Conference features latest pizza trends

Angie Wagner

Thursday, March 23, 2000 | 9:42 a.m.

Forget watching the pizza guy toss dough in the air. Mike Cervantes has a product that basically eliminates that job. And ordering pizza by phone? That's changing too, with online service.

The pizza business is going, or trying to go, more high tech.

"It has to keep up with everything else," Cervantes, sales director for the Proprocess Corp. of Paramount, Calif., said Wednesday at the annual Pizza Expo.

The company manufactures the Doughpro, a dough press that evenly spreads out the pizza dough with one pull of the handle. Flour isn't needed because the press has a non-stick surface.

While pressing the dough instead of tossing it doesn't seem as fun, Cervantes said it's faster and more efficient. "It takes all the guess work out of it," he said.

Pizza is a $30 billion a year business, according to Gerry Durnell, founder of Pizza Today magazine.

And everyone here wants to cash in on the mainstay. Cervantes was one of about 1,000 exhibitors hoping to sell their products to large pizza chains and mom-and-pop pizzerias. Some 6,000 people are attending the show from all over the country.

Companies that produce everything from tomato sauce to aprons showed off the latest trends in pizza and hoped to make a few deals. One company offered a new mixer to stir up dough better. Another was pitching premium cheese.

"We're looking for new products, things to expand our line," said Ron Hare, owner of Ciro's Italian Ristorante & Pizzeria in Indio, Calif.

He and his wife, Norma, were looking for a pizza prep table - a refrigerator that doubles as a table.

"They had a nice little bite to theirs," Ed Wright of Cadillac, Mich., said as he sampled a slice of pizza at one of the booths.

Wright and his pal David Fortner, a sales representative at Clark Food Service, said they were seeking a more "unique" pizza.

And just like books, music and groceries, pizza has also gone online. While several chains have been offering online orders for about a year, Dave Stott believes smaller pizzerias need a chance on the web, too.

"We think it will allow them to take more orders," said Stott, owner of Tempe, Ariz.-based www.OrderAPizza.com.

For $9.95 a month, pizzerias can list their menus and order forms on the Internet. Customers go to the site, pick the state and city they live in, then choose which restaurant they want and fill out an order form. They can usually pay by credit card or cash when they get the pizza.

Restaurants receive the order form by fax and don't even have to have a computer, Stott said. Restaurants are charged 75 cents for each transaction.

Business has been a bit slow, with only 28 pizzerias in three states using the service, but Stott hoped business would pick up after the show.

The pizza business may be moving onto the Internet and into better dough preparation, but some things never change.

Red- and white-checked tablecloths are still the favorite, according to table linen vendors at the show, and even though some pizzerias are selling their wares online, most people probably prefer the old-fashioned way of using the telephone.

"I don't see that as being an up and coming kind of thing," Durnell said.