The person who invented breakfast pizza was a genius, amirite?

 

http://www.amirite.net

According to my resume, I worked as a food service supervisor at Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg PA, from February 1991 to September 1996. I was first hired by the Wood Company, in their brand new pizza shop called “Itza Pizza”.

During my lunch break I had time to rack my brain and come up with different ways to combine the ordinary pizza ingredients and whatever else I could find in the bakery, which was across the back hall from the pizza shop. I always loved to be creative with food and I had a lot of company ingredients at hand and company ovens to cook with. 

After we rolled out a pizza dough we would roll a tool over it to puncture holes in it so it would cook quicker and more evenly without air bubbles. One day early in my employment, I went over to the bakery and got some eggs and scrambled them and poured them on the crust I had ready and the egg dripped down through the holes and made a terrible mess I had to clean up. Next time I didn’t run the piercing tool over the dough and poured egg on the crust, why not ham and cheese. How much does America love white carbohydrates? Freshly baked bread and eggs and cheese! Why not sausage, onion and peppers? Black olives?

 Mmmmm, I invented breakfast pizza! 

Next I went over to the bakery to get a banana and some honey and cinnamon. I rolled out dough for a calzone and instead of ham and mozzarella and ricotta, I used a sliced banana with honey and cinnamon and sealed the edges pinching a hole in the top for hot air to escape. I sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top and baked it.

 Mmmmm, I invented Banana Calzone?

When the head boss, the director of the Wood Company at BU walked into the pizza shop and saw the breakfast pie he summoned me upstairs to his office. I was apprehensive but since I was in charge of the pizza shop, I would have to answer for my actions. I hoped I didn’t lose my job that day…

“Who put egg on a pizza, who did this?” I stood in front of him in my apron and confessed that it was all my idea and would take full responsibility for what I did. I was sorry… but wait… He’s getting up, he’s walking towards me. He’s patting me on the back! “Good job” he said “Good job”

As far as I know, I invented Breakfast Pizza that day. I had not, nor had anyone else there ever seen a Breakfast Pizza. We put it on the menu and it was a great hit. 

After the Wood Company left BU, Aramark came in and continued to serve Breakfast Pizza, not only in Bloomsburg but eventually at many other locations as well.

So, it was my idea but I did it on company time with company ingredients and used company energy, (the oven) to complete my invention. So who owns Breakfast Pizza? The Wood Company, if they are still in business and Aramark do. Since there is no patent on this invention, any other company or person who wishes to make Breakfast Pizza can use the same process and serve it up for free till the cows come home.

Does an invention become the property of the employer or of the employee? Building a case against a business owner can be very sophisticated. You have to prove you never used any of their property and did all the research on your own time… According to http://www.employment.findlaw.com, the employee used his initiative but he used the employer’s resources. The US Supreme Court has said “where an employee during his hours of employment working with his employer’s materials and appliances, conceives and perfects an invention for which he obtains a patent, he must accord his master a nonexclusive right to practice the invention”. 

A prime example of this is Brian Elder from Findlay, Ohio, who recently has be featured on Domino’s TV ads for inventing Parmesan bread bites now available at 5,000 Domino’s locations in the US. For an interesting view and commentary of the commercial go to http://www.thiscommercialsucks.blogspot.com

For a more impressive view of Mr. Elder, check out his local newspaper. http://www.toledoBlade.com Here you can read just how impressive he is as owner of seven Domino’s franchises. He is also a Guinness World Record holder for making 206 medium pizzas in one hour. For more record breaking information about Mr. Elder go to http://www.youtube.com and view any of the 19 videos labeled “Brian Elder Video Bio “.

Hey Brian Elder, have you ever made a Breakfast Pizza?

PS: The Banana Calzone never took off!

Idea: I think it’s time to launder all your scarves and gloves and hats and mittens

Marietta John FI

 

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Zimpeach Lemonade by Marietta John FI

Lemonade has always been a part of my family and in my refrigerator. I began making lemonade when my kids were young and thirsty and I felt uncomfortable giving them drinks that contained artificial flavor and colors.
I never bought drink mixes to hydrate humans; however you can use them to dye clothing. Once I dyed a white summer dress with sugar-free lemon drink mix. It was a sleeveless Swiss Dot dress with a peter pan collar and it came out a lovely creamy yellow color.
There is always lemonade in my house and there is a lemonade spoon that is only used for stirring lemonade and everybody knows about it. Stir the lemonade; rinse the spoon under cold running water and after shaking it off, place it sideways across the utensil crock to dry. You may think I am kind of fussy, well I am. Another rule in my kitchen is no hand washing at my kitchen sink; I don’t care who you are.
Thirty years ago I found a great ratio of water, lemon and sugar that makes the nicest lemonade. I found it even better after reaming one large orange into it. Later on I started using fresh strawberries or peach nectar.
I named it Zimpeach Lemonade and Zimstrawberry. Zim Original had the orange in it. I referred to it as “fruited lemonade”. It was a big hit everywhere I took it, so I thought I should bottle and sell it right away.
I hooked up with my local Small Business Development Center and began to search out caps and bottles and bought a label printer. I needed a way to fill the bottles in my kitchen… This was my first idea, a food grade 55-gallon poly tank with a cone bottom and valve. The lid and carbon steel stand with wheels was sold separately. Then I came across and purchased a used three-bay, 15-gallon Jet Spray machine. I could fill the bottles from the spigot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am definitely the only person I know who owns a Jet Spray. When people come to my house for a summer picnic and see the Jet Spray machine, they think we are rich.
I researched stainless steel semi automatic In-Line filling machines. They sent me a CD of their $15,000 equipment filling 1,000 containers per hour. I could not stop watching this. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
There were laboratory samplings for acidity and nutritional information, Department of Environment standards for UV lights and water filtrations systems, Township zoning, marketing, research and consumer targeting, negotiate and purchasing, co-packers and bargaining…
I had no idea it was this much work, putting lemonade in bottles. People weren’t getting back to me and I started to slack off. The times I spent on my venture got further and further apart. Finally I lost my enthusiasm and passion and the ball dropped out of my hands.
Don’t let this happen to your well-thought-out idea. I was floored when I saw “flavored” lemonades start to appear in restaurants and stores.
There is nothing new under the sun. If you have a good idea, do not stop promoting it and brainstorming new ways to get it out to the public.
Find encouraging help from local organizations that assist entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground. Google Resources to Assist Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners …Join an inventor’s club or the local Chamber of Commerce. Do not drop the ball or it will fall into another’s lap…this is a fact.
I think eating raisins will wipe out heartburn. If any of you try this and it works please let me know. Thank you so much.
Marietta John FI

bucketcake In Print.

Owner of bucketcake, Marietta John, was recently mentioned in an article by the Progressive Grocer. Read the article here or click the link.

Ahold USA Local/Diversity Biz Fair a Success

The first annual Local/Diverse Business Opportunity Fair, held last month in Hershey, Pa., by Ahold USA with the aim of bolstering its connection to area agricultural and diverse businesses, attracted participants from more than 140 companies.

Attendees were able to have their products reviewed by Ahold USA procurement peams for possible placement in more than 750 stores in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. More than half of the vendors who took part in event have businesses based within the retailer’s geographic footprint, while other participants represented diverse and woman- and minority-owned businesses.

“At Ahold USA, we maintain a strong commitment to developing business opportunities with women-owned, minority-owned and regional businesses, and supplying their products to our customers,” explained James Sturgis, director of supplier diversity & trade relations at Ahold USA.

The company’s Giant-Carlisle and Stop & Shop divisions have hosted similar events in the past, but recent business restructuring paved the way to create a larger event encompassing all Ahold USA divisions.

“The event was an outstanding opportunity for me as a small business person,” noted Marietta John, founder/president of Berwick, Pa.-based Bucketcake Inc., which offers a ready-to-eat cake, including filling and frosting, in a 64-ounce recyclable plastic bucket with an easy-carry handle “The procurement teams were very interested in my business and how we could fit into their system, answering my questions thoroughly. This was an important opportunity for me and my company, and I’m looking forward to a new partnership with Ahold USA.”

Hello, My Name is Marietta and I am a Food Inventor.

Hi my name is Marietta John and I am a food inventor. You may have never met a food inventor before, many people haven’t so don’t feel bad. I have had a life-long interest in preparing unique and delicious food items. I have found that it’s not just the ingredients that make a dish unique, but the process as well.  I love to cook and at times I would lie awake at night thinking about mixing certain foods together and picturing what the outcome would be. What the flavor, texture, aroma and caramelized colors of the dish would be like. I would even think about the delight on the faces of those tasting it for the first time…

A favorite pastime for my family is to have a pizza party. No we didn’t wait for the doorbell to ring; we each made our own individual personal pizza. Everyone has to throw their own dough and assemble their own pizza using the many bowls of common and not-so-common pizza toppings laid out in bowls on the table. By the end of the night, we also threw a couple of bags of cornmeal around the kitchen!

One night I thought about putting hummus, which I always made from scratch, on the dough instead of sauce. What goes with hummus I thought, well feta cheese does. This is looking Greek to me, so let’s toss some sliced Kalamata olives on the hummus. Never dice olives; they’ll look like chocolate chips and visually ruin your dish. Wait…I’m seeing drained and slightly chopped marinated artichoke hearts, a sprinkling of olive oil and sesame seeds. Last but not least, some fresh herbs atop my new creation.

I wrote it down and sent the recipe to Better Homes and Gardens Magazine for a contest. I never physically made this pizza but thought to myself, they have a test kitchen, I didn’t.

I wasn’t the lucky winner of the new kitchen but they bought my recipe for $200 and published it in the September 1999 issue.  They slightly changed the recipe and sent a copy to me on an index card and a BH&G letterhead, which I promptly matted and framed. It looks as if I still own the original recipe!

 

Don’t forget a family recipe can also be an original and it’s not just the ingredients, it’s the process too. So give it some thought and contact one of the over 2 million “recipe contests for money” listed on a Google search. This is easycash, and not as bloody as a Red Cross donation.

Next I will write about a new creamy delicious and easy to make frosting recipe I invented just the other day.

Marietta Montuori John FI

Picture Credited to Michelle Meiklejohn