Guest Columns

Perspective:
Cheese Marketing

Extra cheese is always a good gamble at Pizza Expo

Jennifer Giambroni

Jennifer Giambroni, vice president of communications for the California Milk Advisory Board, is a guest columnist for Cheese Market News®.

Meet me in Las Vegas, Vegas, meet me at the booth! It’s pizza time in trade land and it’s all about big cheese (and dairy) sales, no whammies.

Pizza is the ultimate ubiquitous food. From basic to boujee, it’s a food most can agree on. According to Datassential, 66% of consumers consumed pizza last week (or like me, last night). And even with economic uncertainty on our minds, 87% of those consumers say they plan to eat the same amount or even more compared with the previous year.

When it comes to foodservice categories, oft used terms like “recession proof” or “recession resistant” are applied to pizza. As a dietary staple with universal appeal, ability to use both high- and low-cost ingredients and delivery everywhere from vending machines and gas stations to white tablecloth restaurants, it’s no wonder.

In the dairy business, pizza is recognized as the OG for volume cheese sales. Like peanut butter and jelly, it’s hard to have one without the other (not impossible, but less delightful). With more than 74,000 pizzeria businesses in the U.S., this is the no-brainer market for our cheeses.

In its 2024 Pizza Power report, PMQ referred to this time as the “Golden Age of Pizza” — mostly driven by the power of artificial intelligence and technology to support efficiency in making, marketing and delivering pizza in endless platforms. It’s a golden time for cheese in pizza, too, which is appearing in endless forms and formats from knots, bites and bowls to a variety of creative handhelds like Pocket Pies (MOD), Pizzoli (Marco’s Pizza) and Papadias (Papa John’s), with cheese inside and out. (I’m not mad about the growing popularity of the frico crust — it’s everywhere!)

This is how we get more cheese and more cheese varieties onto and into those pies and other menu innovations. And many of these ideas/inspirations at the chain foodservice side are happening with support from dairy at the national and state level.

How about our specialty cheeses and cheesemakers? When inputs are high and margins are slim, the idea of adding costs with more premium items may not seem like the best idea; however, when it comes to delivering on flavor and appeal, specialty cheeses can deliver a powerful punch with just a small amount.

Cheeses, especially specialty varieties, marry well with Pizza Today’s “Hot Toppings” — hot honey, microgreens, berries, chiles, pickles, lemon, giardiniera — it’s all about those contrasting flavors with the creaminess of cheese. As one of these hot toppings for 2025, Cheddar is having its moment. Maybe those fricos get the credit? After all, pizzaiolo Edward Stalewski’s 2024 Real California Pizza Contest winner featured a white Cheddar frico crust paired with crispy pepperoni roses, a classic meat and cheese combo played out in a delicious new way.

Chef Lars Smith of State of Mind Hospitality Group will be conducting a demo during the show Thursday showcasing how to use specialty cheeses, something he showcases regularly in his State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria operations. And pizza chefs from China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand will be doing their part to showcase how cheese fits in a variety of global flavors with the third International Pizza Challenge–California Style Division competition.

If you’re an artisan cheesemaker and not involved in foodservice, pizza may be a sweet spot for entry. Like local cheesemakers, local, independent pizza operators (40%-60% of that 74k+ number!) are all about the community and supporting local makers. While margins are thin, there’s often room for collaboration. Work together on a custom blend. Specialty cheeses pack a lot of flavor in a little package — blending with a pizza maker’s cheese of choice allows for a flavor exploration and high visibility for the cheesemaker’s cheese.

Connect with your regional dairy organization. Programs like the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) exist throughout the U.S. and have teams focused on building foodservice business for the dairy products made with milk from U.S. farmers. Our teams are just as excited when an existing cheesemaker wants to make the leap into foodservice as we are when we have a new product to promote to our contacts.

If you’re an independent pizza operator looking to highlight local or regional ingredients, beyond the farmer’s market, connect with your state cheese guild or association (or, as previously mentioned, a commodity organization like CMAB). The teams at these organizations know who has the products and capacity and are all focused on the success of cheesemakers and excited to make connections.

Fundamentally (key emphasis on the FUN), pizza is all about riffing. It’s a platform for boundless creativity and collaboration.

That all leads to an invitation to pizza makers, cheese and dairy partners and other states and regions to connect this week in Las Vegas. We’ll be serving up slices, scoops of gelato and connections. Meet you there!

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

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