The first order sent to the wholesaler a week before opening usually carries one of two mistakes: either it reads "one case of everything" and by the end of the first month the fridge is full of out-of-date deli meat, or it reads "let's buy a little and see" and the pepperoni runs out on opening Saturday. A sound pizzeria supply list on the deli side starts neither with the case nor with courage; it starts with the menu and works down to quantities through an assumed daily pizza count.
The list below ties five deli items to menu headings, gives a worked calculation for opening week, and explains why the first order should be built on small packs.
Why does a pizzeria supply list start from the menu on the deli side?
Because after dough and cheese, deli meat is the most expensive and shortest-lived item on a pizza; which pizzas are on the menu decides which deli products are in the fridge. If there is no "sucuk pizza" on the menu, sliced sucuk is not bought; if there is a "mixed" pizza, salami and sausage are considered together. Writing an order before the menu is written means filling the fridge by guesswork.
The second reason is pack fit. Every item's pack is scaled to a certain rate of consumption: a 200 g sliced tray suits low volume, a 900 g log suits high volume. For an item whose share of the menu is unknown, the right pack cannot be chosen.
Deli items by menu heading: pepperoni, salami, sliced sucuk, bacon, sausage
- Pepperoni pizza: Mortella Sliced Beef Pepperoni (200 g or 450 g tray) for opening; once a slicer and the volume are in place, the Mortella Smoked Beef Pepperoni 900 g log becomes an option. Which slice diameter and thickness suits which pizza style is explained in the pepperoni selection guide for pizzerias.
- Sucuk pizza (Turkish style): Altın Dana Heat-Treated Sliced Sucuk 500 g; being heat-treated, the slices arrive cooked, sit separately in the tray and give the same result at the same thickness in the oven. How a pizza and toastie menu is built around sliced sucuk is covered in detail in building a pizza and toastie menu with sliced sucuk.
- Mixed pizza: Mortella Sliced Beef Salami (200 g / 450 g) as a flavour item in a few slices; Mortella Smoked Frankfurter Sausage 465 g is made from chicken, vacuum packed, arrives cooked and is cut into rings.
- Bacon pizza and burgers: Mortella Beef Bacon 1000 g, the one item intended for cooking; it renders its fat in the oven and crisps at the edges. The order is planned on raw weight.
- Children's menu: frankfurter rings and cheese pizza; spicy pepperoni does not belong under this heading.
What the five items share is that they are made from beef, chicken or turkey and contain no pork. If a halal certificate is required, it is requested from the supplier rather than inferred from the species.
How is the deli quantity for opening week calculated? A 25-pizzas-a-day example
Every figure rests on an assumption and is replaced with real sales after opening week. Assumptions: 25 pizzas a day, six trading days, 32 cm standard size; menu split of pepperoni 40%, sucuk 20%, mixed 16%, bacon 10%, no deli 14%. Weights per pizza: pepperoni 45 g (13 slices × 3.5 g), sliced sucuk 60 g, salami 25 g plus sausage 30 g (together on the mixed pizza), bacon 35 g raw.
| Item | Pizzas per day | Weight per pizza | Weekly consumption | Suggested first order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sliced beef pepperoni | 10 | 45 g | 2.70 kg | 6 × 450 g (2.7 kg) |
| Heat-treated sliced sucuk 500 g | 5 | 60 g | 1.80 kg | 4 × 500 g (2.0 kg) |
| Sliced beef salami | 4 | 25 g | 0.60 kg | 1 × 450 g + 1 × 200 g (0.65 kg) |
| Smoked frankfurter sausage 465 g | 4 | 30 g | 0.72 kg | 2 × 465 g (0.93 kg) |
| Beef bacon 1000 g | 2.5 | 35 g | 0.53 kg | 1 × 1000 g |
Total weekly deli consumption on these assumptions is 6.35 kg. The table deliberately stays close to consumption, with one pack of headroom on sausage and bacon; demand in opening week cannot be predicted, and running out costs more than carrying a little extra. Even so, no item exceeds two weeks of consumption.
Why small packs and samples on the first order?
Because three things are still unknown in opening week: the real daily count, the cook's slicing habits and which pizza customers will pick. Small packs lower the price of that uncertainty: a 200 g salami tray is opened and finished; had a 450 g tray been bought and half of it left waiting, the opened-product problem would have started in week one. For pepperoni the 450 g tray was chosen because pepperoni is the largest item on the menu and a tray is used up in two days.
Samples come before the order, not after it. Two weeks before opening, one pack of each item is requested; the cook bakes them in the same oven and writes slice count and weight onto the recipe card. The first order is placed from that card. A first order without samples means opening without a recipe card.
Which deli items should be bought as logs and which sliced at opening?
At opening, all of them sliced or ready to use; a log comes into question only for pepperoni, and only once a slicer and a maintenance routine exist. The reason is attention rather than labour: in opening week the kitchen has no time to fight with a slicer dial, and a product that arrives at a fixed thickness removes one variable.
Bacon arrives in strips anyway; the sausage arrives whole and is cut into rings with a knife; neither needs a slicer. Sucuk and salami are bought sliced. That way the slicer in an opening kitchen runs only if it exists and is free, and no item waits for it.
How is cold storage and container organisation set up for deli items at a pizzeria opening?
One fridge shelf is reserved for deli meat alone and split in two: sealed packs at the back ordered by best-before date, opened containers at the front ordered by opening date. A lidded container and a strip of labels are prepared for each item; on opening day the containers stay in place even when empty. Pepperoni, sucuk and salami trays can be kept under their own lids; bacon and sausage move into a lidded container once opened.
Only one service's worth of product goes into the refrigerated wells on the make-line on opening morning. A chart for two fridge temperature readings a day goes on the wall; Turkey's food hygiene regulation (yeni sekmede açılır) places cold-chain maintenance and its record with the operator, and that chart is among the first documents asked for at an opening inspection. The WHO food safety fact sheet (yeni sekmede açılır) lists safe temperatures among the basic practices any new kitchen starts with.
What is checked at goods-in on the first delivery?
- Vehicle and product temperature: the pack surface is measured with a probe thermometer before the case is opened; outside 0 to +4 °C the case is not accepted.
- Pack integrity: air leaks in vacuum packs, lid separation on trays.
- Dates: at least two weeks of remaining life is required for opening week; a short-dated case is returned.
- Label: product name, net quantity, lot number and storage condition; the label is photographed for the file.
- Quantity: units per case are counted against the delivery note.
The five points go on a one-page goods-in form, and the same form is used for every delivery after that.
When is the second order placed after opening, and on what basis?
At the end of the first week, on real sales. Weekly consumption for each item is established by weighing or by counting empty packs; the assumption column in the table is replaced with the real column and the second order is placed from the new table. If pepperoni rose from 10 to 18 pizzas a day, the number of 450 g trays goes up or a move to the log is discussed; if bacon did not reach a kilogram in the week, it is left off the next order.
Order frequency and minimum order logic vary by wholesaler, and order frequency and minimum order value in food wholesale explains how that relationship is set up. For the pre-opening sample set, a quotation for the first order and a trade account, contact EMKA FOOD.
