The fast-casual pizza category is booming with its more personalized customization experience, and traditional quick-serve pizza brands are taking note. Earlier this year, Pizza Hut unveiled its Hand-Tossed pizza as a fresh new option with a lighter crust akin to the fast-casual segment’s artisanal offerings.
“We’ve heard from our consumers that they’re looking for a little more uniqueness in their experiences,” says Doug Terfehr, spokesman. He says the company responded with the most popular way that people get pizza: tossed by hand.
“In our opinion, pizza … has always been made to order,” Terfehr says. “Bringing it more to the … top setting is new and a trend that we’re definitely paying attention to.”
Rachel Kalt, creative solutions manager for restaurant consulting firm The Culinary Edge, says there is a growing desire from increasingly knowledgeable consumers for a more authentic eating experience.
“A lot of these fast-casual concepts that you see are pizzas being hand stretched in front of you and using high-end ingredients,” Kalt says. Pizza Hut realized hand-tossed crust can speak to an authentic, elevated experience, she says.
Jim Reynolds, corporate chef and director of R&D for consulting firm Charlie Baggs Culinary Innovations, sees quick-serve chains trying to shed their corporate image and the notion of mass-produced items.
“This Pizza Hut concept … [is] trying to bring back the art in food, trying to be able to tell a story about food, really trying to make it seem like it’s produced here,” Reynolds says.
