Cooking & EatingThe originally Italian pizza is extremely popular worldwide. We also love it in the Netherlands: no less than 94 percent of Dutch people like to eat pizza. This is reported by a delivery service on the occasion of Pizza Day, which fans worldwide will celebrate tomorrow. But which pizza flavor do we prefer to eat?
One thing is clear: the pizza margherita is a big favorite with both the well-known meal delivery companies and the pizza chains. The simple cheese pizza has been in the top ten of most popular pizzas by delivery service Deliveroo five times this year. “More than a third of Dutch people prefer a simple pizza to a variant with all kinds of toppings,” said a Deliveroo spokesperson. Other popular flavors at Deliveroo include the diavola, salami and pepperoni.
“Together with the pepperoni pizza, the margherita pizza has been an invariable favorite in the Netherlands for years,” said Manon Stoutjesdijk, spokesman for Domino’s. “In 2021 we sold a total of about 21 million pizzas in the Netherlands. Of these, 1.5 million were pizza pepperoni and 2.1 million were pizza margherita.”
At Thuisbezorgd.nl, the pizza margherita is followed by the pizza salami, says Lieke Peters on behalf of the delivery service. ,, At number three is the pizza quattro formaggi.” The pizza margherita is also a favorite among vegetarians, according to the Food Trend Report 2021 of Thuisbezorgd.nl. “In addition to the usual flavors, we see that pizzas can increasingly be ordered in special variations, for example a pizza with mushrooms and pumpkin or one with king prawns and celery.”
Fan of classics
At New York Pizza, in addition to the cheese pizza, flavors such as Double Pepperoni, East Side Shawarma, Hawaii, BBQ Bacon & Chicken and Downtown Döner are popular. “On the one hand, we love classics in the Netherlands such as the pizza margherita and the pepperoni pizza, and on the other we love barbecue flavors and shawarma and döner,” says Kasper Overtoom, brand representative of New York Pizza. “Naturally, the Dutch don’t like spicy flavours, but we can see that there is an upward trend in that.”
“Because Domino’s operates worldwide, we see that some flavors are extremely popular in one country, but less suitable for pizza lovers in other countries,” Stoutjesdijk notes. “In the summer of 2021, for example, we launched the Frikan’Dutchman with frikandel special, a pizza that suited the taste of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. In Belgium and France, the pizza Savoyarde (with crème frache, mozzarella, potato slices, bacon and gorgonzola) is a popular pizza. This combination did not make it to our menu in the Netherlands. We vary every quarter with choices and flavors, so there is something for everyone. In this way, we can delight pizza lovers all year round with new introductions in addition to our classics.”
On Deliveroo, mushrooms and jalapeños are most often added as an extra topping at checkout. “And the majority of Dutch people (61 percent) think that pineapple on a pizza is not so bad,” said a spokesperson. “Furthermore, three quarters prefer an Italian pizza with a thin crust than a thick American pizza and the majority of people (64 percent) prefer to eat a pizza with their hands.”
Vegan(n) flavors are emerging
“Vegetarian and vegan pizzas have also grown faster in the past year,” says Overtoom. “We expect the Californian Veggie to be in the top ten in the coming year and we see the share of the entire category growing.”
Stoutjesdijk has also seen an increase in vegetarian and vegan alternatives in recent years. “In the past year, 2.5 million vegetarian pizzas were sold (excluding the aforementioned 2.1 million margherita pizzas) and added over 285 thousand vegan pizzas. This brings us to a total of more than 4.8 million vegetarian pizzas. We also include this trend in the development of our menu. Four years ago we had four vegetarian pizzas on our menu, today it’s seven vegetarian and three vegan pizzas.”
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