Turku | An eight-euro frozen pizza is gaining fame: This is how it's made

From Turku frozen pizza is now praised in the media even as the best in Finland. Pizza Backen's frozen pizza won in February 2023 MTV's frozen pizza test, in October 2023 Ilta-Sanom test and in March 2024 Iltalehten reader poll.

HS Turku visited the Pizza Backen factory near the Turku Bypass to find out what makes Turku pizzas test winners.

On the other side are Kaarinian entrepreneurs Esa Dahlström and Pia Lähde, who until two years ago were making pizzas in their home kitchens. The first “pizza workshop” was located in Turku's Itäharju, where 300 pizzas were made per day. A year ago, the company moved to the current premises and now about 3,000 pizzas are made per day.

Idea from his own frozen pizza was born when Dahlström arrived home from sports hungry. Dahlström's wife had prepared a frozen pizza, as was her custom from time to time. There were a couple of pieces left on the table, but he didn't even consider eating them.

“I wonder why I never eat frozen pizza, even though I can easily order pizza in a restaurant. That gave me the idea of ​​whether I could make a frozen pizza that I myself would like,” Dahlström recalls.

Dahlström called all the pizzerias in Turku and asked to sell pizzas without baking. Only one place agreed to the request. Dahlström put the raw pizzas in the freezer for a week, baked them and studied what the “frozen pizzas” turned out to be. He started thinking about who he could go with to develop the perfect frozen pizza.

“I wrote down for myself what things I'm bad at, and who would be good at those things. In the end, only Pia's name remained on the paper.”

Pia Lähde worked as Dahlström's colleague at confectionery manufacturer Cloetta.

“It probably took me two to three months before I had the courage to ask him along.”

The source was surprised by the request, but agreed. That's where the development of the perfect frozen pizza began.

First had to invent a base. Lähde and Dahlström tried different doughs in their home kitchens.

“The goal was to make restaurant-level pizza and no compromises were agreed to,” Dahlström describes.

Developing the pizza base was not easy. When one person was able to make what they thought was a good dough, the other couldn't reproduce it in their own home.

“We had refrigerators with different temperatures and different humidity,” Dahlström recalls.

The family members were allowed to act as test tasters until they were fed up, but in the end the perfect recipe was born. The first ones were mozzarella, pepperoni and salami. There have been more flavors since then.

The duo left paid jobs in 2022.

What distinguish Pizza Backen from other frozen pizzas?

Taste, responsible for Lähde and Dahlström.

“We make everything ourselves from fresh ingredients on site using our own recipes,” says Dahlström.

Pizza Backen calls itself “the world's slowest pizza shop”. The dough's journey from pre-dough to finished pizza takes three days. Many steps are done by hand at the factory: for example, working the dough balls, putting the toppings and packing the finished frozen pizza.

Every pizza is unique, Dahlström promises. He excitedly presents the ingredients for the pizzas.

“We use fresh jalapeno. In winter, it is our most expensive raw material, around 20 euros per kilo. If we bought it canned, the price would be one third. But canned food wouldn't taste the same.”

There is really no saving in raw materials. During the test phase, the cheese powder was quickly replaced by disc parmesan.

“The taste wasn't the same, so we decided to grate the cheese ourselves,” Lähde laughs.

The basil, on the other hand, is picked from the garden next door.

Manually however, making and high-quality fillings have their price. Pizza Backen's pizza costs between eight and nine euros, depending on the store.

Why would anyone pay that much for a frozen pizza?

“We wanted to break the idea of ​​frozen pizza. You don't have to go all the way to a restaurant to eat a better pizza,” says Lähde.

In its first fiscal year in 2022, the company made a loss of around 140,000 euros. Last year's figures have not yet been published, but Dahlström says that the turnover has risen to one million euros and that the result is still a loss.

“I myself have attached everything except my house to this. There isn't a penny left in savings,” says Dahlström.

Dahlström says that running a pizza factory is not a gold mine.

“But we get to realize our own dream,” he reminds.

“Creating jobs has been important to me. I feel very proud of it”, Lähde adds.

The company currently employs 24 employees.

But where does the name Backen come from?

“My mother was Swedish and my father was from the Mäen family. I lost both of my parents quite suddenly a few years ago and the name combines my mother's Swedish and my father's family. They are now going along, and I am proud of that,” says Lähde.

Every the batch is tested at the factory by baking a pizza with the “second cheapest model” of the home appliance store.

“So that the consumer doesn't have worse ovens than ours,” explains Dahlström.

A frozen pizza becomes perfect when it is baked on a hot baking sheet on the bottom shelf of the oven, says Lähde. The time varies from oven to oven.

At the time of the interview, pepperoni pizza is in production. The oven has heated up to 220 degrees and Dahlström takes a test pizza from the freezer. It takes 10 minutes to bake in the factory oven, after which the two take a taste of the pizza.

“It tastes the way it's supposed to,” Lähde describes.

The duo assures that the pizza still tastes good, even if it has to be eaten every day.