Pizza Today - April 2024 - 18

Building Blocks
Build
Guides and
Recipes
Create
Consistency
Nick Bogacz
Founder & President
Caliente Pizza & Draft House
" Consistency is what transforms
the average into excellence "
- Tony Robbins
Whether you have one
pizzeria or 10, two of the
biggest keys to success in the
pizza industry are duplication
and consistency. Often times,
you will hear operators say
that opening a second store is
the kiss of death. In my own
journey, I found that when
Caliente opened our second
location, since it was close to
my home, I could be there a
lot of the time. I was also able
to balance the time I spent
there and at our fi rst location.
Th is made it easier for me to
oversee and ensure consistent
operations at both restaurants.
At that time, we had no written
materials saying how to
make our food, and no written
recipes. When I opened
our third location, it was
45 minutes from my house.
I could not easily get to all
three locations, and if I hadn't
developed written materials at
that time to guide consistency
and streamlining at all three
18 / PIZZATODAY.COM / APRIL 2024
restaurants, it would have
been the kiss of death.
I quickly realized that all
three pizzerias had to function
relatively the same and
that the end result of how
the food looked and tasted
had to be the same. When
you have employees who
have been personally trained
by you, they will likely end
up doing most things in the
way you have shown them.
It's when you start to grow
your team and more
employees begin learning
from employees under you
that a breakdown starts.
Even when you are personally
training, having a
reference point like recipes
and build guides is essential
to success.
So, where do you start
when creating build guides
and recipes? I believe that
you start at the beginning,
which means starting with
recipes fi rst. I'm not simply
referring to the toppings
that go on a specialty pizza,
but how you make your
sauce, and how you make
your dough. Anything that
you hand-create and handmix
needs a recipe.
I started the old-fashioned
way. Any time I make a
batch of something, I write
down on a notepad the process
or steps along with all
the ingredients used to make
the batch. Do this with
every prep item you have in
your pizzeria. Even having
a process for the simplest
things, like how to slice a
green pepper, is important.
At Caliente, we slice our
green peppers whole. So,
you can imagine my dismay
when, one day, I walked in
and saw diced green peppers
on the makeline. Th ere was
no process at the time on
how to cut them. Th at had
to be corrected.
Following the same
routine, every time you make
a menu item you will need
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to write down exactly what
goes on it. So, for example,
if you are doing a " Supreme "
pizza, you would write it
down like this:
14-inch dough ball
6 ounces of pizza sauce
32 pepperonis
4 ounces of sausage
4 ounces of mushrooms
3 ounces of green peppers
3 ounces of onions
2 ounces of black olives
Using pictures that
illustrate the amounts is also
a best practice. Once you
gather all your intel, you will
want to create a manual and
wall charts for your staff to
use. I believe in making and
using signage inside your
pizzeria to create the culture
and processes you need to
become successful. We will
cover signage in the next
article of building blocks.
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