Drysdale’s somewhat extreme pizza interpretations are a bit far-out for the quick-service world, and yet his success offers some invaluable lessons for menu-development professionals with their eyes on the pies. First, there is the unrelenting emphasis on quality. Here in 2006, pizza crust needn’t be thick, heavy, chewy, soggy, or forged from plain, highly processed white flour. Indeed, the options today are virtually limitless, and most are a good deal more interesting and pleasing to the palate. Whole-wheat crusts When it comes to toppings, fresh matters. Freshly made tomato sauces, fresh herbs, and high-quality cheeses can lend the most basic pizza an elegance and succulence.”are replacing standard varieties, and more creative pizzamakers are introducing other intriguing elements—cornmeal, rye flour, and even flax meal—into their dough with a view to cutting calories, boosting fiber content, and improving flavor. In terms of texture, meanwhile, thin is most definitely in, as evidenced by Panera Bread Company’s new Crispini pizza-like flatbreads and Papa Gino’s recently introduced line of Rustic Pizzas made with extra-thin, hand-stretched, free-form crust.

Second, particularly when it comes to toppings, fresh matters. Freshly made tomato sauces, fresh herbs, and high-quality cheeses can lend the most basic pizza an elegance and succulence that simply can’t be achieved with canned, dried, or heavily preserved rough equivalents. And consumers today have had enough of the good stuff to recognize the difference.

Finally, Drysdale’s example speaks to the importance of creative experimentation. Product developers are often loath to tinker with the familiar, and few foods are more familiar to quick-service patrons than pizza. But as recent fast-food successes demonstrate, even heavy users of fast food aren’t dead-set against creative twists on favorite themes. We at the Center for Culinary Development had been bullish on ingredients, concepts, and product lines ranging from chipotle to ciabatta and Fresh-Mex to fresh salads as far back as the early 1990s, and so it’s been gratifying to see this series of once-unorthodox notions successfully make their way into the quick-serve mainstream with often-stellar results in recent years. With its melting pot of a menu, CPK has proven that pizza makes a perfect platform for this sort of anything-goes innovation. Even if our good friends in Naples don’t see things quite that way.