Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Supermarket sampler: Weight Watchers pizza is mixed bag


Weight Watchers Smart Ones Artisan Creations Stone-Fired Crust Pizza. Four Cheese, Pepperoni, and Fajita Chicken. $2.22 per 6- to 7.25-ounce pizza.


We're asking for readers' advice for an upcoming story. Which kitchen tools have you found most useful, and which were a waste of money?How did the BJs partnership happen?It's actually a pretty funny story. The opportunity presented itself in 2007 when we were working on the FarmAid concert. The concessions manager had asked us to make something like 5,000 pizzas in 10 days, and, having spent most of my career in sales, I didn't want to say no. I told everyone we had our largest carryout order to date. We did 1,000 pizzas a night out of our Needham restaurant, working four nights in a row from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. On the fifth day I pulled up [to the stadium] in a truck that said "organic" on the side, and a Whole Foods [representative] saw it. He'd heard about our pizzas and asked for some samples. I gave him some and my card and asked him to get together after the show. We did.The panini press? The electric tortilla warmer? The pizza baker? The apple peeler? The mini-chopper? The rice steamer? The slow cooker? The mandolin or the wok? The pizza stone or the garlic peeler? The George Foreman grill?We worked on how we could do a fresh, prepared product. They told us what varieties they were interested in, but we could only do [nonmeat] varieties because our Needham restaurant was not [certified as] a USDA wholesale facility.I agree with Bonnie that these would be even more appealing if Mann's would switch out the ranch dip for peanut butter, hummus or soft cheese.The creatively named Four Cheese contains less than 2 percent of three of its four cheeses and is desert dry. The Pepperoni and Fajita Chicken are better, mainly because their toppings actually show up and give those varieties a bit more moistness. They're all still a perversion of the artisan and pizza names.I'm guessing the non-solid silver disk you bake these pizzas on might have something to do with that. That, or it could be because the crust was first stone-fired. Whichever, I found these a quick and low-calorie (if slightly high in sodium) option for those who regularly eat microwave pizza, though not quite as quick as the box directions indicated. To get a nice crispy crust and melted cheese, I had to microwave these twice as long as the package recommended.e-mail: vphillips@desnews.comI like the flavor of the Peak Flax Oats best, but either are good. Just don't fill up your cereal bowl, as a serving is a mere quarter cup.They wanted a more organic, all-natural product, so we took over the pizza program. We currently are in the prepared-food section of 70 of the clubs, but soon hope to be in all of them.Each is nutrient-rich with vitamins and minerals from the fruit and veggies, with 50 to 140 calories per serving, depending on the fourth item. I only wish Mann's had included a more natural dressing or, better yet, natural hummus or peanut butter as the dip. Then these could have been a lunch instead of just a good snack.I'm not saying these don't taste good. In fact, the dried blueberries in the Peak Flax Oats really taste like blueberries and are a nice respite from the ubiquitous raisin; the Maple Pecan, with its glazed pecan sugar bombs, borders on decadent. But if I want to blow a lot of calories, I learned (in college) to do it with the ice cream, candy and cake that I like even more.Schwarz, co-founder of the two-unit, Boston-based gourmet pizza concept, has formed partnerships with Whole Foods and BJs Clubs to sell his pizza products in their prepared-foods sections. The pizzas also are sold at Legal Sea Foods restaurants. The restaurateur, who is also the son of one of the board members of Nation's Restaurant News' parent company, Lebhar-Friedman Inc., is focused on producing a high-quality, natural pizza that tastes as good at home as it does in the restaurants.Carolyn: The 18th-century wood carvers and bread bakers who inspired the word "artisan" would have drummed Weight Watchers out of the craft guild if they had ever seen these new Smart Ones "Artisan Creations" Stone-Fired Crust Pizzas. Weight Watchers claims to have pre-baked the crusts on stones, but they came out of my stone-less microwave tasting like the worst offerings from the early '50s frozen-pizza stone age.How did the partnership proceed from there?It probably will end up being between 15 percent and 20 percent of our gross sales at the end of 2010.

Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and professional speaker. She has an interactive site (www.biteofthebest.com) about products she recommends. Follow her on Twitter: BonnieBOTB. Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book" (Running Press). Each week they critique three new food items. (c) UNIVERSAL UCLICK




Author: Bonnie Tandy Leblang


No comments:

Post a Comment