(Inventor of the Pizza Protector)
If you love pizza, (and who doesn’t?),you know the frustration of biting into a slice of pizza with a soggy crust.
But what if there was a simple way to keep your pizza crust crisp and fresh just as it was when it came out of the oven?
Well, Frank Guagliardo has come up with a solution to that problem. He’s invented something which he calls the Pizza Protector, a smart solution designed to elevate your pizza off the cardboard surface allowing air to circulate underneath.
This FDA approved screen stops your pizza from sticking to the cardboard and prevents moisture build up. The screen is made from safe materials that can withstand heat and grease without absorbing them.
The result is a hot, fresh and delicious pizza every time.
We spoke with Frank Guagliardo about the Pizza Protector.
Q – Frank, how long did it take you to come up with your Pizza Protector? And most likely you had some sort of manufacturing ability in your background didn’t you?
A – Yes. So, actually I was raised in Italy and came to this country (the U.S.) when I was 12. My father bought a pizza place. I worked in the pizza place really as a kid all the way up on until he sold it. No matter what I had going on when my family needed my help I was there. Once I graduated college my actual profession was investment banking.
I’m going to give you a real quick rundown. It’s not horribly relevant but you’re asking the question how I came up with it so I gotta give you some background.
I had invested in a co. that was manufacturing a plastic product. So, I became very familiar with the manufacturing process. It was always in the back of my mind that I had relationships in that field, engineers and such. So, one day I was at my father’s pizza place picking up a pizza and a customer came in and was complaining that the pizza was super soggy and it was sticking to the cardboard.
My Dad said, ‘How often are you getting this problem?’ I said, ‘Lately. Because the vegetables are so full of water I’m getting it a lot and a lot of people are coming in and complaining about how much moisture there is and grease.’
So, I got to thinking, we use plastic fiber for other food items. Maybe there’s a way to elevate the pizza. I reach out to some of my engineer friends and we created this recipe which is an FDA approved recipe in 1999. We designed it. We tested it so it had a heat thresh hold of withstanding the heat of a pizza coming out of an oven. That’s how the product was born. Necessity is the mother of all inventions. That’s kind of how it was born.
We started the process in ’97 and by ’99 it was like we’re O.K. This is exactly how we want it. It’s not just the product with the ability to prevent the crust from staying crispy and not soggy, it’s also the ease of use because coming from that space of having been raised in the restaurant business, the pizza space, it’s also got to be functional. When pizza guys are busy and you have 3,4, 5 pizzas coming out at once and it’s a busy Friday night you can’t be fumbling around. So, we had to design a dispensing unit. We had to make the recipe malleable enough so the product can be pulled out and placed on a pizza box cut on it, closed and off it goes.
Q – Before you came up with this idea of a Pizza Protector people most likely just accepted the idea that if a pizza comes in a box it would tend to get soggy and that’s just the way it is. Am I right?
A – Yes.
Q – If it wasn’t for you then this situation would still exist?
A – Right. You’re absolutely right. People would complain about it. In the case with my family, my father was getting more complaints and a lot had to do with using fresh ingredients and there’s a lot of moisture in the box. But, this product completely eliminates that. It addresses it completely especially as our business has grown exponentially. Of course it’s been 24 years now.
It’s great for places that box their pizza and customers take it to go. With deliveries it’s really become an important element in maintaining the integrity of the crust from oven to mouth.
Q – When a pizza is delivered does the delivery driver leave the Pizza Protector in the box?
A – Oh yeah. It’s a disposable item.
Q – I would guess it’s your idea to have a Pizza Protector in everyone’s kitchen cupboard. That way when someone buys a frozen pizza or makes their own pizza they can use the Pizza Protector to prevent the pizza crust from getting soggy.
A – The short answer to your question is No because that would be terrific but I tell customers not every pizza is going to benefit from a Pizza Protector.
A Pizza Protector is really designed for pizzas that have some ingredients on ‘em, have real cheese on ‘em. It’s something that’s going to be delivered not consumed immediately.
So the consumer at home, it’s really a B to B product. The consumer at home will make a pizza or throw a frozen pizza in the oven, pull it out, cut it, and eat it right there. It’s not gonna travel at all. It’s just going to be eaten immediately. In that case the pizza won’t have time to get moist because it’s out in the open so it’s not in a box creating that moisture,that excess moisture . It’s just sitting out in the open so it’s not as effective as it is of course in a pizza box.
The way we designed the grooves on the actual screen itself it’s designed in a way where it provides an optimum airflow underneath the pizza while retaining the heat where any moisture doesn’t sit. It’s a barrier between the moisture.
So, the moisture seeps it’s way into the cardboard and the screen elevates the pizza so the pizza itself is not sitting in it’s own grease. It doesn’t eliminate the grease. Grease on a pizza is going to be on a pizza, period. There’s no way to eliminate that. Just don’t order a pizza because a pizza with pepperoni if it has real cheese you’re always going to have some oils. So, it’s not going to eliminate that. That’s not what the product does. It doesn’t change the flavor profile of the pizza. What it does is allows the pizza to do what a pizza is going to do. It just separates the pizza from what it’s done.
Q – The biggest purchaser of the Pizza Protector would have to be pizza chains or independent pizzerias? How are you getting the word out to those people?
A – We have a website www.pizzaprotector.com We also deal with distributors across the country so we warehouse in Chicago and Arizona. Depending on where you’re ordering from the fulfillment will either come out of the Chicago market or the Arizona market.
Then we have distributors who we have a special agreement with. They’re buying in bulk or a truckload of product at a time, a full trailer. So, they’re able to sell to their customers which you correctly stated are the independent pizza operators and the pizza chains.
Anyone who owns and runs a pizzeria that the customer leaves that pizzeria and goes home with a pizza would benefit from the Pizza Protector.
©Gary James
Official Website: www.pizzaprotector.com
