Middleby’s new $55,000 WOW! oven is quite an innovation, reducing pizza baking times from 7.5 minutes to 5.5 minutes.

The WOW oven cuts a pizza’s “belt speed,” or cooking time, to five-and-a-half minutes from seven-and-a-half minutes. That means places like Jimmy John’s can serve more customers even as it advertises — and charges for — “gourmet” sandwiches, and Domino’s can deliver faster or to a wider area. The oven creates a more pleasant workplace, too, since the oven stays cooler on the outside.

It’s helping Papa John’s with a “takeout pizza in 10-minutes or less or it’s free” program.

For six years running, consumers have rated Papa John’s no. 1 in customer satisfaction among all national QSR chains in the highly regarded American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). At March 26, 2006, there were 2,924 Papa John’s restaurants (509 companyowned and 2,415 franchised) operating in 49 states and 22 countries.

Here’s another article about the oven.

Quick trivia - What are the five most popular pizza toppings?
1. Pepperoni 2. Sausage 3. Mushrooms 4. Ham 5. Green Peppers

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