Toppers, Milwaukee chef bring vegan pizza
Toppers Pizza, a Whitewater-based national chain, is introducing three vegan pizzas, plus other plant-based options. The new offerings launched July 20 in Madison.
The vegan flavors include the Buffalo Chicken-less Topper (with Buffalo sauce, vegan chicken and mozzarella, green onions and vegan ranch), the Korean BBQ Chicken-less Topper (with Korean barbecue sauce, vegan chicken and mozzarella, onions and peppers) and the Tuscano Topper (with tomato sauce, vegan cheese, spinach, tomatoes and green olives). Customers can substitute the new vegan toppings onto existing items.
“We’ve had a lot of requests from customers over the years to offer vegan items on our menu... particularly with the emergence of plant-based protein,” said Mac Malchow, Toppers director of menu innovation.
Toppers hired local plant-based chef Melanie Manuel to develop the menu items. Manuel owns Celesta Restaurant, a Milwaukee eatery serving all-vegan comfort food, and was certified by Cornell in plant-based nutrition.
“(Toppers) reached out to me because they’re a Wisconsin based company and they were looking for someone local,” Manuel said. “They were really interested in the angle that a private restaurant owner or chef would take, rather than a big corporate agency.”
Manuel brought fifteen vegan concepts to the table. (Toppers, Malchow said, may eventually develop all her proposals.) They settled on Gardein’s meatless “chick’n” and Follow Your Heart’s non-dairy mozzarella as the base for the new offerings, two products Manuel said are widely used by vegans.
Malchow emphasized that Toppers hopes to win over existing customers, not just vegans, with the new menu items.
Manuel said though she developed the menu before the pandemic, she thinks plant-based pizza is especially important now.
“It’s a great option for vegans who are immunocompromised and can’t leave their homes, because obviously Toppers delivers quickly,” she said.