The subtle difference
Why can't a football team always play the same way? And does dieci pizza taste the same everywhere? About slight differences and significant implications.
Football coaches often let their charges practice the same plays dozens of times until everyone knows how to hit the perfect pass and make the right run. This is called automatization. However, no two attacks are alike on matchday despite all the training sessions, and each goal is scored differently. Because, unlike in practice, the team isn't alone on the pitch. "In football, everything is complicated by the presence of an opponent," wrote French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. But that's not the only challenge.
For everything to work out as rehearsed, conditions must be the same everywhere. However, in one stadium, the grass is cut shorter, or a pass happens to hit a bump, while another ground has a turf pitch. Sometimes the ball isn't inflated to the same air pressure and may thus have slightly different flying properties. One day it rains; on another, it's so hot that the player doesn't have the energy to get to the through ball. Of course, that doesn't mean that all the coach's ideas are entirely abandoned. But his football will look a little bit different in every match. That's what makes this sport so fascinating and fun.
What coaches are to football, pizza makers are to dieci. And the ingredients are like their players. With training and regular quality checks, we make sure that all locations meet our high standards. Our Pizza Ortolana tastes great everywhere, whether you order it in Lausanne, Thun or Wil. Yet it won't be exactly the same. Our dough is made from the same flower everywhere, but dough lives. It reacts to temperature differences like footballers do, and just like footballers develop differently depending on the coach, the same happens to the dough in the pizza maker's hands. One kneads it a bit harder, while another pulls it a little more, which affects the taste. Our sugo (tomato sauce) isn't produced industrially either but made in each store from our homemade recipe based on Italian San Marzano tomatoes – which taste differently depending on the season – seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh basil.
Refined palates notice the difference. Our pizzas taste slightly different every day at each of our 39 locations – but they're always delicious. These small, unplannable changes make the taste of pizza and a football match so wonderful.
