Change of Taste or Has Commercial Pizza Gone Bad?

[radioartisan]

I remember seven or eight years ago before I started baking bread and pizza at home I thought commercial chain pizza was fairly good.   My favorite was Papa John's, and I thought Dominoes and Pizza Hut was alright.  Recently I had some PJ pizza at a work function and I thought it was downright lousy.  About two years I lost my appetite for Pizza Hut.  I wouldn't call myself a master chef, but I've refined my home pizza recipe to the point where family members rave about it.   When I travel I tend to seek out real Italian restaurants and try different types of pizzas and have more of an appreciation for styles and ingredients.

I'm curious of the opinions here: was commercial chain pizza always this bad or has a bit of experience and knowledge really changed my tastes?

[Pete-zza]

radioartisan,

Having spent considerable amount of time trying to reverse engineer and clone the Papa John's pizza, I came to the conclusion that the main problem is their cheese and some of the methods used by PJs when forming the skins for their pizzas. It is also possible that other ingredients may have changed since I did my work on their pizza. If you make a PJ clone at home, using a quality cheese, I think you can make a better pizza than you can buy at PJs. If this is of any interest to you, you might look at the thread at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,6758.0.html. In that thread, one of the more popular versions that I came up with is described at Reply 20 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,6758.msg59217.html#msg59217.

Peter

[TXCraig1]

I remember seven or eight years ago before I started baking bread and pizza at home I thought commercial chain pizza was fairly good.   My favorite was Papa John's, and I thought Dominoes and Pizza Hut was alright.  Recently I had some PJ pizza at a work function and I thought it was downright lousy.  About two years I lost my appetite for Pizza Hut.  I wouldn't call myself a master chef, but I've refined my home pizza recipe to the point where family members rave about it.   When I travel I tend to seek out real Italian restaurants and try different types of pizzas and have more of an appreciation for styles and ingredients.

I'm curious of the opinions here: was commercial chain pizza always this bad or has a bit of experience and knowledge really changed my tastes?

Before I knew what good pizza was, I liked Domino's a lot more than I do today. I don't think they changed (it wasn't that long ago) and I don't think my tastes have changed either - I can still eat it, now I just know there is something else I like a lot more. FWIW, much of the worst pizza I've had has come from places that hold themselves out as "real Italian restaurants."

CL

[AimlessRyan]

FWIW, much of the worst pizza I've had has come from places that hold themselves out as "real Italian restaurants."
CL

Yeah, those are the worst (usually). If they need to tell you how "real" and "authentic" they are, it's likely BS. I've never had any interest in eating at Lombardi's largely because they play that game. Places that really are real or authentic (or just good without being either real or authentic) don't need to use marketing words like that to trick suckers into eating at their place. Instead, they just make good stuff with good service, then everybody talks about how good it is.

[theppgcowboy]

I think tastes evolve.  Look at wine for instance, many start off with White Zin, the gateway wine into the world of wine.  Then as time goes by they discover what Zin is all about, Zin is not White Zin. Then along comes Cab, Barbera, Syrah and so on.  I  know of no sommelier that will enter an establishment and order a white zin.   It is not that the pizzas have gotten bad, it is that they were always at the level of crowd friendly.  Your odyssey of pizza has elevated your expectation of what good pizza is.  Life is good.

[The Dough Doctor]

Craig;
I'm right in there with you! Until you have had a really great pizza (for your specific likes) all pizzas are OK to good, but after that taste of pure delight, all others are lacking. The best part of making your own pizza is that with time, you will end up making pizzas that meet YOUR specific taste, if it doesn't, you know who to blame! The problem with the big box chains is that they have to make a pizza that appeals to a much broader spectrum of individual tastes, there is nothing wrong with that, it's just the nature of the beast that they have to contend with.
Tom Lehmann/the Dough Doctor