For decades, Giordano’s has been synonymous with Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, perfecting the dense, flaky crust and thick layer of cheese that define the “stuffed” style. Today, the legendary pizzeria has successfully transported its authentic experience across the country, including two popular locations in Las Vegas, and is shipping its pies nationwide via Goldbelly. Corporate Executive Chef Jesse Harris shares insights into maintaining that legendary quality during rapid expansion.
The Formula for Authentic Consistency
Giordano’s success relies on strict adherence to quality and preparation, ensuring that whether a customer is in Chicago, Orlando, or Las Vegas (a Washington DC location is coming soon), the experience remains the same.
People, Product, and Proprietary Ingredients
Chef Harris identifies a dual focus on people and proprietary ingredients as the secret to maintaining authenticity outside of Chicago.
“The most important aspect of our operation is our people! We couldn’t serve the greatest pizza in the world without the greatest pizza cooks in the world,” Harris explains. He adds that quality control extends to the supply chain: “Though beyond personnel, it’s the quality of our ingredients. Even in our locations outside of Chicago, we keep a high level of focus on our proprietary products like dough, sauce, sausage and cheese, ensuring the same quality at every location.”
Dedicated Sourcing for Core Flavor
The unique taste of a Giordano’s pizza is rooted in two specific, custom-sourced ingredients: the mozzarella and the tomatoes.
- Cheese: “Our cheese comes from a co-op in southern Wisconsin,” Harris reveals. “All the dairy the creamery uses comes from within 50 miles of the facility. It is not your standard grocery store mozzarella. We have a specific range of water content, milk fat content and salt that leads to the perfect texture and flavor profile for those legendary cheese pulls.”
- Tomatoes: “Our tomatoes come from the Central Valley in California and have no preservatives or additives. They are a special non-GMO tomato that has a high sugar content and low acid content. That leads to a perfect balance of flavor for our sauces. They go from the field to processing in 4-8 hours. We pride ourselves on our ability to make sure we can source our specific high-quality ingredients for all locations across the country.”
Standardizing the Stuffed Pizza Challenge
The unique “stuffed” style of Giordano’s deep dish presents significant operational complexity, yet the company strives for flawless replication across all multi-state restaurants.
Training and Execution
Instead of seeing the uniformity as a challenge, Harris views the consistency as a sign of successful internal processes. “It’s not so much of a challenge, but the consistency is a testament to our training and refinement of our pizza-making process,” he says. “We tirelessly focus on our execution and product quality to make sure every pizza consistently delivers that famous Giordano’s experience, even in our restaurants outside the Chicago market.”
Maintaining Quality Across the Menu
Beyond the deep dish, Giordano’s extensive menu includes thin-crust pizza, salads, and pasta. To ensure these secondary offerings meet the same high standards, the back-of-house operations are specialized.
“The focus is no different than the pizza,” Harris affirms. “Our back-of-house is separated into two kitchens. We have a dedicated pizza team and a kitchen team where everything other than pizza comes out, salads, pastas, apps, etc. This allows team members to become masters of their specific areas, creating consistent, high-quality menu items for every guest. Though we are known for our pizza, our dedication to quality and consistency on our other menu items does not waver.”
The Las Vegas Market and Future Growth
While the Chicago roots are strong, the fundamental priorities of value and quality remain constant for customers everywhere, including the two Las Vegas locations.
“What we have found is that all our guests are very focused on quality and value for anything they’re ordering,” Harris observes. “Just as I mentioned before, all our ingredients that we use are of extremely high-quality, the best we can source. Our product, even though it is premium priced because of the quality and execution, still holds great value.”
Looking ahead, the focus is squarely on sustaining their high standards through disciplined supply chain management. “Martha Spezia, our director of purchasing and I work tirelessly to ensure that the products that we procure are sustainable, and the absolute best that we can find to maintain the quality of products people have come to love Giordano’s for,” says Harris. “Our focus on our product is quality for and beyond anything else.”
