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Pizza Hut Romano Cheese Dressing

Re: Pizza Hut Romano Dressing
From: RA
Date: 6/5/2022, 8:36 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

On 6/4/2022 6:03 PM, Kevin wrote:

 Hello!
 Once upon a time in the 80's, Pizza Hut restaurants served a Romano Cheese salad dressing.
 It was white and flecked with pepper and Romano cheese. It tasted so good on salad greens!
 It was smooth, kind of reminiscent of Parmesan cheese, but had a little more intense flavor.

 I have written to Pizza Hut Corporate, but have never received a reply.

 Thanks for your help!
 RA 

 Hello RA,

If you do a search for this, prepare to be confused, as I was. Pizza Hut supposedly answered this question in the Charleston "Post and Courier" newspaper. The article published therein says this dressing was actually Swiss Chalet's Creamy Italian dressing. I don't think so....  That must be a mistake. The posted recipe is even called "Not Quite Pizza Hut’s Creamy Italian Dressing". How did it go from "Creamy Italian" to "Romano Cheese" if there's no cheese in it at all, much less Romano cheese? See the article here: Post and Courier

Besides, Pizza Hut's ingredient list for the Romano Cheese dressing shows that it does indeed contain Romano Cheese. See: Pizza Hut Ingredient Statements

"Soybean oil, water, distilled vinegar, sugar, Romano cheese* (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), cider vinegar, salt, egg yolk, buttermilk powder, propylene glycol alginate, monosodium glutamate, garlic*, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate added as preservative, lemon juice concentrate, calcium disodium EDTA added to protect flavor.   *dehydrated CONTAINS: MILK, EGGS Last Updated: 10/19/06 Page 11 of 14"

That confusion of Pizza Hut's Romano Cheese salad dressing with Pizza Hut's Creamy Italian Salad Dressing has apparently spread to other websites as well. I tried searching for a website for Swiss Chalet, to see if they offered a "Romano Cheese Salad Dressing" that might have been purchased from them by Pizza Hut, but Swiss Chalet is apparently gone now. There is a website on which a chef says that he offers his copycat versions of Swiss Chalet salad dressings, but there is only one dressing there and it does not appear to be the Romano cheese dressing. I suspect that Pizza Hut did purchase their Romano Cheese dressing from an outside vendor or make it at a central commissary, but I was unable to discover any information about their dressings, and nothing about Swiss Chalet's Dressings.

There is another copycat recipe for Pizza Hut Romano Dressing here and below, which actually has Romano Cheese in it: Romano Cheese Dressing

Phaed

Romano Cheese Dressing

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil mayonnaise
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
2 Tbsp shredded Romano cheese
1 Tbsp grated Romano cheese
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp lemon juice

Directions:
1. Combine milk and lemon juice in a small bowl or measuring cup.
Let sit for about 5 minutes (this will curdle the milk, making buttermilk!)
2. In larger bowl, combine mayonnaise, olive oil, cider vinegar, 
Romano cheese, garlic, and sugar.
3. When milk has set for 5 minutes, pour into other ingredients.
Blend in blender or with an immersion blender to fully combine and
make creamy.
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Wow! You are amazing! 
Thank you so much for the recipe! I'm going to make the recipe at the 
bottom of your reply and I will let you know how it compares. 
Thank you so much for the time and effort you spent hunting this down! 

Sincerely,
RA