The King of Mozzarella
July 6, 2017 3:55 PM Subscribe
This Secretive Billionaire Makes The Cheese For Pizza Hut, Domino's And Papa John's This is an oddly compelling account of the man who grew his family's Italian food import business in Denver into a multi-billion dollar mozzarella cheese supplier to most of the pizza chains you've heard of, providing unique cheese recipes to each one. Now he's expanding into protein powder.
Well, it explains why all those places have the same cheese-like flavor on their pies.
I always figured it was Sysco or US Foods.
Good on him though for seeing the potential for a market and then going after it.
posted by madajb at 4:24 PM on July 6, 2017
I always figured it was Sysco or US Foods.
Good on him though for seeing the potential for a market and then going after it.
posted by madajb at 4:24 PM on July 6, 2017
After hearing that shredding 5-pound cheese blocks in the franchises was time-consuming and inconsistent, Leprino Foods started selling frozen, presliced blocks.
Want better-tasting pizza?
Make America Grate Again!
posted by chavenet at 4:28 PM on July 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
Want better-tasting pizza?
Make America Grate Again!
posted by chavenet at 4:28 PM on July 6, 2017 [20 favorites]
We had a giant Hobart stand mixer with a grater attachment, but shredding 5lb blocks of cheese was one of the faster processes for ingredient making at the pizza shop I worked for. I'm pretty sure I could do a block in 20 seconds or so.
posted by LionIndex at 4:34 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by LionIndex at 4:34 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Want better-tasting pizza?
Make America Grate Again!
That's how Papa Murphy's does it. Their cheese comes in huge blocks that are run through a big shredder/grater at each location.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:35 PM on July 6, 2017
Make America Grate Again!
That's how Papa Murphy's does it. Their cheese comes in huge blocks that are run through a big shredder/grater at each location.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:35 PM on July 6, 2017
I'll bet it's actually cleaning the industrial food processor of greasy gunky cheese that's the time-consuming part. And if you can buy all your stuff pre-cut, you don't need one at all.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:44 PM on July 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 4:44 PM on July 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
i cannot (can, sigh) believe he never gave the scientist equity. smells funny.
posted by j_curiouser at 4:58 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by j_curiouser at 4:58 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Hobart mixers bring back strange memories for me.
posted by jonmc at 5:16 PM on July 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by jonmc at 5:16 PM on July 6, 2017 [6 favorites]
This was a great read paired with the Jamón ibérico post!
posted by Room 641-A at 5:20 PM on July 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
One pizza entrepreneur puts it this way about the man who owns 100% of this mozzarella giant: "Jim Leprino is a very powerful man."Jim Leprino is truly the big cheese.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:20 PM on July 6, 2017 [17 favorites]
I'll bet it's actually cleaning the industrial food processor of greasy gunky cheese that's the time-consuming part. And if you can buy all your stuff pre-cut, you don't need one at all.
No, we did this too! It's easy and just part of the dish-cleaning we did every night. The Hobart is almost literally a 5' tall version of a KitchenAid countertop mixer. There's a thing for attachments on the front - we had a slicer/shredder housing made of 1/4" thick stainless steel that would hook into that, with a selection of discs depending on what we wanted to do. Once you're done, the housing and the disc are all you need to clean and you can do it in the sink in a minute.
The time factor might really be different for a mass-produced shop though. I just worked at a mom-and-pop place. If Pizza Hut tried to use a Hobart for everything we used it for (making dough, slicing vegetables, shredding cheese, grinding sausage), it'd probably be running continuously.
posted by LionIndex at 6:00 PM on July 6, 2017
No, we did this too! It's easy and just part of the dish-cleaning we did every night. The Hobart is almost literally a 5' tall version of a KitchenAid countertop mixer. There's a thing for attachments on the front - we had a slicer/shredder housing made of 1/4" thick stainless steel that would hook into that, with a selection of discs depending on what we wanted to do. Once you're done, the housing and the disc are all you need to clean and you can do it in the sink in a minute.
The time factor might really be different for a mass-produced shop though. I just worked at a mom-and-pop place. If Pizza Hut tried to use a Hobart for everything we used it for (making dough, slicing vegetables, shredding cheese, grinding sausage), it'd probably be running continuously.
posted by LionIndex at 6:00 PM on July 6, 2017
One pizza entrepreneur puts it this way about the man who owns 100% of this mozzarella giant: "Jim Leprino is a very powerful man."
He has probably eaten millions of pounds of mozzarella. I bet this entrepreneur didn't give his name because he knows Jim Leprino could literally tear him apart with his bare hands at the slightest provocation.
posted by clockzero at 6:41 PM on July 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
He has probably eaten millions of pounds of mozzarella. I bet this entrepreneur didn't give his name because he knows Jim Leprino could literally tear him apart with his bare hands at the slightest provocation.
posted by clockzero at 6:41 PM on July 6, 2017 [4 favorites]
Like a human piece of string cheese.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:46 PM on July 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Room 641-A at 6:46 PM on July 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Let's have a shoutout to Auto-Chlor, too
posted by thelonius at 6:54 PM on July 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 6:54 PM on July 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
pizza cheese? pizza cheese???? can't there be one damn thing these days without a "secretive billionaire" in charge of it?
posted by wibari at 10:15 PM on July 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by wibari at 10:15 PM on July 6, 2017 [9 favorites]
One pizza entrepreneur puts it this way about the man who owns 100% of this mozzarella giant: "Jim Leprino is a very powerful man."Three years ago Metafilter even got suckered in, along with an embarrassingly large amount of New England's congressional delegations, by a pretty absurd conspiracy theory tangentially involving the company.
posted by Blasdelb at 4:59 AM on July 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
So it turns out the real money in pizza isn't heroin after all.
posted by TedW at 10:13 AM on July 7, 2017
posted by TedW at 10:13 AM on July 7, 2017
OMG, their office has a free chocolate milk dispenser. I know that's a bad reason to want to work somewhere, but...
posted by asperity at 11:06 AM on July 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by asperity at 11:06 AM on July 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
Re: the protein powder:
Leprino is also rolling out the company's first direct-to-consumer product, a whey protein powder called Ascent, which will have a dedicated wing at the Greeley facility. While Leprino still produces whey protein as a by-product of making cheese for its clients, Ascent is filtered straight from raw milk to protect key proteins and vitamins that help aid muscle recovery. Leprino hopes that will be an edge in the $6.6 billion-and-growing U.S. protein market.
As i understand it, it's an opportunity to take what is ordinarily a waste product and turn it into a high-markup consumer product.
I guess that's...
*puts on sunglasses*
...another whey to make more money!
*escorts self from thread*
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:29 PM on July 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Leprino is also rolling out the company's first direct-to-consumer product, a whey protein powder called Ascent, which will have a dedicated wing at the Greeley facility. While Leprino still produces whey protein as a by-product of making cheese for its clients, Ascent is filtered straight from raw milk to protect key proteins and vitamins that help aid muscle recovery. Leprino hopes that will be an edge in the $6.6 billion-and-growing U.S. protein market.
As i understand it, it's an opportunity to take what is ordinarily a waste product and turn it into a high-markup consumer product.
I guess that's...
*puts on sunglasses*
...another whey to make more money!
*escorts self from thread*
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:29 PM on July 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Is this the reason why those fuckers at pizza man dans charged me $25 for a large sized vile piece of shit? Because if so
Fuck
You
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:24 PM on July 7, 2017
Fuck
You
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:24 PM on July 7, 2017
Should this be marked as a cross post from the Accidental Wes Anderson thread? I think this guy inspired one or more of the characters in Fantastic Mr. Fox.
posted by mumblelard at 4:21 PM on July 9, 2017
posted by mumblelard at 4:21 PM on July 9, 2017
I think this guy inspired one or more of the characters in Fantastic Mr. Fox.
It was an adaptation of a Roald Dahl book, I think
posted by thelonius at 5:09 PM on July 9, 2017
It was an adaptation of a Roald Dahl book, I think
posted by thelonius at 5:09 PM on July 9, 2017
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