Chefs Victoria Tiso, Rosario Granieri, and Nino Coniglio are used to thinking outside the box when it comes to cooking; however, today on Epicurious we’ve asked them to give us their unfiltered, honest reviews of some prominent frozen pizza brands found on supermarket shelves. Which pizzas pack the most bang for your budget, and which should you avoid at all costs?
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00We've gathered three professional chefs to blind taste test every supermarket frozen pizza brand
00:05we could get our hands on to see which ones meet their standards.
00:09All pizzas have been prepared following the cooking instructions in the back of their packaging.
00:14DiGiorno Four Cheese Rising Crust Pizza. Well, it's a little thick. It's puffy, a little bit crispy. It reminds me of America.
00:22It's like the smell of commercial cheese. I think I know what this is. Oh, yeah.
00:27So when you're looking at frozen pizza, you would want there to be a crispier bottom.
00:31You don't want something that's soggy. You want that pizza snap, you know what I mean,
00:34when you bite into a pie. So that when you do go to pick it up, it stays flat.
00:38Definitely having a seasoned crust that has fermentation notes to it.
00:42The right amount of yeast and salt. I would like to have a great quality cheese.
00:48I want it to be a little oily and the consistency to be even throughout the whole entire pizza.
00:52Nothing like dry and doesn't melt. Not artificial cheese, not cheese product.
00:58I would like to have a nice tomato flavor. Have to be a right amount of acidity.
01:04Enough tang that complements the cheese.
01:06If it tastes like a pizza more than it does like a cheese toast, that would be incredible.
01:14It's very doughy. The crust definitely is on a little bit of the bland side.
01:19The fermentation time might've been a little off.
01:21The longer it sits, the more flavor it is going to have.
01:24So those are docking marks. When you make a dough that you're not going to ferment properly,
01:29you got to put holes in it with a docker so that it doesn't bubble up.
01:32Doesn't really taste the freshness of cheese.
01:35This doesn't remind me of like mozzarella. It doesn't give me that gooey texture.
01:39The tomato, I taste the sugar. I don't recommend that on my pizza. I don't like it.
01:45I think that it's a little too thin, the sauce.
01:4890% sure this is DiGiorno rising crust. There's no mistaking this crust right here.
01:54Rising crust, I called it.
01:56It was delivered.
01:58Four cheese, Parmesan, Asiago, Ramat. I don't taste any of those cheeses.
02:01I see the datum and the baking soda.
02:03Datum is put into a lot of frozen pizzas, which is going to help the overall gluten expand.
02:10I think they did a really good job at that. And that's about it.
02:13I personally wouldn't bother. This is akin to a criminal act.
02:17But if it's your thing, you know, if it gets your rocks off, go for it.
02:23Trader Joe's Pizza Margherita.
02:25It's thinner.
02:26This one is extremely flat.
02:28It looks like a ticker tortilla.
02:31It looks a little rough.
02:32Smell is very strong. There's definitely garlic.
02:34The parbaked marks on these are there.
02:37They'll parbake the crust slightly so that the raw tomatoes and raw cheese bake evenly.
02:44This crust is very crispy.
02:46I don't taste a lot of flavor on the crust.
02:49This crust is like, it's a full gaze.
02:52I think that the tomatoes in this, it's more of a paste as opposed to like a sauce.
02:57Tomato pasty with dehydrated garlic and dry basil.
03:00One of the things that makes Italian food so great and pizza so great is
03:04simplicity of the whole thing.
03:06Too many people think like, oh, it couldn't be that easy.
03:09So we got to like mess around with it.
03:11This is a very good example of that.
03:13I think that this cheese is good quality cheese.
03:15It melted really well.
03:18Pizza Margherita.
03:19Trader, Trader what?
03:21Trader Joe's.
03:23What the, what is this?
03:25This is not Trader Joe's, right?
03:27They changed their name to be Italian, those guys.
03:29Oh, product of Italia.
03:31Nice.
03:32When you think of Neapolitan pizza, you think of Margherita pizza.
03:35That's probably the first thing you learn.
03:37Named after Queen Margherita.
03:39It's the first pizza that was invented from 1889.
03:42They represent the Italian flag.
03:44Fresh tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil.
03:48I mean, this is not a Margherita pizza, but.
03:50It's not so bad.
03:51Or a frozen pizza, that is.
03:53Give me Elio without any doubt, like Elio does a good job.
03:58Elio's cheese pizza.
04:01Oh, it's a square.
04:02Is that the guy?
04:03Looks nice.
04:04Four sides, no crust.
04:05I will not call that pizza.
04:07It's pretty terrible, but it tastes like childhood.
04:10You'll probably die if you eat too many of them, but you know, whatever.
04:13No crispy bottom here.
04:15Yeah, it's a little bit mushy.
04:16It's soft.
04:18Zero fermentation on it.
04:20There's no crumb structure.
04:21The different holes and the bubbles.
04:23It's like akin to like eating like a bowl of flour.
04:26The dough should be more hydrated.
04:28The hydration will make the dough more light, easy to digest.
04:31It's a good, robust sauce, but.
04:34Doesn't have fresh tomato.
04:35Definitely being overpowered by some grated cheese.
04:38The cheese doesn't even melt.
04:39Doesn't feel like good cheese.
04:42When the pizza is in the freezer too long, the enzymes and the culture at that point
04:46are being broken down and you're losing the flavor from the cheese.
04:49Ah, it's Elio's.
04:52Elio's is definitely one of the top five childhood memories I have.
04:56This isn't trying to be something it's not.
04:58It's just trying to be Elio's.
05:00So we're straight Elio's, like don't come after me or anything like that.
05:04Don't come after me or anything like I'm not trying to cause any problems over here.
05:10Red Baron full cheese pizza.
05:12We definitely have two different cheeses on this one.
05:15I can totally see the cheddar.
05:17What is this yellow stuff?
05:19So the crust here, it's a little crispy on the bottom.
05:22It has a good taste.
05:23There is some flavor on the dough.
05:25It's lighter than the one I tried before.
05:28This is definitely too much cheese.
05:29It's very cheesy pizza.
05:31What is that, four cheese?
05:32It's very oily, greasy.
05:34I think this is lacking a little bit of tomato flavor,
05:36just because the cheese is so strong.
05:38I think it is overpowering the sauce.
05:40When you put so many ingredients on the pizza, you lose other flavors.
05:44It tastes like Chef Boyardee.
05:45Oh, Red Baron.
05:47Four cheese.
05:48Cheddar, provolone, mozzarella, and parmesan.
05:51Oh my god, this thing has like 20,000 ingredients in it.
05:5580 grams of sugars.
05:57Contains bioengineered food ingredients.
06:01Great.
06:03Amy's Cheese Pizza.
06:06I kind of really like the way this pizza looks already.
06:09Looks nice, like an emoji.
06:11Has a really good smell.
06:15It's crispy.
06:16Crust is very good.
06:17Has a lot of flavor.
06:19The mozzarella, this one is more filante.
06:21Filante that pulls.
06:23It's very like light on the sauce.
06:25They cooked the tomato like a ragu.
06:28Tomato sauce have to be fresh.
06:30No cooking process, no sugar.
06:32I know there's going to be an Amy's here.
06:33I like Amy's.
06:35I want them to be good.
06:36But if this is you, Amy, like I expected better out of yours.
06:40Ha ha!
06:41Amy's.
06:42This is organic.
06:43I'm excited to see this pizza.
06:45I tried it like 11 years ago.
06:47It says here a hand-stretched wheat crust.
06:49The wheat flour, it's last process.
06:52That's why it gives more flavor.
06:54It's a good pizza, this one.
06:58Great Value Microwavable Cheese Pizza.
07:00The smell is very rich.
07:03This definitely looks like a tortilla.
07:07No crunch at all.
07:09Squishy.
07:10Squish, squish.
07:11It's very gummy.
07:12Cheese stacks on your teeth.
07:14There definitely is some strands
07:16that haven't melted all the way through.
07:17So they might be using imitation cheese here.
07:20If I'm at a gas station in a pinch
07:23and you hand me one of these in the middle of the desert,
07:26I could get down with this.
07:28I will not call that pizza.
07:30Oh, yeah.
07:32Great Value.
07:33I don't know about any value, but...
07:35What is this, Walmart?
07:36Microwavable.
07:37That's probably why it's soft.
07:39Microwave pizza.
07:40Never had it before.
07:41Sodium aluminum sulfate.
07:43That's what every growing boy needs.
07:45A little teaspoon of aluminum.
07:46I want to give it to my kids too.
07:48I don't have it, but it's even.
07:52California Pizza Kitchen.
07:54Margherita Crispy Thin Crust Pizza.
07:56It's nice.
07:57It's crispy.
07:57It's thin.
07:58I like it the way it looks.
07:59I see the fresh tomatoes on here.
08:01So this pizza has no sauce.
08:04It's just chunks of tomatoes.
08:05They can definitely cannot call Margherita.
08:08Margherita is only one ingredient, tomato.
08:11Not tomato and cherry tomato.
08:13I'm super furious.
08:15I'm third generation of pizzaiolo napoletano.
08:18So just let you imagine my grandfather what he would think.
08:24Yeah, I got really excited when I saw these tomatoes,
08:26but they're definitely not fresh
08:28and have a little sour ting to them.
08:30The mozzarella doesn't really have much flavor.
08:32It's not my favorite crust.
08:34It doesn't have a lot of fermentation on this dough.
08:37When you're looking at really thin pizza,
08:40the whole idea is to try to flatten it out as much as you can.
08:44They use the docking tool on it to make the dough more thin.
08:49The holes on the bottom,
08:50we're making sure that this dough does not rise.
08:52Maybe I can think about California Kitchen Pizza.
08:55Oh, there you go.
08:57California Pizza Kitchen.
08:59Never had this in my life.
09:01This should not call a Margherita.
09:03I don't know where the tomato sauce is,
09:05but they say their sauce.
09:06I beg to differ.
09:08They just closed this one by my house for good reason.
09:13Newman's own thin and crispy crust pizza.
09:15The cheese is bubbling.
09:17Wow.
09:17This one is probably the darkest one that I've seen.
09:22This one is very crispy.
09:24The crust has good flavor.
09:25It's not so processed.
09:27Reminds me of pizza, not cardboard.
09:29The tomato flavor is a little fresher than the other ones.
09:32The cheese is great.
09:33I love that there was a cheese pull.
09:34Oh, a little bit of pull.
09:36Newman's?
09:38Newman's own thin and crispy crust, four cheeses.
09:41Mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan, Asiago.
09:43100% profits, helps kids.
09:46At least do 50-50.
09:49Yeah, I would say this was pretty good.
09:50Awesome.
09:52Whole Foods 365 four cheese pizza.
09:55They all look the same.
09:57It's almost like the same pizza twice.
09:59I think a lot of these pizzas are made in the same factory.
10:02We got that squishy white bottom that we've all grown to love.
10:06What you guys should be doing at home is get yourself a baking steel.
10:09You want to get it on that baking steel, crisp up that bottom.
10:13Maybe throw your broiler on, finish that baby off.
10:18There is no fresh tomato flavor here.
10:20I definitely feel like I bit into a garlic bread.
10:23I don't like this one.
10:24I don't like the dough.
10:26I think this is the most egregious dough of the day.
10:29It's definitely a little gummy.
10:31There's just so much raw flour on it.
10:33The mozzarella, it doesn't pull, it doesn't give a lot of flavor.
10:37It's definitely not quality cheese.
10:39Ooh, let's go.
10:41Whole Foods Market.
10:42Oh, food.
10:43They do have ascorbic acid, which is a dough conditioner,
10:48which will help the dough essentially be able to stretch it easier.
10:51I expect from Whole Foods a better quality pizza, to be honest.
10:56I'm curious as to why there's so many different ingredients in this one pizza.
11:00Jeff Bezos, call me next time we make pizza.
11:05Tombstone original five cheese pizza.
11:07I'm learning that every time you see cheddar, it's a four cheese.
11:11I think we got some cheddar cheese on here.
11:13You cannot even close the slice.
11:16Breaks through.
11:17I'm getting really scared.
11:21It's nice, crisp.
11:23Kind of like slightly toasted Wonder Bread crisp.
11:26It tastes like bland pizza dough.
11:29I think this one here has the best cheese that I've had today.
11:31Just the right amount of salt, enough oil.
11:34It pulls.
11:35It tastes like quality cheese.
11:36The sauce is very good as well.
11:39I love the tomato.
11:40It's not too thick.
11:41It's not too thin.
11:42It doesn't have any overpowering spice.
11:44It just tastes basil.
11:45Very reminiscent of a Tombstone pizza.
11:48Tombstone.
11:50I think it's like the cheapest, right?
11:51Or one of the cheapest out there.
11:53Five cheese, not even four.
11:55So with this one, there is imitation mozzarella.
11:58Fake mozzarella, I never hear that in my entire life.
12:01Imitation mozzarella from water, palm oil, casein.
12:06I definitely think I was fooled a bit.
12:07Five different cheeses.
12:08I guess they had the cheap out somewhere.
12:10Uno Chicago-style deep dish pizza.
12:13Oh God, here we go.
12:16This is not a pizza.
12:17This looks like a deep dish pizza.
12:19It's like a little cake.
12:21So a deep dish pizza is usually cooked in a pan.
12:24Looking at this crust, it makes me think that this pizza is from Chicago.
12:27It's harder to call a pizza.
12:29Sorry guys from Chicago.
12:33It's the best sauce by like a hundred miles.
12:36This is real tomatoes.
12:38Real tomatoes.
12:39Definitely with this dough, we make a cakes instead of pizza.
12:44It almost like eats like a scone.
12:46But look, look, we actually have color.
12:49It's real mozzarella.
12:50And this definitely is a good quality pizza.
12:53This thing that's not pizza is the best frozen pizza we've had today.
12:58What?
12:59Uno.
13:00Uno.
13:01I tried that pizza in Chicago, it was different than this.
13:05As opposed to a fresh pizza right out of the oven,
13:08obviously nothing compares.
13:09But for box pizza, this is definitely one of the better ones.
13:12Unpeeled ground tomatoes.
13:14Yeah, I guess that's the secret, right?
13:17Like just use real tomatoes.
13:24Let's go.
13:25Oh no.
13:25Oh no.
13:27Why does it look like there's french fries on here?
13:29Look how it breaks down.
13:31They don't let the dough work more on the mixer.
13:35Doesn't get elastic.
13:36Think of the glue to like a tic-tac-toe board.
13:39As you're mixing, you're adding lines to like make like a huge net.
13:44If you don't build that net strong enough, it'll collapse.
13:51Tastes like vegan cheese.
13:53This might be some sort of like imitation cheese.
13:55Might not be 100% mozzarella.
13:57I do like the flavor of the dough.
13:59The crust is crispy.
14:01It feels like there's a whole pizza in it.
14:03Let's see what it is.
14:04I think we all know what I think about this.
14:08Yes.
14:08Gluten dairy-free pizza.
14:11They're using oat cream, oat flour, pea protein, and tapioca starch to make this cheese.
14:18I'm not crazy about the cheese, but did a really good job at the crust.
14:22Congratulations for them for the crust.
14:23It's very good.
14:24I really like it.
14:25I'm happy for you.
14:28Cauliflower, cauliflower crust, margherita pizza.
14:31It's a funny presentation of a pizza.
14:34Very thin, no crust.
14:36So we got the little real tomatoes again.
14:39I mean, it was a real tomato at like one point and it's life on this earth.
14:46This is very weird pizza.
14:48The dough is very chewy.
14:50It's blend flour.
14:51Yeah, no crust.
14:52We got another squish-squish.
14:54I'm curious to know if this is actual pizza dough.
14:57The dough is so fragile that could be a gluten-free dough.
15:00Jesus got a blend, but there's like a garden of herbs in this thing.
15:04I feel garlic, parsley, oregano, sugar.
15:08So many other flavors instead of fresh pizza.
15:12Cauliflower!
15:14I'm eating a cauliflower.
15:15For a cauliflower crust, this was one of the best frozen pizzas of the day.
15:19It's funny.
15:19They're marketing more like a funny product, like it's healthier.
15:28What is this?
15:29Did you cook this one?
15:31Something's wrong.
15:32I don't like the color of it.
15:33I don't like the way it looks.
15:34There's like a really weird smell coming out of this.
15:37Corn.
15:38Smell like corn.
15:40It looks like it's very cheap cheese.
15:44Nope.
15:46This is the worst tasting pizza.
15:48Whatever that is, don't ever do it.
15:50It's leaving a very strong aftertaste.
15:52It's almost sour.
15:53Definitely fake cheese.
15:55It looks like a little stones on it.
15:58Somebody go over there immediately and shut them down.
16:01Shut down the factory.
16:03Oh yeah!
16:04Totino's?
16:05I don't know.
16:06Like what?
16:06They make the little...
16:07Don't they make like pizza rolls or something?
16:09Wow, there's a million ingredients.
16:11There's a ton of air in this packaging.
16:13If you were going to use a bag like this, you at least have to put cardboard in it.
16:16The cardboard will eat the moisture.
16:18In this case, there's no cardboard.
16:20The moisture is just going to make those ice particles that are going to make the cheese not melt.
16:25Totino's, I'm really disappointed in you.
16:27I'm calling your mother tomorrow.
16:29That sauce is like...
16:30It's like barbecue sauce and ketchup put together.
16:35Table 87, Cull Oven Margarita Pizza.
16:38This is definitely a margarita pizza.
16:41It looks like a real New York pizza.
16:44I like the color of the mozzarella.
16:45This is definitely fresh mozzarella.
16:47Oh, we got an undercarriage.
16:49Definitely a par bake.
16:50This might have been cooked in like a really hot oven.
16:53Usually over 600 is the most desirable.
16:55We got like maybe a pizza that's not docked and not made in like 20 minutes.
17:01Very flavorful.
17:03It tastes like an actual pizza.
17:04This has more flavor.
17:06It's simple.
17:07You have the fresh tomato, the fresh mozzarella.
17:10I thoroughly enjoyed this crust.
17:11It's giving me a lot of flavor, which means that the fermentation process,
17:15definitely somebody did their research.
17:17It is more smoky, the dough.
17:19Table 87.
17:20Table 87!
17:21I wanted to say it, but...
17:22That's my boy Tommy.
17:23I gotta hand it to Tommy because he spent, I think like 14 years of his life
17:28trying to make this frozen pizza thing a reality.
17:31This is the type of packaging I like.
17:32When you use a vacuum pack, all the flavor stays inside of the pizza.
17:36It's not allowing any oxygen into the bag.
17:39Even the leaf, you can see the leaf doesn't have any discoloration.
17:42Very good.
17:43This is probably the best pizza I had all day.
17:45Good job, buddy.
17:48Bessie's Revenge Screaming Sicilian Cheese Pizza.
17:51Got a little bit of a risen crust.
17:53It looks great.
17:54The cheese looks great.
17:57I think the cheese is throwing me off a little bit.
18:00There is the structure of what would resemble quality cheese,
18:04but the taste itself is not there.
18:06I don't know, something's going on with this cheese
18:08where it's like you get this like funky tang.
18:10The dough does have a crispy bottom.
18:12I just don't think it's bringing a lot of flavor.
18:15It does have like a tiny speck of tomato flavor.
18:18It's not like a straight up like crime against humanity.
18:23Overall, it's not so bad.
18:25It's not my favorite.
18:27There you go.
18:28Screaming Sicilian Pizza.
18:30It's like Halloween packaging.
18:32The mustache is awesome.
18:34Wisconsin Whole Milk Fresh Mozzarella Slices.
18:37Actually, the best cheese is for New York style pizza
18:40come from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
18:42I don't know if this brand here is the best for
18:45showing us what Wisconsin cheese is all about.
18:48The cheese wasn't the worst, just wasn't the best.
18:51Let's see which products our chefs like the most and the least.
18:55I think the number one pizza that I had today was Table 87.
18:58Table 87.
19:00I love to taste the fresh ingredients.
19:03The fresh basil, the fresh mozzarella,
19:05dough that didn't seem like it was made in a pharmaceutical laboratory.
19:08I think the Trader Joe's one had a good quality mozzarella.
19:11Who knows?
19:12Those tomatoes were the most wonderful tomatoes we had.
19:15The pizza I disliked the most was the Totino's Party Pack.
19:19It definitely tasted fake.
19:21Least favorite today was Totino's and that vegan gluten-free soy thing.
19:28Definitely the microwave was not my favorite pizza.
19:31It was gummy, it was soft.
19:33No.
19:34I think frozen pizza can definitely be made
19:36without all the additives and the preservatives.
19:39Quality, less ingredients, and the right packaging.
19:42You can have a great product.
19:44Frozen pizza?
19:46Get your s*** together.