Reducing Food Waste: Joe Farruggio Of 90 Second Pizza On How They Are Helping To Eliminate Food Waste
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Look for the best real estate options. Location, location, location. You need to be in a good location, and if you negotiate an option to buy your lease with an established price or market value, like I did, you can earn more money in the future.
It has been estimated that each year, more than 100 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. That equates to more than $160 billion worth of food thrown away each year. At the same time, in many parts of the United States, there is a crisis caused by people having limited access to healthy & affordable food options. The waste of food is not only a waste of money and bad for the environment, but it is also making vulnerable populations even more vulnerable.
Authority Magazine started a new series called “How Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, Hospitality Companies and Food Companies Are Helping To Eliminate Food Waste.” In this interview series, we are talking to leaders and principals of Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, Hospitality Companies, Food Companies, and any business or nonprofit that is helping to eliminate food waste, about the initiatives they are taking to eliminate or reduce food waste.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Joe Farruggio.
Award-winning restaurateur/pizzaiolo/chef Joe (Giuseppe) Farruggio, was born and raised in beautiful Agrigento, Sicily. With more than 53 years of restaurant, entrepreneurial, and culinary experience, he is now the owner of the renowned Washington, DC landmark Il Canale (one of Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat 2022), as well as the rapidly expanding 90 Second Pizza Concept and A Modo Mio(Named one of the Top 50 Pizzerias in the World 2023) in Virginia. A key player in the Washington, DC restaurant scene since 1978, lauded restaurateur Joe Farruggio recently released his first book My Name Is Joe And I Am A Pizza Man.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
As a kid I thought I would stay in Sicily and do what my parents did. Then when I came to America, I saw what others did, and began working as a dishwasher in a pizzeria at age 15. I went on to work many other jobs, but since many Italians opened restaurants, and my aunt told me that there was money in the pizza business, I shifted my attention to restaurants.
I opened my first place in Woodbridge, VA. At that time it was a small town, and my customers told me that I should open other locations. I knew that if I went further north into the suburbs of DC, I could expand. I went to Bailey’s Cross Roads, and then I went to sign a much more expensive 25 year lease. I was only 28 years old, and so I felt that I was taking a big risk.
Today I have more than a half of a century’s worth of experience in pizza and am proud to call Il Canale, A Modo Mio and 90 Second Pizza my own.
I created the DC based 90 Second Pizza Chain to offer clients authentic Neapolitan pizza in just 90 seconds. A game changer in the pizza chain industry, 90 Second Pizza enables you to enjoy nutritious, traditional Italian pizza in a fraction of the time that American-style fast food pies are served. In addition to the Georgetown location, last month we also opened the new 708 7th St NW, location to bring genuine pizza to the thriving area. We are planning on opening additional locations in DC this year as well.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company or organization?
We are in a bit of a unique position because we specialize in only 1 item — pizza! It’s always fresh, always selling quickly, and customers are amazed that they eat the whole thing. Because it is a traditional Neapolitan-style pizza, it is meant to be enjoyed all at once. I actually get letters from people saying that they are shocked that they can eat the whole thing by themselves. When I look in the trash, I only see empty soda bottles and pizza boxes — I never see leftover food because they eat the whole thing. It’s a whole pizza but there’s about 125 grams of flour and water — so it’s not really a lot of flour and we let it raise in a certain way so it’s light, yet a complete meal.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Hearing about our “90 second” concept, a lot of people actually count the time it takes to make their pizza on their phone or watch to make sure that it really takes 90 seconds. It’s funny to see the challenge. To mix innovation and tradition was my goal, and our ovens are all computerized, so that was a great help to me. It’s tricky to balance the heat and speed, in the beginning we had to put them together — it took a long time to get them to work precisely the way that we wanted them to, but now we have the perfect speed.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
To me a leadership role means that you have to hire the best people. I hire the quality control who is the best pizza man and then he hires the people who he thinks can do the best job. I can always tell who will stay and who won’t. I don’t judge people by what they say, I judge them by their actions.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“No dream is too extreme.”
I am very grateful because 55 years after beginning in this industry, even though nothing is the way I thought that it was going to be, I realize that if I would have planned my own life, I would have undercut myself. America gave me a new life beyond my expectations and know-how. I worked a lot, but I gave the United States my hand, and it gave me its whole body. I got so much out of being here….
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. What exactly are we talking about when we refer to food waste?
Food waste, to me, refers to anything edible that is thrown away, either in the home or in a professional kitchen. Having grown up in Sicily, we learned to use vegetables from root to tip, utilized the entire animals that we butchered, and were armed with many ingenious recipes to transform leftovers into delicacies. Both home and professional cooks learn this in Italy and the Mediterranean region as a whole, so we are better equipped to avoid waste. In the US, however, there is a tendency to favor 1 part of an animal and leftovers are not embraced the way they are in Italy.
I also like to avoid waste of all sorts as much as possible, that includes a waste in utilities, resources, and paper/plastic products. There is a fine balance between keeping your customers happy and abusing resources, and finding it should be the goal of all businesses.
Can you help articulate a few of the main causes of food waste?
1. Experience — supervision — human beings make mistakes. In the cooking process, things can get burned or cross contaminated. If you don’t keep inventory labelled the proper way or utilize a proper storage system, you will waste time and products. If suppliers come less often, it’s harder to gauge what you will need. When they come more often it’s easier.
There’s often a waste of utilities — the three compartment system for dishwashing is efficient and doesn’t waste water. Adjusting the temperature in the restaurant can also cut down on waste. Air filters need to be kept clean, I recommend changing them monthly so that everything runs smoother.
What are a few of the obstacles that companies and organizations face when it comes to distributing extra or excess food? What can be done to overcome those barriers?
We don’t have that problem — we are really good at ordering the proper amount.
Can you describe a few of the ways that you or your organization are helping to reduce food waste?
We have to prepare all of our toppings in advance — vegetables, cheese, and meat. The meats are already cured (ham, sausage, etc) — those things can stay in the refrigerator for a few days. We swap out our vegetables daily. They judge the business and know what we will sell in terms of orders — it’s pretty predictable — we prep for numbers so that we don’t have waste at all. Because we only offer one item, people usually eat it all or take it home, so there is no waste at the table either.
In terms of the environment, we are doing our best to reduce our carbon footprint by using eco-friendly details such as recyclable materials, straw and cup free drinks, environmentally friendly napkins, and even a payment system that provides an electronic check instead of a printed one combine to help us maintain our commitment to the environment.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help address the root of this problem?
As a community, we can begin to appreciate and learn proper food sizes. Restaurants are often forced to offer really large portions in order for customers feel that they are getting their money’s worth, but the excess food often leads to waste. In addition, if we use high-quality and fresh ingredients, lesser quantities go a longer way in terms of satisfying customers and reducing waste.
In restaurants we also need to teach our staff to plan and purchase food properly. Knowing how to store food correctly is also key. Teaching food waste prevention and education campaigns, and implementing municipal composting programs is important. Governments can provide tax credits to farmers who donate excess produce to local food banks and to restaurants who are efficient in keeping food waste down.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why.
I am a pizzaiolo turned restaurateur, and this is the advice I would give to anyone starting out:
1. Get experience first — learn what you will do — management experience, buying, and production — It’s a disaster to open a restaurant if you don’t have any experience. I wish I had experience in HR, Payroll, and Food costs. I didn’t have a lot of inventory experience, and that would have helped me a great deal.
2. Hire a good lawyer — I wish I knew that I would have needed a lawyer — I would have had one on retainer. In Washington you always need one and I could have saved a lot of money.
3. Choose your battles wisely. Don’t waste time fighting things that aren’t worth it — when I put my restaurants together in Georgetown, I thought that I could open it by combining 2 buildings. My old landlord wanted $3K more money in rent — so we went into litigation. I wasted thousands of dollars and time instead of just paying the additional money he asked for or negotiating at that time.
4. Hire a good accountant — I didn’t always have an accountant that was highly qualified. At once I chose someone who was close by and affordable, but I ended up losing money because the other accountant didn’t help me with deductions and the business details that he could have.
5. Look for the best real estate options. Location, location, location. You need to be in a good location, and if you negotiate an option to buy your lease with an established price or market value, like I did, you can earn more money in the future.
Are there other leaders or organizations who have done good work to address food waste? Can you tell us what they have done? What specifically impresses you about their work?
Perhaps we can reach out to them to include them in this series.
I recently learned about ReFED- a national nonprofit dedicated to ending food loss and waste by advancing data-driven solutions. With their holistic view of the food system, they’re working to achieve a 50% food waste reduction in accordance with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
They even created a “State Policy Toolkit to Achieve Zero Food Waste” for policy makers which contains a range of tried and tested policy opportunities that states can use to prevent food waste and keep it out of landfills and incinerators. The target audience for this toolkit is state policymakers and advocates — whether their interest stems from concerns around climate change and environmental sustainability, financial responsibility, increasing food rescue, or finding opportunities to support local farmers, all of which can be achieved through policies described in this toolkit.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I like to help my employees earn more money than an average job with profit bonus sharing. I wish that every restaurant would do that because it improves production and makes employees happy. We take a percentage of our profit and give it to the salaried and hourly employees along with bonuses. This can be worked into a business plan. I split 20% of profits with my non-tipped employees. I have been doing this for 10 years, and I have dishwashers and others who stayed with me far above average for that reason. This improves peoples’ lives and is a policy I would like to help expand in the world. If I could I would buy even more restaurants to do this.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
My parents. They are no longer with us, but I feel their presence daily and would do anything to have the chance to share a meal with them again, especially in my restaurants. I think that they would be proud of me and the life that I have created for my family. I owe everything to them.
What is the best way our readers can further follow your work online?
www.joefarruggio.com — www.90secondpizza.us
Facebook: @joefarruggiodc @90secondpizzaus
Instagram: @joefarruggiodc — @90secondpizzadc
This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.
Reducing Food Waste: Joe Farruggio Of 90 Second Pizza On How They Are Helping To Eliminate Food… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.