Papa John's 10-minute pizza

The fast in fast food is about to take on frantic new meaning: the 10-minute pizza.

Papa John's today will announce head-spinning plans to roll out what it claims will be the fastest made-to-order pizza in America. If all goes as planned, the No. 3 chain would eventually become the first national pizza retailer to promise fresh pizzas in 10 minutes — or less.

It's dubbed: Papa's 10 Minute Carry-out Customer Guarantee. In limited test markets, the guarantee had been: if the pizza doesn't arrive in 10 minutes or less, it's free. Papa John's test stores are missing the 10-minute mark less than 1% of the time, the company says.

Over the next two years, Papa John's will spend $20 million to roll out 1,500 ovens with higher air velocity and higher-speed burners in about 750 stores. That will cut pizza cooking time from six minutes to four minutes at about one-third of the chain's 2,500 stores.

The 10-minute guarantee will apply only to carry-out orders at lunch time. That's when the clock is ticking loudest for many consumers. And it's when business is typically lightest for pizza sellers.

from USA Today