"PizzaHut" news and stories

You might have noticed that most "new" items at fast-food chains are just rearrangements of the ingredients found in their usual fare, and Pizza Hut is no stranger to this concept. Their latest offering is the Big Dipper -- made from their staple ingredients of crust, tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings. It's the presentation that's new: This pie is sliced to share three or four ways on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Claim: The Big Dipper is a rectangular pizza (about 24"x9"), served with one or more toppings. It is cut into 24 pieces, each about 2" x 4.5", and served with four 3-oz cups of marinara sauce, presumably so that four individuals can have his/her own.

My full review after the jump...

Look out, Ronald McDonald. The Colonel has you in his sights.

Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, all owned by Pepsi spinoff Yum! Brands, are gaining ground on McDonalds in China, India and Russia, Bloomburg Businessweek reported. With 37,000 restaurants in 110 countries, Yum! is the world's largest restaurant chain in terms of outlets and its growing in popularity overseas, bringing in more money every year.

More after the jump...

Some celebrities are perfect for the food they promote -- Florence Henderson and Wesson Oil seemed made for each other like Popeye and spinach.

But not all stars are a natural match for the products they endorse. (Like that former Soviet premier who went on to do Pizza Hut ads?) Here are Slashfood's picks for the 10 Weirdest Celebrity Food Commercials of All Time.

Earl Grey teabag. Photo: House of Sims, Flickr

• Could the Earl Grey MarTEAni become the next classic cocktail?
  
• In honor of "Julie & Julia," a look into the culinary highlights and lowlights of ten culinary films.
• Move over, haggis! A Glasgow restaurant claims to have invented chicken tikka masala, and the city wants to make it a local delicacy.
• Leftover sirloin steak? Turn it into part of a tasty salad.
• If looking for wine off the beaten path, investigate quirky LCBO selections such as Vignamaggio Suhaili Syrah 2006, Puglia, Italy and Concha Y Toro Winemaker's Lot No. 11 Riesling 2007, Chile.
• Vancouver's Le Crocodile offers the classic French cooking many restaurants have left behind.
• Backyard barbecues don't have to entail mountainous piles of food; they can be enjoyed bite-sized.
• A dish to "encapsulate the best of British cooking": summer pudding.
• Summer means fresh salads, but are the fast-food versions from spots like Swiss Chalet and Pizza Hut actually healthy?

I tend to be pretty particular about my pizza. When I lived in Virginia, I plotted out most of my region based on the tastiest pizza, the best priced pizza, and a few other key pizza considerations. While New York is a daunting pizza town, I've spent much of the past few years figuring out the best pizza places, calibrating the difference between amazing pizza and that which is simply acceptable, and generally trying to figure out how to best enjoy one of my favorite foods.

While I prefer mom and pop pizza joints, I have occasionally been know to frequent chain pizzerias. Of the major pizza franchises, my favorite was always Pizza Hut; their flavors always struck me as particularly clean, and their ingredients always seemed quite fresh. However, when I removed high fructose corn syrup from my diet, I started being able to taste it in fast foods. One day, while eating a pizza, I detected its foul flavor in the sauce. A little research confirmed my suspicion: Pizza Hut was using the dreaded HFCS. In a moment, Pizza Hut joined the foully-sweet Papa John's and the blandly repulsive Domino's on my no-eat list. My "pizza island" got a little smaller, a little narrower, and a little sadder.

Recently, however, the chain has developed The Natural, a pizza that allegedly uses vine-ripened tomatoes and all-natural mozzarella, while eschewing artificial ingredients like HFCS, nitrates, nitrites, artificial colors, and preservatives. According to some sources, they are planning to extend this all-natural trend to the rest of their line.

It looks like I may have to revisit one of my old favorites!