By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS

The VRG received an email from a reader who asked “…if there was any information on mozzarella cheese used at Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria.” See: https://www.grimaldispizzeria.com/

Our reader told us that he had dined at the Cedar Hill, Texas Grimaldi’s where “the manager said there was no animal rennet in the mozzarella cheese.”
Ingredient listings do not appear on the company’s website. So in April 2017 The Vegetarian REsoruce Group placed an unofficial call to Grimaldi’s corporate office requesting this information and left a voicemail.

The next day we received a call back from Nina at Grimaldi’s corporate office. She told us that “there is no animal rennet in the mozzarella cheese used on the Garden Pizza.” Nina added that “the Romano-Spice Blend which is sprinkled on top does contain animal rennet.”

The Garden Pizza is described on their website as being Grimaldi’s “Traditional Pizza topped with fresh Roma tomatoes, sliced onions, mushrooms and black olives.”

We also asked Nina if the dough conditioner L-cysteine, which is most often derived from poultry feathers, was used to make their dough. She said “L-cysteine is not in our dough.” We also asked about lard and she again said “No lard.”

Lacking a formal statement from Grimaldi’s about their vegan menu items, we sought to confirm all of the information that we had gathered above. So The VRG placed several random calls to Grimaldi’s restaurants in Arizona, California and Colorado. Managers at four Grimaldi’s locations confirmed all of the preceding information.

We also learned that the Romano-Spice Blend is “automatically put on pizzas. When ordering, customers should request that it be left off.”
According to all four managers at various Grimaldi’s locations, butter is not used on the pizza crust. The pizza sauce is “all-vegetable” with no meat, meat flavors nor dairy.

They told us that vegans could order the Garden Pizza without the cheese.

The VRG also inquired about the Kale Chopped Salad which is described on the menu as consisting of “kale, romaine lettuce, artichokes, cucumber, red onion, shaved Italian cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives tossed in a lemon vinaigrette.”

The four managers with whom we spoke unanimously agreed that the Kale Chopped Salad “could be ordered without the cheese.” All four put us on hold while they checked into the lemon vinaigrette ingredients. All relayed to us after a brief pause that there was neither honey nor dairy in the lemon vinaigrette. One manager mentioned that a guest could always request “oil and vinegar on the side.”

For information about other restaurant chains, see http://www.vrg.org/fastfoodinfo.php

For information about vegetarian and vegan restaurants, see http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php

To support The Vegetarian Resource Group research, donate at www.vrg.org/donate

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The contents of this posting, our website and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgement about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.