With trends in the Australian food and hospitality industry constantly evolving and customers demanding more from food venues, convenient and quick options are more important than ever in foodservice kitchens. Ready-made products like pre-made pizza bases are more and more popular in recent food trends, especially those that are high-quality; e.g. wood-fired, stone-baked and authentic.
Pizza is one of the most popular items in foodservice and is often expected on pub and cafe menus by customers. However, when it comes to making pizza dough and bases from scratch, many foodservice venues can find this daunting and for good reason too.
While pizza that is freshly handmade on site can provide a unique taste and selling point that sets you apart from competitors, it is undeniably a labour-intensive and lengthy task to create pizza from scratch.
That’s where pre-made pizza bases come in. Ready-made pizza products can not only cut down on prep time and labour costs, but they can also free up your staff's time for other tasks, creating a more efficient and cost-effective kitchen.
And the best part is the benefits don’t stop there! See below for our top advantages of pre-made and par-baked pizza bases…
Advantage #1: Convenient
Possibly the most obvious and most beneficial element of pre-made pizza bases is the convenience they provide, especially to busy kitchens with little time for prep. Pre-made pizza bases have the ability to save you time, effort, and energy.
Essentially, all your team has to do is top the pizzas and pop them in the oven.
Advantage #2: Consistent
The best pre-made pizza bases will provide your venue a consistent product every single time. You won’t have to worry about whether your pizzas are tasting, looking or cooking differently between each order.
Pre-made pizzas will also help level out the consistency of your kitchen and ingredient costs, but more on that later…
As most pre-made pizza bases have already been baked once, cooking them again with toppings will give the perfect crispy finish. Plus, if your pre-made bases are traditionally wood-fired, the authentic taste and look won’t be a difficult thing to deliver for your customers. Being able to deliver a trustworthy and delicious pizza every time for your customers will create peace of mind for both you and the consumer.
Advantage #3: Offers Variety
Offering greater flexibility across your menu (with options of plain and topped pizza bases) and creating variety for your customers is a great advantage of pre-made pizza bases.
With topped pizza bases, whether they’re topped with just tomato pulpa or both tomato pulpa and mozzarella, you can create almost any savoury pizza recipe. With plain pizza bases, you also have freedom over what sauces to top your pizzas with - from white sauce, cheesy pizzas to dessert pizzas.
Some pre-made pizza bases also come in a wide range of options, such a thin or thick crust, gluten-free or even vegetable bases such as cauliflower. This allows a range of options, whether you want to introduce differentiation on your menu or want to cater to dietary requirements.
Advantage #4: Cost-effective
Making pizza from scratch can be expensive, especially when you factor in the cost of ingredients, equipment, labour and wastage. Pre-made pizza bases eradicate the need for the ingredients and time needed to create pizza dough, offering a very cost-effective option for your venue.
Pre-made and par-baked pizza bases have incredible potential to contribute to consistent food costs through a reduction in ingredient and labour wastage and a decrease in spending on extra ingredients. For example, our Margherita topped pizza bases provide an authentic wood-fired pizza base topped with tomato pulpa and creamy mozzarella cubes, eliminating the need for these ingredients and cutting down on your kitchen costs.
Another cost-effective advantage of pre-made pizza bases is the benefit of not having to retrain staff. If cost discrepancies in your venue were to be found coming from pizza ingredients, such as wasted cheese and sauce, it’s likely that staff would have to be retrained to stop these discrepancies from happening. Pre-made pizza bases, especially ones that are topped, eradicate the need for staff retraining in this case, lowering labour costs and increasing product consistency.
Advantage #5: Easy to Store
Like any product, pre-made pizza bases require safe and effective storage. Fortunately, most pre-made pizza bases come in vacuum-sealed packaging and are safe to store in the freezer for as long as 18 months.
Once thawed, most pre-made and par-baked pizzas will keep for 4 days in the fridge, making them a perfect option for busy kitchens or those with minimal storage space. They’re also a great backup option for businesses who do make their own pizza dough from scratch, but can’t always rely on freshly made dough when their venue gets overly busy.
High-quality pre-made and par-baked bases (like our authentic, wood-fired Plain and Margherita bases), offer a range of benefits but most tempting to venue owners is perhaps the consistent food cost and wastage reduction. With our bases, customers know exactly the amount of money they’re spending and the pizza and topping quality they’re receiving. Plus they make portion control, wastage reduction and inventory management much easier, additionally maximising cost efficiency.
