Do you know the difference between the ingredients in Domino's “Cannibal” pizza and those in Pizza Hut's “BPM”?
Any.
Like many other recipes offered by the two delivery leaders, these specialties feature the same toppings: barbecue sauce, mozzarella, roast chicken, merguez and beef meatballs.
Domino's, which presents itself as "the leading brand in the pizza market in France and around the world", told us that its Cannibal was one of the best-selling references.
We will therefore try to reproduce it to understand how it is made.
Julien Serri, the boss of Parisian pizzerias Magnà Street Food, accepted the challenge.
In his kitchen, wearing his white jacket, he telephones the neighboring Domino's restaurant: “I have food allergies, our great pizza maker bluffs.
Could you tell me what your pizza dough is made of?
"The answer is as surprising as it is disappointing:" Frankly, I could not tell you, answers a female voice.
Even we don't have the secret to pizza dough.
We will stick to the two pieces of information published on the Domino's website: it contains wheat and corn flour.
Add baker's yeast, water, salt and rapeseed oil and knead.
Frozen dough, chicken, merguez and frozen meatballs
“In an industrial process, I don't think they use olive oil,” comments Julien Serri. It would cost too much. »A few minutes later, Julien Serri gets a big ball of dough. He divides everything into dough pieces and lets stand for 24 hours. Cost of the raw material for a pizza, at this stage: € 0.70 including tax. That said, this work that we have just described is never carried out in Domino's stores: an employee confirmed to us by message that the dough pieces always arrived frozen. The next day, Julien Serri rolls out the dough, puts on it the barbecue sauce bought in a can, which costs € 0.02 for a pizza, the mozzarella in small cubes (€ 0.41), the frozen roast chicken strips (0, € 51), the merguez slices also frozen (€ 0.23) and the beef balls, still frozen, reduced into small pieces (€ 0.24).
Conclusion: the raw materials alone cost barely more than € 2 for a pizza sold… € 17! “Everyone's going to want to open Domino's Pizza, now that we've said that,” laughs the chef. After baking, it's time to check if the copy is up to the original. Visually, the two are very similar. Julien Serri takes a bite of one. Then on the other. “My dough is still better! He says. We tasted: no doubt.
One clarification anyway: before embarking on this investigation, we contacted the two brands concerned. Domino's declined our request. Pizza Hut did not respond altogether. That didn't stop us from buying the two pizzas - Domino's Cannibal and Pizza Hut's BPM - and presenting them to a nutritionist. "You can clearly see the thickness of the cheese on the Cannibal," explains Karine de la Rouère. There is less of it on the BPM. But to really compare, you would need the nutritional claims of both products. "
She takes out her tablet and looks on the Pizza Hut website: “We have the list of ingredients, but there is no further indication, remarks the health professional. It is still not normal that there is no information on what we consume, if they have nothing to be ashamed of, obviously. Even the competitors who make burger
(McDonald's, not to mention them, Editor's note)
take care to display the nutrition claim in response to obesity problems. "Karine de la Rouère removes the BPM from her desk:" For me, Pizza Hut is out of the game. However, it should be noted that the display of nutritional values is not obligatory on foodstuffs that are not prepackaged, such as delivery pizzas. Our expert then consults the Domino's site. Under the list of Cannibal ingredients, a small "+" button unrolls the "nutritional values per 100 g". Phew.
Finally… "We are at 260 kcal," reads the expert.
A large pizza with classic dough that weighs 813 g would therefore represent more than the daily requirement of most people over a day.
For a meal, I recommend the equivalent of a quarter to a half of this type of pizza, which could be supplemented with vegetables.
"Except that rare are the customers to limit themselves to such a small portion ...
"It's not sauce ... More like ketchup, which isn't even good"
And in terms of taste, which of the two pizzas is the better. We did a blind test with the owner of the pizzeria La Bonne Mère, a very famous Marseille address. “It's very sweet. Very, very sweet, grimaces Mahéva Angelmann, after tasting the Pizza Hut model. And when we tell him that there are three different meats on his part: “I didn't recognize them. I only smell the bacon. And again… ”For the record: there is no bacon in these pizzas! “The problem is that,” the restaurateur continues, lifting the surface layer of cheese and meat and pointing at the barbecue sauce that serves as the basis of the pizza.
It takes all the taste, it's not sauce, it's ketchup… But it's not even good. In my good faith, frankly, that is not possible. »What about Domino's? “This one is the same. It's less wet, less dripping, but it tastes like sugar. The less bad of the two is the Domino's, at 17 euros in size L. The worst, according to her, that of Pizza Hut, costs barely more, 18 euros, but is much larger. “I do not know what to say, loose Mahéva Angelmann, disconcerted. Me, my take-out pizzas are between 13 and 18 euros. The best advice, therefore, is undoubtedly to look for the small independent pizza makers who deliver around your home: the pizza will not cost more and will be better.