Thursday, October 27, 2011

Mangalitsa Pizza

Domino's Pizza is doing Mangalitsa pizza on their special line of über fancy pizzas. That's great news! As their website explains:
Prestige Quattro

This Quattro features delicious ingredients such as Mangalitsa pork, known as Hungary's "edible national treasure", and tasty snow crab in white sauce seasoned with truffles. An extra special pizza especially for this winter. Limited offer/until the beginning of January 2012...

Unfortunately, you'll have to get it in Japan.

That reminds me - currently, the only restaurant in the USA (that I know of) serving Mangalitsa pizza is Domenica, in New Orleans. That's a John Besh restaurant.

Just a month ago, Serious Pie in Seattle had Mangalitsa pizza. They were buying the raw material and curing it into products. They've since switched to different raw material and stopped serving Mangalitsa on their pizzas, despite what this recent blog post might imply.*

I find it fascinating to see what decisions companies make. They are all acting in what they perceive to be their self-interest. You might think that Domino's would never buy "luxury pork" to put on their pizzas - yet they are. And given how big Domino's is, even if just .1% of their pizzas have Mangalitsa on it, they'll probably buy tons of Mangalitsa.

* When the chef changes, you should expect menu and purchasing changes. Currently, almost nobody in the American market (unlike say, the Spanish or Hungarian market) really needs luxury pork on their menu. It is an obvious thing to drop.

4 comments:

Lilian said...

Just clarifying that there weren't Serious Pie mangalitza pizzas at the event I attended.

The mangalitza was from the Serious Pie kitchen and were not on their pizzas.

Both the mangalitza and lamb coppa were tasty though!

Heath Putnam said...

Lilian -- Thanks for your clarification. The Mangalitsa pizzas that Serious Pie had were really incredible. I wrote about them here, here, here and here - and perhaps more places.

I tried to make sure the Mangalitsa fans really enjoyed them while they were available.

Lilian said...

I love Serious Pie pizzas and hope the magalitza return to their menu soon!

Heath Putnam said...

Lillian - You could try bringing it up with Audrey, the current chef.

Unless people act like they miss it, I don't see why she'd bring it back. Mangalitsa costs more than non-Mangalitsa pork.