If this item has appeared before, I apologize. CNN Headline News ran a story on this guy tonight.

Wednesday, November 19, 1997

Union Lake man markets freeze-dried pizza on Web

James Borchuck / The Detroit News

Mark O'Brien, president of The Pizza Maker Inc., is marketing his hermetically sealed product worldwide with orders from as far away as Turkey and Nicaragua.

By Lynn Van Dine

Mark O'Brien lives in the small community of Union Lake, but his Internet Web site is bringing the world to his doorstep to buy his freeze-dried pizza slices. "I've already gotten orders from as far away as Turkey and Nicaragua," said O'Brien, who sells his Pizza Maker slices and a low-calorie frozen pizza he developed from a small shop in White Lake Township. "I'm hoping that by offering them on the World Wide Web, I can get people everywhere to try them." O'Brien developed the foil-wrapped, vacuum-sealed slices with some help from the Michigan State University agriculture department. They are made with pizza dough, tomato sauce and cheese, cooked, frozen, dried and then packaged. Each slice has 140 calories (60 calories from fat) and are sold in packages of 12 individually wrapped slices for $19.95 plus $5 shipping. The product's one-year shelf life and hermetic packaging make the Pizza Maker slices ideal for shipping anywhere in the country and overseas, O'Brien said. Some slices are even in a food display at the American Embassy in Hong Kong. O'Brien has been in the pizza business almost 20 years and spent the past seven on the development of the Pizza Maker slices. At his simple Web site, visitors can see a picture of the Pizza Maker slices and click on an e-mail link to contact O'Brien. His operation may not be very big right now, but he figures a good position on the World Wide Web will give him more equal footing with pizza giants such as Domino's and Little Caesars. "This area is the pizza capital of the world," he said. "... So I figure that makes this part of Michigan a great place to start." You can visit Mark O'Brien's Web site at www.pizzamaker.com, or you can call him at (248) 698-1414. Lynn Van Dine is a Marysville free-lance writer.

Copyright 1997, The Detroit News

-- Hungry Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 25, 1999

Answers

a href="http://www.pizzamaker.com/">link

-- x (x@x.com), February 25, 1999.

link

-- x (x@x.com), February 25, 1999.

Maybe this is finally a way for me to get pizza delivery out here in the middle of nowhere! But is it edible??

-- Roy @ Four Winds (4windpwr@infoblvd.net), February 25, 1999.

Hey Roy,

Buy some and give us a report ; )

-- CT (ct@no.yr), February 25, 1999.

sounds likd a wonderful idea for the kids as I am sure they will get tired of beans and rice. Kinda expensive though. The pieces look awfully small for almost 2.00 a piece.

-- shellie (shellie01@hotmail.com), February 25, 1999.

Get real! Learn how to make dough from flour, water, salt, yeast, a little oil. Tastiest bread and pizza bases you'll ever have experienced! Add any toppings to hand...

It's amazing how much we pay for convenience.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), February 26, 1999.

I live about 3 hours away from where he's located. Could always use more stuff...

Pizza MRE's...hmmmmm.... :-)

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), February 26, 1999.