Capitalize on Changing Customer Tastes with Trending Pizza Flavors

Your time is valuable. Offering quick, cost-effective, and tasty pizza selections to your guests lets you deal with other important matters at your attraction—while at the same time saving money on your food and beverage operations. When visitors go to attractions that have their favorite food, they tend to stay longer and spend more.

Why pizza? According to Mintel, a research firm, the pizza market size in 2024 reached $9.6 billion. It is one of the most popular dishes in the United States. The growth of pizza remains robust as does the potential for new options, which pleases many consumers. 
 

CJ Schwan’s corporate executive chef, Tommy Hearn, describes the components of a good, quality pizza. The crust, which is the foundation, should offer both texture and flavor. The sauce layer adds moisture and complements the chosen toppings. Finally, besides adding richness, the cheese also binds the toppings, he says, which can offer variety and cater to diverse tastes. Hearn’s knowledge and expertise of pizza originates from working with and learning from the world’s top chefs, along with sharing culinary duties at Michelin-Star restaurants and five-diamond hotels. 

The culinary team at CJ Schwan’s, including Hearn, selected two signature products—VILLA PRIMA® SCRATCH READY® Pizza and VILLA PRIMA® Oven Ready Pizza—as ideal menu items to serve at theme parks, water parks, and family entertainment centers. They developed recipes for the VILLA PRIMA® SCRATCH READY® Pizza, where all you need to do is add the toppings. By customizing the pizzas, you can deliver trending flavors to your guests. 

CJ Schwan’s VILLA PRIMA® SCRATCH READY® Pizza offers both thin and self-rising crust. Hearns says the thin crust is ideal for crisp-texture aficionados and bakes faster than the self-rising crust. Those who favor a more substantial bite prefer the thicker, airy base of the self-rising crust. With two crusts to choose from, attraction operators can further cater to varied customer preferences. 
 

“VILLA PRIMA® SCRATCH READY® Pizzas also arrive pre-sauced with our signature zesty tomato sauce and pre-cheesed with real mozzarella, requiring only the addition of any desired toppings before baking,” says Hearn. “This significantly reduces preparation time and labor costs, making it an efficient choice for high-volume foodservice operations.” 

Other benefits of VILLA PRIMA® SCRATCH READY® Pizza for theme parks, water parks, family entertainment centers, museums, zoos, and aquariums include:

• Consistency: Uniform quality with every slice due to pre-saucing and pre-cheesing.
• Speed: Back-of-house preparation takes less time, as most of the pizza is already crafted.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Reduced waste and optimized labor.
• Customization: Creative topping combinations cater to varied guest preferences.

Since unique and nontraditional pizza toppings are trending, there’s a pizza for every culinary flavor palette—spicy, sour, salty, bitter and umami—to name a few of the overarching tastes. Ultimately, these toppings make the pizza stand out. “Innovative toppings like pickles and corn have gained popularity and advance unique flavor profiles that intrigue guests,” says Hearn. 

According to Denise Greer, executive editor of Pizza Today, pickles paired with smoked meats and various cheeses hits the spot for many diners. Corn on a Southwest or Mexican-style pizza also continues to rise in popularity. 

Other toppings she labels “hot” include microgreens like arugula, endive and beets; different sausages than the standard Italian like chorizo and bratwurst; and hot pickled peppers. 

As food trends embrace bolder flavors from around the world, Korean staples like gochujang and kimchi have made their debut on pizza. Gochujang is a spicy, sweet, smoky red chili paste, and kimchi is a blend of seasoned fermented vegetables composed of mostly cabbage. VILLA PRIMA® SCRATCH READY® Pizzas easily adapt to such creative culinary experiments, enhancing guest satisfaction. 
 

Other popular toppings currently emerging, says Hearn, include plant-based proteins, spicy honey, black garlic, and artisanal cheeses including Parmigiano Reggiano. Quattro Formaggi Pizza uses four different cheeses and adds pesto for good measure. 

If you’re not sure what to pair with these and other inventive toppings, refer to the other recipes created by the CJ Schwan’s culinary team. Hot Honey Chicken combines breaded popcorn chicken with honey, sriracha and sweet & sour sauce; Spicy Salami which includes salami, parmesan, ricotta and hot honey and with a nod to global fusion, the Korean BBQ Pizza uses shredded chicken, Korean BBQ sauce, and red onion. 

“Toppings are only as unique as your imagination,” Hearn says. 

Not only can you vary the toppings to give your customers what they crave in a pizza, but VILLA PRIMA® SCRATCH READY® Pizza can also be reshaped. Here is one operator’s story illustrating this versatility: While exploring his options for a new pizza vendor, together with his team, they cooked and sampled the 8” and 16” sizes of CJ Schwan’s VILLA PRIMA® SCRATCH READY® Pizzas. 
 

Then, he got resourceful and created pizza rolls and stromboli out of the original pizzas. All these concepts demonstrated the versatility of the product, and they tasted good. By adding them to your menu, you can satisfy the diverse cravings of your guests. 

Some guests still crave the old standard, the tried-and-true pepperoni pizza. VILLA PRIMA® Oven Ready Pizzas that come fully topped fulfill this need. They produce an authentic Italian flavor and a rich, savory aroma that wafts around the diners. You have your choice of pepperoni with mozzarella, or four-cheeses (mozzarella, cheddar, provolone and parmesan) on a 16” pizza. Self-rising crust composes the foundation of this pizza and garlic oil is brushed on every crust’s rolled edge. 

Both VILLA PRIMA® SCRATCH READY® Pizzas and VILLA PRIMA® Oven Ready Pizzas arrive frozen and can go straight from the freezer to the oven without any thawing. These pizzas let you offer more variety to your guests with consistent pizzeria quality. 

To discover what your guests like to eat, Hearn suggests, stay focused on them and ask questions. Then, change what you’re doing if the need arises. Being stagnant can cost you eventually. “Instead, keep a limited number of the traditional favorites but add unique food items to keep your guests engaged and curious,” he says. 

To find out more about VILLA PRIMA® Pizzas, visit VILLA PRIMA® Pizza | CJ Schwan's and reach out to a representative.