I wish Pizza Hut didn't change.

[NetWareHead]

I worked there 5 (18 years old!) years ago at Cedar Point. The pizza was crap then. I have fond memories of my first few days of training where I was instructed to laddle a bunch of grease into the bottom of the pizza pans and then to let the dough proof in the grease.

I mean, I understood the practice because Pizza Hut has that iconic crunchy crust...but what you don't know is that they had us putting so much grease in the bottom of the pan that the grease would come over the sides of the dough as it proofed and what you had at the end was grease dipped pizza dough..

Pizza Hut supplies everything you need to make the pizzas, I think we were lading something 1 1/3 of a cup of grease in there for the largest pizzas. The pizzas with the most meat then were the Pepperoni Lovers because all we had was a picture to make the pizza look like and many of us just put pepperoni on the pizza until we couldn't see cheese anymore lol.

After it came out the oven, it slides neatly out of the pan with not much grease being left behind. Then, you have to watch as people sit at the tables eating that crap. Ugh...

I try to avoid Pizza Hut as much as possible, because it just tastes like grease.

This is absolutely disgusting to read and picture the description of greasy raw pizza dough. I can't imagine the greasy-floury mess on the dough slab when it is time to stretch the dough. 1 and 1/3 cup per pizza... Jesus....

What happened with these pizza chains was they switched from a rotating hot oven that can cook multiple pizzas to a conveyor belt fed pizza oven = faster cooking = lower cost. With regular hot ovens and a good pizza maker the person can check or time when the pizza is cooked right, if not they just throw it back in... with a conveyor belt oven they can't do that even though its timed correctly to supposedly come out right at the end.

Any pizza enthusiast will know the brick/hot ovens make better tasting pizza than the conveyor belt ovens.

They now cater to the low cost foodies now = cheaper pizza pricing = less regular toppings = less quality cheese...

<--- Worked at Round Table's Pizza 18 years ago when they used the old hot oven.

This this and more this. And this is why Pizza Hut sucks.

There are much healthier and better tasting ways to get a crispy pizza. You have 2 ways:

1. Impregnate the dough with large amounts of oil while it is still raw and then cook it quickly in a conveyor oven. The large amounts of internal oil cooks the pizza from within and gets it crunchy. You also need to cook this pizza in a pan to contain the grease or else the oven would get messy and smoky in no time. This is Pizza Hut's method

2. Make normal pizza dough without the excess grease. A normal pizza has probably the equivalent of 1 teaspoon to tablespoon incorporated. Then bake the pizza in a real oven; either directly on the floor of the oven or on a screen that is in close contact with the oven. End result is you have the oven which crisps the pizza instead of the hot oil. The inside of the crust is moist and chewy and not dripping with grease.

Of course your conveyor oven will allow the kitchen to send pizzas faster. You use way more oil but oil is cheap, it registers on most people's palates as "tasting good" and it saves time. This all = greater profits. I know which pizza I'd rather eat.

 

[CZroe]

What happened with these pizza chains was they switched from a rotating hot oven that can cook multiple pizzas to a conveyor belt fed pizza oven = faster cooking = lower cost. With regular hot ovens and a good pizza maker the person can check or time when the pizza is cooked right, if not they just throw it back in... with a conveyor belt oven they can't do that even though its timed correctly to supposedly come out right at the end.

Any pizza enthusiast will know the brick/hot ovens make better tasting pizza than the conveyor belt ovens.

They now cater to the low cost foodies now = cheaper pizza pricing = less regular toppings = less quality cheese...

<--- Worked at Round Table's Pizza 18 years ago when they used the old hot oven.

The same Pizza Hut Newnan, GA has had since at least the 1980s (as far back as my personal experience goes) still has an oven that they slide the pizzas in/out of manually. They open a slim door and reach in and you can see it in the back just behind the register. I think there are a few such doors stacked vertically so that they can do multiple pizzas at once.

 

[zerocool84]

Which one? The one I went to had pizza that tasted like old dried fetus but people tell me to give the one next door a chance anyway. There must be a reason for having two in such close proximity but I can't imagine why their pizza would be any different if they kept the same name.

Shakey's pizza is fine, nothing great about it but the star of the show is the chicken and mojo's.

 

[Malak]

On the dough thing mentioned...did Pizza Hut really ever make dough? If they did, it's been a long time. Again, working there in 2000ish, it was as I assume they are doing things today. Dough comes in frozen discs, you put it in a pan and throw it in the walk-in fridge either the that morning or the previous night. It thaws and proofs, and the regular dough gets stretched to the pan. I think the thin crust came unfrozen and cut to size. Pan dough was frozen but filled the pan once proofed.

The last time I worked there was roughly 9 years ago, but they were still doing made from scratch dough until a few years ago. In fact locally all the PH's went to strictly carryout/delivery except for maybe 2. On top of having a huge delivery charge, they have pretty much given up to their competition. Which is strange, since 2 of their competition went out of business and the rest were struggling to compete until they made these changes.

 

[SheHateMe]

I can't imagine the greasy-floury mess on the dough slab when it is time to stretch the dough. 1 and 1/3 cup per pizza... Jesus....

They actually don't stretch the dough for the Pan Pizza's at Pizza Hut. I'm not going to speak on the other types because I didn't make those. Basically the Pan Pizzas were 1)Ladle Grease 2)Drop in Frozen disc 3) Disc Proofs 4) store.

Time to make Pizza:

Just ladle sauce, apply cheese, and toppings. No stretching. Put those sexy toppings on that Greasy dough. Plop it in the oven....try not to burn yourself when its coming out.

 

[CZroe]

Shakey's pizza is fine, nothing great about it but the star of the show is the chicken and mojo's.

*woosh*

 

[DrPizza]

Of course your conveyor oven will allow the kitchen to send pizzas faster.

I disagree. All it does is removes the need for someone to cook the pizza. But, say, someone ordered 10 pizzas - you couldn't have them ready at the same time; they'd be spaced out.

 

[Pullox]

Shakey's pizza is fine, nothing great about it but the star of the show is the chicken and mojo's.

I miss Shakey's pizza, they shut down almost 20 yeas ago up here, have fond memories of my parents taking us kids there when we where young begging for quarters to play centipede or galaga. Now I make my own dough and sauce mixing what ever ingredients I want, so damn good.

 

[ralfy]

Which one? The one I went to had pizza that tasted like old dried fetus but people tell me to give the one next door a chance anyway. There must be a reason for having two in such close proximity but I can't imagine why their pizza would be any different if they kept the same name.

Reviews are also OK:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/shakeys-pizza-parlor-hollywood

 

[CZroe]

Reviews are also OK:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/shakeys-pizza-parlor-hollywood

Shakey's pizza is fine, nothing great about it but the star of the show is the chicken and mojo's.

*woosh*

Text.

 

[NetWareHead]

I disagree. All it does is removes the need for someone to cook the pizza. But, say, someone ordered 10 pizzas - you couldn't have them ready at the same time; they'd be spaced out.

Well I can only speak for the pizza ovens used in my own family's restaurant. I don't have experience with anyone else's setup.

I think its far easier to operate a conveyor oven and pizzas just roll off the assembly line. You also don't need a skilled pizza man to operate it. In our place, on busy pizza nights we would allocate 2 people to making pizzas. One guy to handle the dough and assemble the pies and another guy to work the oven (non-rotary, typical hot floor pizza oven). The pizzas needed to be rotated halfway through cooking and after the pizza was done, it was best practice to let that spot "recharge" for a few minutes and get hot again. I'd estimate we could turn over between 40-50 pies a hour with that oven, give or take a few depending on toppings, dough conditions and how bogged down/full the oven is.

 

[phucheneh]

I believe SheHateMe is confusing a 'cup' with a 'teaspoon.' Either that, or he made the worst fucking pizzas ever.

 

[zinfamous]

It has always been kinda bad, in its own way. I liked it, though.

If you go to the Pizza Huts in Europe and Asia, they are almost fine dining.

 

[CZroe]

It has always been kinda bad, in its own way. I liked it, though.

If you go to the Pizza Huts in Europe and Asia, they are almost fine dining.

There is a lot of variety here in The States too and I'm sure many approach that description. It probably depends a lot on which stand-alone locations get liquor licenses.

My local one may not be "fine dining" but it does not have a conveyor oven, has waited service, serves alcohol, does not deliver, etc, so it has little in common with a typical Pizza Hut/Pizza Hut Express. They bring your pizza to the table on a big cast-iron pan/slab and you only see a box if you ask for one.

There is also a Chik-fil-a "Dwarf House" here with waiters and waitresses. Despite the anti-beef ads, they serve hamburgers too!

 

[ralfy]

Text.

TV show video clip.

 

[aldamon]

When I was a kid Pizza Hut was a lot different from the stores I see around here now, and the one we occasionally patronize. This was back in the 60's in upstate NY. Our Pizza Hut was a pretty large restaurant, with a red roof and red checkered tablecloths. You took the whole family and got a pitcher of coke, and when the pizza came it was delivered to the table in hot pans, with plates to eat off of.

Are there any like that left? The ones we have here are all take-out/delivery franchises. My daughter worked at one, and all the dough and toppings come in frozen, and go out in cardboard boxes. It is essentially the same business model as Dominoes.

This is how it was in the 80s and 90s as well in VT/MA. The pitcher, the tablecloths, the 40-min wait for pizza on a Friday. All part of the experience that nobody has the patience for anymore I think.

 

[CZroe]

TV show video clip.

I couldn't find the one of it actually working (and making a Shakey's Pizza right next door).

Edit: OK. Here is is without the original audio.

 

[vi edit]

This is how it was in the 80s and 90s as well in VT/MA. The pitcher, the tablecloths, the 40-min wait for pizza on a Friday. All part of the experience that nobody has the patience for anymore I think.

Yep! And big ass cast iron pans that the pizza came in with a server wearing a giant oven mitt to bring it to the table.

 

[SheHateMe]

I believe SheHateMe is confusing a 'cup' with a 'teaspoon.' Either that, or he made the worst fucking pizzas ever.

Who makes Pizza with TEASPOONS?

 

[phucheneh]

I don't know what question you're asking.

You do know that a 'cup' is a unit of measure, right? I suspect that you do not.

You claimed that you added 1.33 cups (>10 ounces, or almost the size of a can of soda) of 'grease' (also known to non-retards as 'oil') to pizzas that you made. When in reality, the amount used is maybe a teaspoon. Shit, I'll be generous- a tablespoon, a.k.a. less than 1/20th of your claim.

 

[SheHateMe]

I don't know what question you're asking.

You do know that a 'cup' is a unit of measure, right? I suspect that you do not.

You claimed that you added 1.33 cups (>10 ounces, or almost the size of a can of soda) of 'grease' (also known to non-retards as 'oil') to pizzas that you made. When in reality, the amount used is maybe a teaspoon. Shit, I'll be generous- a tablespoon, a.k.a. less than 1/20th of your claim.

I know what a cup is.

I think its funny that you think Pizza Hut pizzas are only cooked in a few teaspoons of grease (oil, whatever you want to call it...the pizza is GREASY).

You're crazy.

I made that disgusting food all summer. I KNOW we put much more than a teaspoon in. I also didn't say that we LITERALLY put 1 1/3 cup of oil into the pans, I said that to emphasize the generous ladle of oil we were putting to these pans. Its quite a bit. Ask someone to show you. If you think they are achieving that crust with a few teaspons or even a table spoon..you are insane.

Not only is the bottom of the pizza crispy and crunchy, but so are the sides and the rim of the crust. You can taste all that oil in the food when you bite into it.

I actually got in trouble once, written up... for not not using a full ladle of oil in the pans.


Whatever you say man. That's just like...your opinion dude. Have you ever worked in a crappy pizza join with bad and overpriced food? I have, it was called Pizza Hut.

 

[phucheneh]

Okay, well...get better at hyperbole. ;P Exaggerated amounts: a bajillion cups. a shitpile. a metric fuckton.

'1 and 1/3 cups' sounds pretty literal.

And again, I worked there, too. The amount of oil put into a pan before chucking the dough in was enough to make a little round puddle in the middle of the pan, maybe an inch or two in diameter. It spread out beneath the dough as it thawed and proofed. Without it, the dough will not get crunchy at the edges. Too much, and it won't get crunchy at the edges.

Grease on top of a pizza is a totally different thing, and is released from the cheese and toppings during cooking.

 

[Ichinisan]

I That's just like...your opinion dude.

If you're going to quote the movie, you gotta quote it correctly.

[link]

 

[zinfamous]

Yes. You can go to a good seafood restaurant that'll be about the same price and they'll have fresh sea food every day.

A lot of the freshest seafood you will find anywhere is flash frozen right on the boat, before it ever returns to shore.

And of course all of the premium million dollar Bluefin that gets shipped to Japan arrives frozen

 

[zinfamous]

There is also a Chik-fil-a "Dwarf House" here with waiters and waitresses. Despite the anti-beef ads, they serve hamburgers too!

The original Chik Fil-A in Hotlanta is a legit diner: bacon and eggs, burgers, and complete with a real soda jerk