Previous Pause Next

It’s easy to add a signature touch by reshaping the dough or adding a decorative edge.

View slideshow

Easy to create a simple cheese pizza in minutes.

View slideshow

Add a variety of ingredients to create unique flavor options, like Muffaletta Pizza.

View slideshow

Margherita pizza with fluted edge using Villa Prima™ Scratch Ready™ Pizza.

View slideshow

Mediterranean pizza with fluted edge using Villa Prima™ Scratch Ready™ Pizza.

View slideshow

This is a special message from Schwan’s Food Service.

At a time when customer demand for quality and variety have never been greater, rising labor costs and the shortage of culinary skills make it increasingly difficult for restaurant operators to create one-of-a-kind menu items.

Of course, large chain restaurants may answer the need for differentiation by having food manufacturers create proprietary products to their specifications. But for emerging chains, entrepreneurial restaurant groups and independents that lack the volume to commission custom-made products, there is a practical solution — using “speed scratch” food products as the foundation of signature dishes.

Essentially, speed scratch cooking is the use of manufactured products as components of menu items, as opposed to making everything in house. The selective use of high-quality speed scratch products is behind many of the successful sauces, soups, baked goods and entrees on restaurant menus today.

An example is Schwan’s Food Service’s new Villa Prima™ Scratch Ready™ Pizza, which allows operators to create artisan-style pizzas with their own signature toppings and presentations, and with less labor, reduced waste and higher consistency.

This 16-inch pizza, pre-proofed and pre-topped with tomato sauce and 100 percent mozzarella cheese, can go from freezer to oven as is. However, many operators will be excited by how easily they can make it a signature pizza simply by adding more toppings, shaping it in various ways or creating a decorative edge on the crust. A gourmet pizza can be created simply by adding artichoke hearts and shrimp, for example, or roma tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and herbs, to Villa Prima™ Scratch Ready™ Pizza.

Even though speed scratch products are integral to the success of menus throughout foodservice, there is a lingering notion that a departure from scratch cooking is a compromise in quality. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth, according to one veteran R&D chef and former restaurant owner.

“When I graduated from culinary school, I was all about scratch cooking only,” said Schwan’s Food Service culinary services director Kit Kiefer. “I was going to cook bones for stock and I would never consider using a frozen soup or a frozen pizza.”

However, once in the field, reality soon set in. As operators well know, the restaurant industry has relatively low profit margins of four percent to six percent before taxes, according to the National Restaurant Association. Rising labor costs are a direct threat to those profits.

“That means for every dollar that walks in the door, a nickel goes to the bottom line, if an operator is frugal,” said Kiefer. “So expending the labor on full-on fresh preparation just simply doesn’t make sense.”

Of course, speed scratch products are useless if they fail to deliver the flavor, appearance and performance of their scratch counterparts. In the case of Schwan’s Food Service’s new Villa Prima™ Scratch Ready™ Pizza, advanced dough technology and oven-rising capabilities have given it the same flavor, aroma and texture as scratch-made pizza without the labor and skill demands. It is the answer to the challenge of consistently executing pizza in multiple locations. It does not require proofing before use, so there is no risk of waste from over-proofed product.

Operators can customize it with additional cheeses, meats, vegetables, herbs, a drizzle of olive oil or whatever else they dream up. In addition, after 20 minutes out of the freezer, the pizza can be shaped into endless variations.

“You can push or pull it into an oval or square shape, or take a paring knife and crimp, pinch, flute or braid the crust,” said Kiefer. For a hand-made, artisanal pizza appearance, stretch it in an irregular fashion.

“As far as the patrons are concerned, that pizza was crafted in the back of the house,” said Kiefer. “It is just too proprietary, too signature, too unique to think it was a frozen product to begin with.”

For more information on Villa Prima™ Scratch Ready™ Pizza, please call 1.877.302.7426 or click here.