Cheesy and Fondue celebrate National Cheese Pizza Day. We talk about the history of pizza cheese, the company behind 85% of America's pizza cheese, the "Wonka" of cheese manufacturing patents. We find out about a regional chain's invention of the Pep-O-Matic. And of course, we tell a very cheesy joke!
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Why is cheddar the most dangerous of all the cheeses? Because it is very sharp!
Show Notes
https://nationaltoday.com/national-cheese-pizza-day/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_cheese
https://www.noahip.com/blog/leprino-foods-pizza-cheese/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/business/james-leprino-dead.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprino_Foods
https://bierycheese.com/products/shredded-cheese/
https://www.grotecompany.com/en-us/Equipment/Peppamatic
Episode Transcript
Just Cheesy, the podcastpresented by Just Cheesy Productions.
Hi there, I'm your host, Fondue.
I'm Cheesy.
With the last of our summerseries, this week we celebrate National
Cheese Pizza Day. We'retalking about the history of Pizza
Cheese, the company thatmanufactures 85% of it, the Wonka
(00:24):
of cheese manufacturing, aregional chain, Pep O Matic. And
of course, we tell a verycheesy joke. Welcome to Cheese Bites
episode Cheese pizza Accordingto nationaltoday.com National Cheese
Pizza Day is celebratedannually on September 5th. Although
the exact origin of pizzaisn't known, many people date it
(00:47):
back to ancient Greece whenpeople would cover their bread with
oils, herbs and cheese. Thesite says that flatbread pizza is
well known now and was firstcreated in Naples, Italy, and it
used the highest qualitybuffalo mozzarella. The first pizza
place in the US opened in 1955in Little Italy in New York. It wasn't
until 1939, when the De Morfamily introduced pizza in LA, that
(01:11):
the dish had officially madeit across the country. Popularity
of the dish rose dramaticallyfollowing World War II. Veterans
returning from the Italiancampaign who had been introduced
to Italy's native cuisine ledthe increase in pizza consumption
at the time. In 1943, Chicagodeep dish pizza was born in a restaurant
called pizzeria uno. In 1946,De Detroit Style Pizza was born.
(01:34):
In 1958, the first ever PizzaHut was opened in Kansas. The stats
they quote on this website are staggering.
Really.
3 billion pizzas are soldevery year in the U.S. 350 slices
of pizza are sold every second.
No way.
41% of Americans eat pizzaevery week.
What?
There are 70,000 pizzerias inthe U.S. there are 6,600 pizzerias
(02:00):
in California, more than anyother state. And the largest pizza
ever made weighed 51,000 pounds.
Holy cow.
But that dish's mainingredient is obviously cheese, and
that cheese is nearly amonopoly. 85% of all pizza cheese
in the US is made by onecompany, Laprino Foods. Back in the
(02:22):
50s, the Laprinos had agrocery store. Jim Leprino started
working in that store when hegraduated high school in 1956. The
business was actuallystruggling and realized his friends
were spending a lot of theirfree time at pizza joints. Pizzerias
in the area were buying 5,000pounds of cheese a week. According
to Forbes.com Jim Loinorecalled that he thought this is
(02:45):
a good market to go after. Andso he did. Leprino, who just passed
away recently at the age of 87basically built a cheese empire.
Yeah.
He was the sixth wealthiestperson in Colorado in 2025 with a
fortune worth over $2 billion.
Holy cow.
And it's actually not hard tounderstand why. Currently, Leprino
(03:06):
Foods supplies the pizzacheese for Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa
John's, Little Caesars,Godfather's Pizza, Hungry Howie's
Tombstone, Coney's, Jack's,Digiorno. The cheese and products
are also used by Hot Pockets,Stouffer's, Smart Ones.
No way.
And their products are alsoused in Yoplait, Yogurt, Pillsbury
Toaster, Strudel, and somebaby formula.
(03:28):
Holy cow.
They sell 1 billion pounds ofcheese per year for $3 billion.
Wow.
In multiple articles, this guyhas been called the Willy Wonka of
cheese. Laprino foods has over55,050 cheese manufacturing patents.
They perfected frozen shreddedmozzarella using a fluidized bed
(03:50):
freezer, preserving moistureand flowability. The company launched
a no aging cheese processwhich locked in texture and flavor,
ready in hours, not weeks.They have patents that let each pizza
chain have its own unique poolin browning. They have patents for
how it bubbles in a pizzaoven. Really how it's optimized for
storage, reheating, anddelivery conditions. Apparently the
(04:12):
company has a lot of qualitystandards as they've never had a
single recall. But they alsowere fixated on efficiency. They
said a lot of the ingredientswere getting dumped into the river
in the form of whey.
No way.
(05:15):
The Forbes article says thathe was Inspired by the 1964 World's
Fair in New York. He traveledto Japan, meet with scientists who
were using milk proteins tohelp the Japanese population grow
taller. And then more thanhalf a century later, they remain
the largest US Exporter oflactose and retain a large market
share in Japan. Laprino Foodsis not a sponsor, but if they were,
(05:38):
their ad would go right here.Laprino may be the biggest, but it's
not the only cheese in town.
Really?
In the Midwest, there's St.Louis style pizza, and it is topped
with Provelle, a creamyprocessed blend of cheddar, Swiss
and provolone. And accordingto the Internet, Donato's, a Midwest
pizza chain, uses naturallysmoked provolone in their pizzas.
(06:00):
And it's rumored that they useBiery cheese. A company that's based
in Ohio, like Leprino, is afamily owned company. They now have
460 locat
Wow.
What I found interesting isthat they have some patents as well.
Really?
The founder of Donato's is JimGrote. And there is a company called
the Grote Company and theymake something called the Pep O Matic.
(06:24):
This thing is pretty cool. Itprecisely slices and applies pepperoni
on frozen pizzas. You put in abunch of tubes of pepperoni on the
top and the pizza isunderneath and it just slices all
of the pepperonis on top. Itcan slice and place pepperonis on
4512 inch pizzas per minute.
Per minute.
(06:45):
And not only do they have thePepp O Matic, but they've got bread
slicers, cheese slicers, meatslicers, fruit and vegetable slicers,
and sandwich slicers.
I'm ready for a joke fondue.
Okay. Why did mozzarellarefuse to get in a fight?
I have no idea.
Because it didn't want to get shredded.
Oh, that was good.
Oh, it was good. And a littlebit cheesy. As the summer winds down,
(07:11):
so does our summer series,Cheese Bites. We've enjoyed making
a little bit shorter contentand we're going to continue that
throughout the year. We reallylike keeping it short and sweet and
bringing you the best cheesycontent possible.
Oh, yeah.
Thanks as always for listeningand everybody.
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