for old favourites, some consumers are expanding their gastronomic horizons. The following toppings have a small but growing presence atop the country’s pies: 1. Anchovies 2. Zucchini 3. Provolone 4. Feta 5. Non-Italian sausage 6. Roasted garlic 7. Spinach 8. Sun-dried tomato 5. ARTiSANAl iNNOVATiON Gourmet options are going mainstream, even filtering down to quick-service operations. The result? Artisanal offerings are now more widely available to consumers than ever before.
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“We see that in different segments, and it’s certainly evident right now in pizza,” says Strachan. She points to three artisanal options rolled out by Domino’s Pizza in the United States last fall. The chain’s spinach and feta, Italian sausage and pepper trio, and Tuscan salami and roasted veggie pizzas come in a custom box. A store manager signs each box, guaranteeing that the pie is made fresh to order. Other foodservice chains are also branding their products with the artisan label. Wendy’s has rolled out an artisan egg sandwich, and Starbucks is now offering a line of artisan breakfast sandwiches. As a Los Angeles Times story on Domino’s foray into artisanal cuisine noted, the term artisan “used to mean a meticulously handcrafted product, made in small batches.” Whether a big, international chain like Domino’s or Starbucks can turn out handcrafted, small batches has been the subject of much debate, particularly in online forums. What’s clear is that “artisanal” means different things to different people. If you’re offering artisanal pies, make sure your staff understand what the term means to your brand and can clearly communicate that message to curious customers. 6. FRESH AND HEAlTHy Closely linked to the growing demand for artisanal pizzas is a push for fresh fare. There’s a “whole trend toward people looking for more natural and fresh ingredients” that pizza is well positioned to leverage, Strachan says. “Definitely less processed stuff and more fresh toppings would resonate with consumers.” According to NPD’s data, there’s certainly a market for whole-grain (3.3 per cent of pizza servings), high-protein (2.5 per cent) and natural (2.1 per cent) offerings. Hearthealthy (1.1 per cent), low-calorie (0.8 per cent) and gluten- or wheat-free pizzas (0.7 per cent) are also in demand. But Strachan warns that there are plenty of consumers who pick pizza when they want to treat themselves. “For the most part, when people are going out to restaurants, they want to
indulge more so than they would when they’re at home.” Strachan stresses that the main driver is that the meal has to taste good. “If, at the same time, it can be fairly healthy, then that’s a bonus.” “I wouldn’t go all the way to offering better-for-you type pizzas, but you should have those options available for consumers who are seeking them out.” 7. lOCAl FOOD Consumers are continuing to seek out sustainable foods with a farm-to-table history that can be unravelled without an Internet search engine or a good oldfashioned world map. Like so many trends in food service, Strachan says the push for local food “started out kind of on the fringe” and has become more mainstream over time. In 2010 and again in 2011, local food topped the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association’s Canadian Chef Survey as the top dining trend of the year. Strachan points to the Chipotle Mexican Grill as a foodservice operation that has embraced local food with great success. The Denver, Colo.-based quickservice chain’s “food with integrity” philosophy has been a hit among consumers with a craving to know where their food comes from – Chipotle’s growth has outpaced market growth for the last five years running. Although sourcing ingredients from nearby farms alone isn’t enough to get your restaurant posting Chipotle-calibre growth, it may help you profit from a trend that shows no signs of losing ground. 8. SwEET CROSS-PROMOTiONS Many of the big chains team up with other companies to offer dessert crosspromotions. In the past, Pizza Hut has offered specials that bundle its pizzas with Hershey’s chocolate dunkers, and 241 Pizza has offered a pizza, wing and Two Bite Brownie promotion. Finger food dessert items are a good start, but don’t be afraid to get creative. Why not try bundling ice cream with a pizza special? After all, as Strachan points out, “If you can get the pizza there hot,
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hopefully you can deliver an ice cream item as well.” 9. ORDERiNg bEHAViOuR The most popular way for Canadians to order their pizza is by telephone (39 per cent of all orders). More telephone orders are for delivery (22 per cent) than pickup (18 per cent). Walk-up counters (29 per cent) and at a table or sit-down counter (21 per cent) also account for a large piece of the ordering pie. Internet ordering accounted for four per cent of all pizza orders – or more than 10 million pizza occasions – for the year ending August 2011. That’s up from three per cent last year, and just one per cent in 2009. Those gains have come while total pizza occasions have been in decline. NPD’s data show that the cheque average per person is higher when ordering online ($10.37), than when ordering by telephone ($8.69) or at a walk-up counter ($5.88). Orders placed at a table or sitdown counter capture the highest cheque average, totalling $16.62 per person. 10. iNNOVATiON In today’s tough market, restaurateurs need to get creative to stay competitive. Thinking outside the box – both literally and figuratively – can make your business stand out and help build buzz. With Canadians continuing to cut back on restaurant visits, it’s important to offer something new or different when they do decide to eat out. “Innovation is really key – giving people a new reason to choose you as opposed to somebody else for those scarce restaurant visits. Maybe it’s a good slice program…. If you’re in an area with high pedestrian traffic, maybe it’s putting a window on the street so that people passing by can stop and pick up something as a snack to eat on the go,” says Strachan. The restaurant industry has faced its share of tough times since the global recession walloped the world. Canadians have slowly been cutting back their pizza consumption, but the love is still there. If you can read your market, understand your customers, and stay the course, this too shall pass. •
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Mozzarella made from the milk of these Ontario water buffalo has a flavour distinct from traditional italian varieties.
A closer look at local food Finding local fare and getting it on the menu BY BrANDI COweN
P
eople in Germany are warned against eating raw vegetables as unprecedented E. coli outbreak spreads to eight European nations. Farmers in China watch their watermelon crops explode after improperly applying a chemical growth accelerator to their fields. The United States recalls more than 500 million eggs after dangerous levels of salmonella are detected in eggs from two Iowa farms. Closer to home, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) samples 285 imported manufactured products that either haven’t been inspected for some time, or are suspected to have compliance problems. Testing reveals a 75 per cent quality non-compliance rate in 2008 and 2009. Two years later, the agency reports that the non-compliance rate has got worse, jumping to 84 per cent. These are just some of the food safety horror stories that have made headlines in the past two years. Factor in growing support for local economies in the wake of the 2008 global economic meltdown, and an increasing consumer consciousness of the toll our purchasing decisions can take on the environment, and it’s little wonder the local food movement has been gaining ground in recent years. Increased consumer curiosity about where our food comes from can be a mixed blessing for many restaurateurs. On the one hand, you’ve got a captive audience that shares your passion for
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what goes on the plate. On the other hand, truly embracing the local trend can sometimes seem like one more task to cram into a day that doesn’t have enough hours. It’s true that sourcing local food for your kitchen can be time-consuming, but as the local food movement gains traction, there are more tools to help busy restaurateurs connect with others involved in the local food chain. Local Food Plus (LFP) is one of those tools. The Toronto-based non-profit has an extensive network throughout Ontario and nascent networks under development across the rest of the country to help connect partner restaurants with certified sustainable farmers and food processors. To be certified, a farmer or processor must use sustainable practices, provide safe and fair working conditions, and work to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. LFP partner restaurants must commit to sourcing ingredients from between five and 15 certified farmers and processors. LFP’s philosophy when working with restaurants is to find out what you’re already doing (some distributors may already be supplying your kitchen with local products) and where there’s room for improvement. The organization works with restaurant owners to determine what’s feasible for each operation on a case-by-case basis. “From a restaurateur’s perspective, we’re looking to get them switched up to buying local sustainable food where we can, and where it makes sense for them,” says Don Mills, Local Food Plus
vice-president and director of certification. “At the same time, it’s not an all or nothing because it would kill the system. For a restaurant to say ‘we’re all local,’ just isn’t workable. Distribution chains aren’t set up like that.” For time-pressed restaurateurs, the real value in working with an organization like LFP is membership in a food chain of likeminded members who have already been vetted to ensure minimum standards of sustainability. Partner restaurants and certified farms and processors are identified on the LFP website, a one-stop shop for anyone interested in building farm to table relationships. The website offers directories of certified farms, organized by province and/or region. Directories highlight the vegetables, meats, cheeses and even wines available from each LFP-certified operation. Think of it as a road map to local farmers in your area. FOCuS ON FOOD On their 600-acre Mount Brydges, Ont., farm, approximately 200 kilometres west of Toronto, Johanna and Joe Ferket grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini and squash, as well as wheat, corn and soybeans. From Aug. 1 through the first frost of the year, chefs take to the LFP-certified fields of Ferket Tomatoes and Vegetable Farm to pick their own produce. In the process, they get to know the land and the people who tend it. Johanna says hands-on harvesting is a positive experience that most chefs who visit the farm seem to enjoy. “There was one guy this year that asked us to pick the produce for him, but the other guys love to get out of the kitchen and get some fresh air, so they come to pick themselves,” she explains. The Ferkets can accommodate the average restaurant’s volumes on an as-needed basis; there’s no need to make special arrangements or sign contracts. Simply drop by the farm between sun up and sun down to select the produce you need. For larger operations, it’s best to touch base in the spring and have a conversation about what you’re going to need and when. A chat will help the Ferkets shed some light on whether your timeline is realistic, given the growing conditions that season. Just last year an unusually cold, wet spring put tomato planting two weeks behind schedule, which in turn delayed the harvest. A phone call ahead of time can also help you decide the best way to go about making your purchase. Getting a few members of your staff together to harvest field fresh veggies may be a great team-building exercise, but having your order pre-picked when you arrive may be a better use of your limited time and resources. Just like independent pizzerias, no two farms are alike. Each farmer will have a different way of doing business. At Martin Littkemann and Lori Smith’s farm in Stirling, Ont., demand for water buffalo meat far outstrips supply. When restaurants like Toronto’s Beast or Campagnolo want to switch up their selections and add Ontario-raised water buffalo meat to the menu, they call up Littkemann and Smith to ask what’s available. So far Littkemann and Smith’s three-and-a-half-year-old Ontario Water Buffalo Company has butchered less than a dozen animals. Each buffalo is slaughtered at roughly 20 months and weighs in at somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 pounds live weight. “We’re doing probably one animal every two weeks right now.
We hope to go up to one a week. That sounds like a lot, but there’s how many million people living in Toronto?” says Littkemann. “Because we don’t have a huge volume yet, when we deliver to a restaurant, it comes on as a special.” He and Smith do their best to accommodate standing restaurant orders, as well as one-time requests for particular cuts of meat, salami, pepperettes and jerky. Smith advises that restaurateurs interested in their buffalo meat pick up the phone or fire off an e-mail, explaining what they’d like, and when. That way, she and Littkemann can assess overall demand and, when the size and age of their 200 head herd allows, try to arrange their slaughter schedule to accommodate as many orders as possible. Less specialized livestock farmers are often able to provide meat more regularly. Operations like Beretta Organic Farms in King City, Ont., 20 minutes north of Toronto, have a variety of beef, chicken, lamb and pork available year-round. If you’re looking to source local meat for your menu, an organization like LFP can be a good starting point in figuring out the options in your area. Although they are slowly branching out into meat, the core business of the Ontario Water Buffalo Company is its dairy operation. Littkemann and Smith sell buffalo milk to Quality Cheese in Vaughn, Ont., where it is turned into fresh Ontario water buffalo mozzarella and distributed to restaurants across Canada. The Ontario buffalo mozzarella has a distinct flavour that
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Canada shows the price of fresh vegetables increased 13 per cent between September 2010 and September 2011. That’s well above the 3.2 per cent average increase in the CPI for all food products. During this same period, the price of meat jumped 5.2 per cent, the price of fats and oils went up 5.5 per cent, and those of condiments, spices and vinegars climbed five per cent. Although shorter distances from farm to fork mean fewer embedded energy costs built into the price of locally produced foods, they often wind up costing more than their imported counterparts. Canada boasts relatively high land and labour costs compared to many of the countries we trade with. As a result, homegrown produce often comes at a higher price point than imported alternatives. For example, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada statistics show that in October 2010, Vancouver wholesalers charged 11 per cent more for field green peppers grown in B.C. than for those grown in Mexico ($14.65 versus $13.00). That same month, wholesalers based in Toronto charged 25 per cent more for Ontario field green zucchinis than for Mexican imports. A 20-pound carton from Mexico sold for $12, while an equivalent weight in homegrown zucchinis was priced at $16.00. In an industry that operates on tight profit margins, paying a few dollars more for each produce order may add up to a bad business decision in the long run. Restaurateurs juggling higher food costs along with steadily climbing labour costs and an uncertain economic footing may be tempted to source lower-cost items from outside Canada. But keep in mind that though consumers are feeling the pinch too, your customers have already decided to splurge on a restaurant meal. If the quality is there, many customers can be convinced to pay a PRiCE POiNTS Food prices have been creeping steadily upward in the past year. little more for locally sourced products. A Mintel survey found that The most recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from Statistics 57 per cent of American consumers would be willing to pay more for local and sustainable food. Here in Canada, it’s locally produced cheeses that tend to result in real costsavings. Our supply management system Last summer an unusually hot, dry July threatened to leave Joe and Johanna Ferkets’ tomato is heavily criticized for artificially inflating fields filled with dead and dying plants. Some much-needed rain in the first week of August the price of dairy products. In fact, Statisturned things around, but other farms weren’t so lucky – the Ferkets know some farmers tics Canada data show Canadian prices are whose fields didn’t give any tomatoes at all. roughly double the average prices most Factor in the threat of a cold snap like the one that wiped out 70 per cent of Florida’s todairy products command on the internamato crop in 2010, doubling prices and creating a shortage that affected restaurants across tional market. But while the supply manNorth America, and betting on local produce may seem like quite a gamble. agement system remains in place, domesBut as far as Local Food Plus’ Don Mills is concerned, year-round availability of hometically produced cheeses will remain the grown produce has come a long way in Canada. A boom in greenhousing in and around only financially feasible option for most Leamington, Ont., has earned the area the title of greenhouse capital of North America. In in the foodservice industry. As long as total, 1,500 acres of greenhouses shelter beefsteak and cluster tomatoes, cucumbers and tariffs on imported products run between red, yellow and orange peppers, protecting them from the vagaries of the weather. 200 and 300 per cent, foreign-produced Ontario is by far the nation’s hotspot for greenhouse produce. the province accounts for cheeses will be priced right off the menu 66.6 per cent of Canada’s total fruit and vegetable greenhouse square footage. But Statistics at most restaurants. Canada data shows green housing is on the rise across much of the country. British ColumThere’s no one way to make local food bia (22.4 per cent of total square footage), Quebec (6.5 per cent) and the Prairies (4.4 per work in your restaurant. The key is to excent) all added square footage between 2009 and 2010. plore the options that are available in your During this period, the Atlantic provinces (0.3 per cent of total square footage) joined area and invest time and effort in building Ontario in posting slight losses in total square footage. In general, however, a cross-country relationships with other players in your trend toward increased greenhousing means more fresh, Canadian produce is available local food system. • year-round.
makes it stand out from the better-known Italian product, says Albert Borgo, president of Quality Cheese. “The Italian one, to me, is a little more acidic and sour, and people think that’s what it should be like, but our milk is sweet.” The water the buffalo drink, the food they eat and even the smells of the area where they live can affect the taste of their milk. The same is true for cows, goats and other dairy animals. Together these environmental factors produce cheeses that capture the terroir of their place of origin. It’s regional cuisine at its finest, and a big opportunity for restaurateurs trying to tap into the local trend. It’s also tasty news for Canadians – there’s no shortage of unique, not to mention award-winning, cheeses produced right across the country. The 2011 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix handed out awards to cheese makers in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island. Canadian cheeses are also stepping into the spotlight on the international stage. In 2009, Quebec’s La Maison Alexis de Portneuf’s Le Cendrillon took top honours at the World Cheese Awards, beating out 2,440 other contenders for the title of best cheese in the world. These artisanal options probably won’t replace your favourite pizza mozzarella, but they may make for a mouthwatering accent when sprinkled atop a specialty pie. There are plenty of ways to incorporate local products into your dishes, and there’s certainly a marketing advantage in doing so. In a 2011 Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) survey of 500 chefs, local capped a list of the top 10 menu trends for the second year running.
greenhouse growing
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Cracking the code Ideas for integrating QR codes into your restaurant Michelle Brisebois
ou’ve all seen them, those square scroll images that look like Grecian symbols. By now, most businesses are aware of quick response (QR) codes and some are even adding them to billboards, advertisements and other print media. Technology is advancing so quickly that we’re almost becoming immune to the latest gizmo or gadget but while QR codes may be the flavour of the week, the question remains . . . do they help generate revenue? These 2-D barcodes, which can be scanned by smartphones, were created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994 for tracking vehicle parts. When a code is scanned or when a smartphone snaps a picture of one, these barcodes allow businesses to interact with the consumer. QR codes can contain a link that automatically takes the consumer to a website, a YouTube video, contact information, an event or a product information sheet. If you’ve ever found yourself wishing you could lovingly describe your hand-tossed dough process to a customer or wondering how to give your customers a peek into the back of house, here’s your chance. Best of all, these experiences are free and relatively easy to create. Simply upload your video, PDF or image to a website and copy the URL into a QR code generator. If the URL is a long one, paste it into a URL shortener such as tinyurl.com before plugging it into the QR code generator. Then download the created QR code and have it printed on your menu, pizza box, ad or other signage. QR code-generating sites include Kaywa, Qurify and Delivr; all are free and easy to use. Here are some ideas for using this technology in the restaurant industry.
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lOwERiNg PERCEPTiON OF wAiT TiME If people are lining up at your order counter or seated at a table, QR codes can provide content to keep them entertained. Link the codes to YouTube videos in which you describe menu items that may increase cheque averages, such as desserts and beverages. You can put QR codes on anything that’s anywhere consumers will be waiting to be served. Print a code on a T-stand sign next to the lineup or on menus or table tents.
COuPONS QR codes can link to a coupon that the customer shows on their smartphone to get the discount. Advantages are that it’s traceable and limitless because you don’t have to print a finite amount. You can implement the deal faster without lead times for printing the coupons and it’s better for the environment. If you run out of a limited offer, it can be discontinued at any time. Place codes anywhere you want to motivate a purchase such as ads or flyers.
iNTERViEwS wiTH THE PizzAiOlO Reveal the genius behind each menu item by having your main pizza maker describe where he or she gets their ingredients and where they found inspiration for certain recipes. Create a video that teaches customers how to toss pizza dough like a pro. People love to get a peek behind the curtain into the back of the house, so let them engage in your brand by indulging this whim. Place the codes where they will create word-of-mouth buzz. Put them on pizza boxes, advertisements, flyers and coupons.
CuSTOMER SuRVEyS If you want to see how people rate your service and food, create an online survey using a free tool such as Survey Monkey and then link to it via the QR code. Scanning the code is much easier than punching in a web address, so you’re likely to get a better response. Place the code on anything that’s still near the customer towards the end of the meal, including pizza boxes, napkins and receipts.
NuTRiTiON FACTS If you’ve created product data sheets with nutritional breakdowns, QR codes are a great way to make that data easily available to customers. McDonalds in Japan uses them on product packaging to relay nutritional data. The wine industry is already putting QR codes on labels to display wine data sheets, so nutritional data is a logical step. Best placement would be menus, pizza boxes and napkins – place the QR code on anything that accompanies the actual meal.
TRANSACTiONS Starbucks is using QR code technology to make it possible for coffee lovers to pay with the mobile iPhone app. The customer must punch in their Starbucks card info and verify some details, and then the iPhone app becomes the payment card and a secure QR code is generated. The barista scans the code when it comes time to pay for the coffee. Try placing codes on advertisements, brochures, cups, packaging and menus – anywhere you want to encourage a transaction. • Michelle Brisebois is a marketing professional with experience in the food, pharmaceutical, financial services and wine industries. She specializes in retail brand strategies.
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Training your taste BY LAurA AIKeN
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aste is tops for your customers. There’s no disputing that. Although factors like providing lower fat and sodium options are driving menu development, the real winning pies are the ones that make you go “mmmmmm.” We’re going to explore the science of our special sense of taste and give you a few tips for how to fine-tune your buds for your own recipe development. wHAT iS TASTE? Food is first consumed by sight, confirms sensory analysis expert John Hale while presenting at Puratos’ 2011 Toronto International Bakery Symposium (tibs). Lisa Duizer, assistant professor and graduate co-ordinator in the department of food science at the University of Guelph, seconds that absolutely. “Colour has a big impact if it’s unusual,” says Duizer. “I was at a conference in another country and it was the fourth of July. I wasn’t in the U.S. but to honour their American guests they served bread dyed red, white and blue. Nobody ate it. When the colour is not what you expect you tend to regard it quite suspiciously.” One need look no farther than the resounding failure of coloured ketchup to see we really need things to look as we expect. A darker red colour is associated with stronger flavour (up to a point, no neon), says Duizer. So if you want to portray the vibrant taste of your pizza, ensure your sauce is a bold, rich hue.
Hale, who is the director of product appraisal and customer care for Sobeys, listed the full roster of taste categories: sweet, salt, butter, unami, sour and often overlooked metallic. Unami is the taste of MSG. When you eat, you pick up these flavours, as well as smells and mouth feel. Food heats up as you chew and your taste buds pick up the taste compounds, explains Duizer. When you swallow, it creates a vacuum that pulls those compounds into the olfactory nerves in the back of the brain. This is where our connection with smell and taste happens. “I hear a lot of people say they have a cold and can’t taste,” she says. “But you can. Your ability to smell is impaired but you can still taste.” Hale shared some other interesting misconceptions and facts about taste at his tibs talk. Smoking doesn’t actually wreck your ability to taste, as is popularly thought. Rather, he says, nicotine enhances the taste of sweetness but destroys bitterness. What can actually ruin your sense of taste is too many chilis. We get hooked on the endorphins and the accompanying rush when we eat spicy food but they can burn out your taste buds. And that tradition of coffee after dinner? Hale says coffee is a real culprit, interfering with the taste of that gourmet meal if you drink it before or after. Hale’s field of sensory analysis is rather sophisticated, and the backbone of food processor consumer testing. Sensory
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analysis means using human senses to determine differences, preferences, quality grading. The U.S. army caterers founded modern sensory analysis using a nine-point hedonic scale, which was further advanced by Rose Marie Pangborn, but Hale says it is essentially still the best one. Sensory analysis is on a rather sophisticated path. Advances in the work include being able to see brain activity, using new methodology with time and intensity and preference mapping so they can make a product that matches what the
some herbs, perhaps starting with one kind such basil. Buy this herb in all its forms – dried, fresh, Thai, etc. You want to start with an understanding of the ingredient in all its different forms before incorporating it into the dish. This is a good way to determine how you want the flavour of the finished product to be. Be aware that while food will taste different to a smoker than to a nonsmoker, it is still individual, she says. However, it helps to leave some space between the cigarette and the tasting of your latest pie. When teaching yourself to taste, blind is a better way to be impartial. If you were trying to compare your pizza to the competition, do it blind so you get a true measure. Don’t do tastings in a room with lots of odours. You’ll get all those other smells in the food. Don’t taste in the kitchen: take it out to the dining room or other area that is more neutral. If you have multiple versions of a recipe side by side, don’t eat too much of each when tasting to determine which ought to be your winner. You get fatigued very quickly, says Duizer. A small portion is better than a whole slice. She also noted that people often confuse bitter and sour, so if that’s the taste you’re trying to detect, be aware that it’s a toughie.
A darker red colour is associated with stronger flavour, so ensure your sauce is a bold, rich hue.
consumer wants exactly and links with emotion. Sensory analysis is what gives you the balance of quality versus cost, he says. This is the kind of slick consumer testing frozen pizza makers are up to, so while we know fresh is still best, there is sound grounds to take some cues from what sells well in the grocery aisles. Often, their products have really been put through the paces. TiPS FOR bETTER TASTE-TESTiNg Yes, you can improve your taste buds. The more experience you have tasting,
the more aware you’ll be, says Duizer. Start by honing your awareness of taste nuances. The University of Guelph works with a lot of bread tasting, so when teaching people to evaluate the product they start by teaching them the differences in levels of one aspect. For instance, to evaluate the sweetness of the bread, they give them varying sugar solutions so they start to understand what is sweet and what is not. This method helps your ability to assign a taste, such as sweetness, to a scale. Duizer suggests going out and getting
SOCiAl EATERS Taste is complex beyond the science. It’s emotional and deeply rooted in what we’ve been exposed to. “Exposure is the way to improve liking,” says Duizer. She adds that what we eat in our adolescence is most important for the development of the range of things we like to eat. In essence, the broadening tastes of the changing face of Canada are due in part to the repeated times that we eat new flavours. Ethnicity really makes a difference in tasting, notes Hale. Preferences are cultural and rooted in what you’re brought up with. What people choose to consume is also dictated by factors beyond taste
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Talking tech with Tumblers A Regina institution dishes on establishing its online presence BY BrANDI COweN
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ine in, takeout and delivery are all on the menu at Tumblers Pizza – and so are multiple ways to connect with customers. For many years, this Regina eatery, founded by Jim Baiton in 1984, relied on traditional marketing tactics to build its brand. Chief among these were print advertising and cold calling inactive numbers in the customer database. But times change and so do marketing strategies. The first incarnation of the Tumblers website (www.tumblerspizza.com) launched in 2004. It has been revamped four times; the current version debuted in 2008. In the years since, Tumblers’ marketing strategy has been rapidly evolving to keep pace with technology. In September, the restaurant broke into the smartphone market, launching an iPhone app. Canadian Pizza chatted with Reid Baiton, who bought the family business from his father in 2006, about the web, the mobile market, and what the new year holds for Tumblers’ online marketing mix. How did you go about designing the website? I looked at the different options. Obviously there are big companies that you can get to do it, or you can just get someone that’s private that’s really good with
websites and computers. I knew a guy just starting out so I took a leap of faith with him. He was a university student that was just finishing graphic design and computer website design. I looked at the big website designers and they wanted $3,000 to $5,000 for a pretty decent website; I ended up building a website for less than $500. What kind of things did you talk about while you were in the planning phase? The first thing was that I really wanted to make sure it was easy to use, that people could navigate, and that it had all the information. That’s the biggest pet peeve I have – websites that are complicated to navigate and that don’t have simple information like contact information. I wanted to make sure there were some pictures up. I wanted to make sure there was a menu on there. I wanted to make sure that [customers] had our specials and were able to connect with us on the social networking level. We wanted to have an actual video commercial go up into the splash page, but it took too much bandwidth and it wouldn’t load on a lot of people’s computers. That was before people were embedding a lot of YouTube videos into their websites. Instead we did a Flash player that plays the video. It’s smaller, so it loads faster. How many hours went into the site, from start to finish? Definitely over 100. I worked with a newer guy, so I had to really let him know what I wanted. I didn’t just say ‘here, build me a website and I’m going to come back to you and pay you.’ I sat down with him quite a bit and helped him design it.
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We’ve had four different versions of the website; this is our fourth hard update where we’ve reformatted the website. Everything used to be HTML and there was no audio, then we went and developed it to the point that it’s at now. It’s still in its development phase. Every month we’re updating the site, and then every six months we do something to the website actually giving it a new spin. How much of the site can you update yourself? I have to do it with my web designer. He has showed me how to do updates, but with how busy I am and with all the coding that’s involved… I’m not a computer guy, so he does it. How have you maintained your relationship with your web developer since the site launched? I have the rights to my URL and the rights to my domain name, so I control that. Then I have a contract for five years with this gentleman. If he doesn’t want to come, I could definitely get someone else to do it. My website is in Flash, so we’re able to load the website onto an iPhone, onto an Android and onto a BlackBerry very simply. The web server identifies if you’re on a mobile device or if you’re on a home computer. As soon as it sees that you’re on a mobile device, it will actually switch to a different version of the website. When I built that version, I used somebody different because my [web developer] wasn’t too knowledgeable about mobile websites. I had another local university student do the mobile site for me. The mobile version was a big thing because with it we were able to be on smartphones. Before we weren’t able to
because there was so much Flash content on our website that the smartphone wouldn’t load it. A few months ago, you launched a Tumblers Pizza iPhone app. How are you tracking the impact your app is having on business? Right now we have 287 users on our iPhone app. We have a location services device so we can tell where they’re downloading the app in the city. A push notification will actually push to the user screen just as a text message or a Facebook message would on the iPhone. The user has to allow that when they originally download the app. It lets us know their location and it allows us to use push notifications to send out a special. If we want to track it, we’ll do a discount, say $15 off a large pizza, or about half price. Then we’ll measure how many calls we get off that. The last time we did something was about a week and a half ago and we got
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about 23 responses. My dad, who’s been in the business for over 30 years, says he’s never seen anything that can be that direct to the customer. They have to read it when it’s pushed to their phone to cancel it. How much did you invest in developing the app? I spent $1,500 on it and then I probably spent about five hours of time with the developers. They didn’t really know restaurants well, so I made sure that I got everything that I wanted. What do you see happening with your web strategy in the new year? Online ordering – definitely I see that. I’m going to invest more time and money into mobile because people are spending more time on their smartphone as opposed to spending time on their home computer. I think the wave of the future is the smartphone – people are going to do a lot of their purchasing with them. We did a Groupon and through that,
we ended up getting a lot of new customers. A lot of these people are web savvy. Our Urbanspoon rank went up, our Facebook likes went up, our users on our app went up. We did the Groupon right after we launched our iPhone app and we only had about 20 [app] users. After I did my Groupon, we added about 200 new users in a week. Without even looking at any stats, I can see that on the smartphones is where I need to be. The iPhone app was originally going to be $10,000 to design and eventually it came down to $1,500, so I could afford it. If you could give one piece of web advice to other restaurateurs, what would it be? A website is a must – you have to have one.If you’re not on the Internet, people aren’t going to see you. It would be like not having a sign on your building. • Editor’s note: This interview was edited and condensed.
he taste of
Tradition
Manufacturers and Distributors of Italian Specialty Cheeses and Food Products
T. 905.544.6281 F. 905.549.1196 20 Morley Street, Hamilton, Ontario, L8H 3R7
January/february 2012 pizza 23
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Continued from page 21 buds. Duizer recalls a recent conference where they discussed how findings that showed changing environment altered what people choose to drink. For example, in a pub-like atmosphere they were more inclined to order than in a slick, modern martini-inducing room.
wHy MAggOT-FillED CHEESE iS A DEliCACy The words Italian cuisine and maggoty cheese don’t seem to belong in the same sentence, perhaps not even the same breath. But Italy’s Casu Frazigu cheese is a wonderful example of a thing being what it seems, at least in terms of taste. Dr. Massimo Francesco Marcone, a food scientist and associate professor at the University of Guelph, is the author of
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In Bad Taste? The Science and Adventures Behind Food Delicacies. Marcone’s Indiana Jones-style adventures took him across the planet in search of the weirdest delicacies and why people consumed these outrageously expensive goods but his foray in Italy is probably of most interest to pizzialos and their fine appreciation of cheese. His chapter on the Sardinia and Abruzzi regional specialty of Casu Frazigu (or Casu Marzu) cheese, also known as “rotten cheese.” or “maggot cheese.” details the thousands of maggots consumed in the eating of this cheese. The sale of it is illegal, although its production persists and it is served at weddings and special occasions. Marcone describes his introduction to the cheese by noting that you can hear the clicking of maggots in the container from six metres away and smell it from several rooms away. Historically, Marcone’s sources told him, the cheese was typically produced in May and aged where the elements could get at it. During this aging process, a specific fly called Piophila casei (not the kind flying around your house) deposited eggs in holes in the cheese, which, if it led to successful births, resulted in larvae squirming around and excreting all sorts of digestive enzymes throughout the cheese. The cheese comes out creamy, like Camembert, writes Marcone. Common houseflies would render the cheese inedible but these unique flies left behind maggots with a special chemical that created a highly prized cheese edible for a short time from late July to mid-August. As one can imagine, telling when the cheese had actually expired for human consumption would be difficult, hence the Italian government’s outlaw of its sale. While in Italy, Marcone worked with food scientists and researchers to test the safety of Casa Frazigu. Complete counter-intuitive: the cheese was totally safe to eat and microbiological information painted a similar picture to other cheeses. Marcone’s research actually sparked a fervent push by the Sardinian press to have the Italian government overturn its laws against the cheese. What seems disgusting to one can certainly be a delicacy to another. Such is the complex and fascinating world of taste! •
making dough with Diane
7 ideas for mobile marketing Diane Chiasson
obile marketing has been growing over the past year, but it is expected to really take off in 2012. Many experts believe that it is critical for small businesses to get on board. This year an estimated 10 trillion text messages will be sent and received worldwide, and more than 50 billion apps will be downloaded, while the number of smartphone users will exceed the number of PC users. Therefore, the best way to reach a wider audience is via their phone. There are many benefits to mobile marketing including an increase in repeat customer visits, gaining new customers and spreading word-of-mouth awareness. It is also a fairly inexpensive way to do marketing. But most importantly, mobile marketing helps you establish a personal relationship with your customers. There are several different platforms in which mobile marketing can be applied, ranging from simple local advertising to more complicated GPS-related location detection. It can be as simple as sending out a text message or a coupon to your customers’ cellphones, or offering incentives to your customers for visiting your pizzeria multiple times. You can use mobile marketing to offer social events and meetups based on the physical location of your store, or share location-based information with your customers via a social network. Here are seven ways you can apply mobile marketing to your restaurant.
m
1. SiMPlE TExT MESSAgiNg Use Short Message Service (SMS) to send short, text-based messages to your customers. These messages can include your daily special or a discount coupon. Always send your phone number, address and a link to your website. Text message mar-
keting can also create more meaningful relationships with your customers. However, because it is permission-based, you need to make sure that you give your customers a good reason to opt-in and receive your deals. 2. MulTiMEDiA MESSAgiNg You can use Multimedia Message Service (MMS) to send messages to your customers that include more fun and creative content embedded in images, videos, games or audio files. If your target audience is a younger demographic that would appreciate this type of content, MMS is the way to go. 3. MObilE wEb bROwSiNg Make your website more user-friendly for mobile devices. Allow your customers to place orders for pizza and download coupons or other specials via their phones. 4. gPS-ENAblED MARkETiNg Most smartphones come equipped with GPS and are capable of broadcasting locations. You can use this technology to send your ads or messages to users in a specific location. For example, a customer who has opted-in to your restaurant’s mobile marketing plan will walk by your restaurant and instantly receive a text message inviting him in for an immediate reward. Or you could market via a mobile network, whereby the customer’s mobile service provider delivers offers, rewards and coupons to their subscribers based on specific geographic location. 5. gET iT ON THE APP Developing an app for your restaurant can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000, but if successful, an app could help increase your sales. For example, Pizza Hut’s
26 pizza January/february 2012
app for the iPhone is one of the most popular downloads. The company offered its users a 20 per cent discount when ordering food via the app. Pizza Pizza launched its app last year and offered users a “scratchand-win” opportunity for a limited time. Both apps allow users to customize their pizzas and save the user’s order, delivery address and payment method, making all subsequent orders that much easier. 6. lOCATiON-bASED MObilE PlATFORMS There are several location-based mobile platforms that allow your customers to “check in” at your restaurant, giving you presence on Facebook, Twitter and other sites. Customers check in and tell all their friends where they are, thereby promoting your restaurant. In return, you can increase repeat business by offering your customers rewards and discounts. 7. E-MAil E-mail is still considered a mobile channel, and one of the easiest ways to send a message. As with text messaging, your customers must sign up to receive e-mails from your business. Corner your share of the growing mobile market and make sure that customers always have your restaurant’s key information at their fingertips. •
Diane Chiasson, FCSI, president of Chiasson Consultants Inc., has been helping restaurant, foodservice, hospitality and retail operators increase sales for over 25 years. Her company provides innovative and revenue-increasing foodservice and retail merchandising programs, interior design, branding, menu engineering, marketing and promotional campaigns, and much more. Contact her at 416-926-1338, toll-free at 1-888-9266655 or chiasson@chiassonconsultants.com, or visit www.chiassonconsultants.com.
January/february 2012 pizza 27
new products
HObART CANADA’S VulCAN POwERFRy Vk Each model in Hobart’s PowerFry VK Series is designed to deliver maximum cooking efficiency with quick recovery times and uniform heat distribution for consistent and precise cooking results. The fryer series features Vulcan’s patent-pending FivePass heat transfer system. The technology utilizes every angle of the tank to heat the oil and prevent heat from escaping through the exhaust hood. The fryers boast cooking efficiency ratings of up to 66 per cent on the 45- to 50-pound model and 68 per cent on the 65-pound model. All PowerFry VK models also feature: • SoftStart ignition system and large cold zone designed to prolong oil life • Low idle rate to save energy • Lower flue temperatures to reduce cooling costs • Solid-state and programmable computer control options for precise cooking • Reliable sealed-combustion technology • All stainless steel construction www.hobart.ca
Advertisers’ Index Company .................................................................. Page # Abaro Group Inc. .................................................................. 29 Annex Book Store.................................................................. 27 Burke Corporation ................................................................. 11 Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association .......... 25 Canbrands.............................................................................. 29 Cargill ....................................................................................... 7 Check Corporation/Hot Bag .................................................. 29 Chiasson Consultants Inc. ................................................... 29 Diana Coutu ........................................................................... 29 Crown Custom Metal Spinning Inc. ...................................... 13 Faema ....................................................................................... 9 Middleby Marshall.................................................................. 15 On Trend Brand Strategies .................................................... 29 Pizza Chef of the Year ........................................................... 24 PizzaOvens.com .................................................................... 28 Ricco Food Distributor ........................................................... 17 Salerno ................................................................................... 23 Saputo .........................................................................32 (OBC) Solis ..............................................................................31 (IBC) Speedline ............................................................................... 29 Springer’s Meats Inc. ............................................................ 23 Stanislaus ............................................................................. 4,5 Thunderbird Food Machinery, Inc. ....................................... 27 Viau Food Products Inc. ................................................ 2 (IFC)
Use these advertiser contact numbers to find out more about a product advertised in this issue or to place an order. This index is provided as a service. Canadian Pizza Magazine is not liable for errors or omissions.
28 pizza January/february 2012
ENDOCubE ENERgy-SAViNg DEViCE The circulating air temperature inside a refrigerator tends to rise more quickly than food temperature. This means that units may work harder than is necessary to maintain stored products at the proper temperatures. Endocube changes the way a refrigerator operates by measuring product temperature rather than air temperature around the food. The Endocube fits around the fridge’s temperature sensor. Its non-toxic wax composition mimics food temperature inside the fridge, making the unit respond to the temperature of the food, rather than the temperature of air inside the fridge. www.endocubeinfo.com
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January/february 2012 pizza 29
2
pizza on fire
Tom Stankiewicz he new year is underway and that means the International Pizza Expo is just around the corner. I think it’s safe to say there is no other event quite like Pizza Expo, scheduled to hit Las Vegas in March. One of the biggest pizza competitions in the world is held during the show, where chefs from all over the world compete for the most prestigious prize – the title of “best pizza in the world.” However, this event is much more than a pizza competition. The three-day show gives you access to various workshops, allows you to watch demos and get tips from top pizza chefs, and lets you buy and sell pizza-related products. It’s a place where you can establish new business connections, learn from others, and share your own ideas. If you decide to attend and compete at the expo, careful planning is advised to make sure your trip is a success rather than a disappointment. For first-time attendees, the experience can be a bit overwhelming simply because you’re surrounded by so much that’s unfamiliar to you. If you’ve never been to Las Vegas, you will quickly come to understand why it’s called the world capital of entertainment. Many people who arrive for the pizza competition may find the city a bit distracting at first and have difficulty concentrating on the competition itself. When you arrive in Las Vegas for the first time, a simple task such as buying pizza ingredients presents a challenge. If you haven’t done your research ahead of the trip, you will find yourself wasting valuable time locating the nearest grocery store. If you require special ingredients, you may not be able to buy them easily. This is where planning ahead becomes your biggest advantage. It costs nothing to research on the Internet and get famil-
T
Prepping for Pizza Expo iar with the area where you’re staying. everything related to pizza making. It’s You might even call ahead to a particular basically, a one-stop shop to view the store and verify that they sell what you latest equipment and gadgets. It gives need. Some stores may even be willing you a perfect opportunity to look at the to set things aside for you to pick up on newest inventions and compare them to an agreed upon day. In my experience, one another. This is definitely a time and simple toppings such as peppers or to- money saver for you, as you don’t have matoes can be purchased at a local store. to visit 20 places to pick out one new When you cross the border, you will not piece of equipment be allowed to bring fresh Many of the workshops vegetables with you. You and seminars offered durwill only be able to bring ing the expo are becoming many of the your pizza spices with main attractions for visiyou; everything else will tors. Once again, for three workshops have to be bought locally. days you are given access and seminars What you want to avoid at to top pizza chefs and inall costs is missing out on dustry experts. They will offered during pizza toppings needed to share with you how you the expo are complete the recipe you’ve can improve your pizza entered in the competibecoming main making. You will be surtion. prised by how many difattractions for Another problem you ferent ways you can make will have to solve is how pizza dough. You can even visitors. to keep your pizza ingredilearn what other pizza ents cold. It’s definitely not makers put in their dough a problem when you are at to make it more delicious. your pizza store, as you have refrigerators If you’re looking for ways to ensure your and walk-in coolers. In Las Vegas, you pizzas come out perfect from your ovens, will be staying at a hotel that doesn’t offer there are plenty of cooking demonstrasuch equipment. One solution is simply tions to see. to buy an ice cooler in Vegas and load it If you do attend this year’s Pizza Expo, with lots of ice to keep the temperature be prepared for a great experience. You low. However, it wouldn’t hurt to check if will come back with tons of new inforsome hotels in the area have refrigerators mation to improve your business. I know available. This would definitely be the many pizzaiolos who go back year after more convenient option. year because there is no other event like Even if you’re not participating in the this anywhere. Everyone always comes pizza competition, you should give some home with new ideas that can be easily serious thought to attending the show. implemented to make their businesses It’s particularly important if you’ve been more successful. • thinking about making some changes or enhancements to your existing pizza Tom Stankiewicz has been in the pizza business for more than 15 years. He has been the proprietor of Bondi’s business. The show will give you access Pizza in London, Ont., since 2000 and is president of the to tons of businesses that specialize in Canadian Pizza Team.
30 pizza January/february 2012
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