It appears as though the food industry has really taken a liking to ingredients as of late. Everywhere from McDonalds fry holsters sporting images of potatoes that had to make “the cut” to one day become a drunk kid’s late night calorie fix to Frito Lay emphasizing in commercials that people look at the back of their chip bags before making purchases. It seems like people care about things that are real. It makes sense that people would rather see things like corn and salt in their food instead of hydrogenated high fructose corn syrup and the dreaded baby killer yellow-5, but it seems quite peculiar to me that America is just starting to care now. I guess people figure that with what little money they have left, they should be spending it on something that comes from the ground and not a test tube.
This trend has caught up with the pizza industry and what better establishment than Pizza Hut. In just another one of their highly recognizable gag commercials, Pizza Hut fools people into a party, feeds them with what the hostess claims is homemade pizza, and then lambasts them with a surprise… Yeah, the pizza is from Pizza Hut. Everyone’s amazed, one hysterical fan faints, roll credits. Well not exactly, but I don’t understand how Pizza Hut keeps finding people who have lived under a rock the last year and fool them into these setups. The next time someone comes up to me and asks if I want to go anywhere with them for any reason, I’ll think Pizza Hut’s somehow involved. I could be invited to a pottery show in Wichita, Kansas, where the only thing they serve is crab puffs and Shirley temples and I’ll be suspicious of being blindsided by that Pizza Hut delivery guy with that mischievous smile coming out of the woodwork. The Natural is Pizza Hut’s newest gimmick. This pizza embodies the ideals of reality. With a multigrain crust, real tomato based sauces, real cheese, and you guessed it real pepperoni, the natural is as close to homemade as you can get.
The main point that always jumps out to me, as it always does when any food company comes out with a “real” campaign, is the simple fact that these companies are admitting that they used to not use real ingredients. I remember during my adolescence Rits Bits Sandwiches began using real cheese and even more recently McDonalds began to use all white meat in their nuggets. This is all fine and dandy now, but what in God’s green earth was being used beforehand? They might as well have put, now we don’t use fake cheese. It’s basically the same message if you think about it.
As a background to my preparation for the Natural, I went to my Aunt’s house for a post holiday get together. She had made homemade pizza from scratch, including making the crust out of dough, using real tomato sauces, and shredded cheeses. After plowing through 3 or 4 slices, I was convinced I had a good barometer for what the homemade pizza market encompassed.
So the next day, my family ordered the Natural, with pep on one side and shrooms enveloping the other. The first thing anyone, including your color blind friends, have to notice is the Hut’s new box. It’s bold, brash, and very red. And it never even mentions the words Pizza, just The Hut. The best of all is whenever you open up the box to reveal something that appears to be a statement of fact: Now You’re Eating.
Those last twenty years of my life, I was just consuming food I guess, never truly eating though. So I guess this would be quite the devirginizing process. But when you take a look at the pie, its hard to believe that it came from the people who brought you the Panormous. There’s nothing that resembles a sponge, or a oh too perfect blanket coating of cheese, or the suspiciously large amount of liquid caressing the the surface. What we have here is a real pizza. There is an imperfect amount of cheese, the whole thing isn’t completely covered, but thats ok with me cause thats what a legit pizza is supposed be.
The crust was most definitely coming as advertised too, multigrain at worst. It looked to be borderline rye it had so much tint to it. I began to believe the hype. Was this pizza actually gonna be something that I could eat a healthy portion of and not feel like I’d just relived an allergy test afterwards?
Well I grabbed a slice and even though there was a good amount of grease, first bite was borderline enthralling.
Everything came together for me just like that huge robot the Power Rangers formed into whenever they needed reinforcement. I couldn’t help but double take and make sure this was really from The Hut. The crust was light and flavorful, the sauce was bursting with “vine ripin” machismo, and the cheese was wholesome and vibrant. I downed three pieces and hours later I never crashed. Its that kind of feeling you get when you decide to eat fruit instead of a fruit roll up. Somehow it just makes your stomach happier in the end.
I’m gonna give the Natural from Pizza Hut a 4.5/5. If you’re sick of prefab pizza that has little taste but tons of unwanted
stomach aches, go for the ‘Natty. It’ll really change your opinion on fast food za.
Pizza Hut The Natural Pizza: 4.5/5
Until the next sauce,
Andrew
