All Pizzas Are Not Created Equal Part IV

Today I'll talk about the various levels of quality of meats that you find out there.
Pepperoni: This is by far the #1 topping of choice in North America and there are various grades of quality out there. At Diana’s, we use a premium dry cured pepperoni, comprising of a mixture of 50% beef and 50% pork, our cost is over $4.50/pound. There are pepperonis out there that are less than $0.50/pound, and I don’t want to gross you out, but suffice to say we all know what cheap hot dogs are made of, it’s not much different. I wouldn’t feed these pepperonis to my cats, much less my dogs whom I’ve even seen eat some pretty gross stuff.

Chicken: There’s 100% white meat, and there's dark meat, then there’s mixtures of each. Then there is ‘whole muscle chicken’ which is exactly what it sounds like: whole muscle as opposed to chicken meat that has been ground up and reformed to look like pieces of whole muscle chicken. At Diana’s, we only use the top quality 100%, whole muscle chicken breast, which has gone through an extensive scanning process to ensure all the bones have been removed and we hand slice it before it’s ready to go on your pizza.

Beef: Here’s a scary fact for you. Years ago, we were shocked to find that the leading ‘beef topping’ used at many pizza places does not contain any beef. Way, way down on the ingredients list, past the yellow dye #68, past the fillers and by-products, you’ll find ‘beef  flavouring’. At Diana’s, we start with 100% lean ground beef, then we cook it and drain the fat off, then it’s ready to use. From there we add a special blend of taco spices to create our ‘Taco Beef’ and that becomes the base for our ‘Hot & Spicy Beef’ which we add Frank’s Hot Sauce and let it marinate for at least 24 hours before it’s ready to use. All of our beef is 100% real beef, there are no ‘beef toppings’ or ‘beef flavouring’ allowed at Diana’s.

In the summer season we source as many fresh vegetables as possible from a local farmer including, green peppers, red onions, Roma tomatoes, zuchinni, spinach and Basil.

A few months ago we purchased an Aerogarden hydroponic garden and we set that up in the dining room to grow fresh Basil for our Marguerita pizzas. It grows Basil very well, which is great because the shelf life of fresh Basil is very limited, usually only lasts 3-4 days after it’s been cut.

Perhaps one of the things that make us most unique is that we’re always adding and looking for top quality unique toppings to expand the palette and create interesting yet tasty pizzas for you, our customer. Even though neither Pierre nor I compete in baking competitions anymore—it’s a huge honour to be on the judges’ side:), we are always open to your suggestions and on the lookout for something spectacular to share with you.