I would like to consider myself a pizza connoisseur. I could even say that pizza is my favorite food and I think my friends would agree with that.

I was at Costco on Saturday and started thinking about what I was going to have for lunch. I was done with my shopping, so I started walking down the gigantic aisles of Costco frozen goodies. I knew I wanted pizza, but I was not willing to wait in line for it. I walked by frozen fruits, beverages, ice cream, even the coffee aisle and I could not find frozen pizza. I was about to just give up and go home.

When I found the pizza fridge, my eyes opened wide and the fridge had a shiny aura. I followed the imaginary lights to the fridge and skimmed through all the types of frozen pizza. I was looking for a specific one until I found it. The cauliflower crust, beyond the meat made by Oggi. I have heard and read about it for weeks and I was willing to try it. So, I did not think twice and got it. It is $12 and the box has 2 individual pizzas. I think that is reasonably priced.

I drove home excited while my stomach rumbled. I turned the oven on as soon as I walked into my house and started to unpack. Read the instructions on the pizza box while trying to get the pizza out of the plastic wrapping. My first impression was that it looked like any frozen pizza -the vegetables, the meat, and the cheese as well as the crust. It was colorful- the white from the crust at the bottom and the dark red from the Italian (beyond the meat) sausage. However, these were not regular ingredients. Everything that was put in this pizza is all plant-based.

Anyways, I baked the pizza for about 15 minutes and waited for it to cool down before slicing it. Once I sliced the knife through the crust it went in smoothly, however, the ends of it were too crispy that it crumbled. I took a plate and served myself four slices. I took my first bite and the first thing I tasted was the tomato sauce. It was rich, thick and with a pinch of oregano after taste. The crust was not as crunchy and you could not taste the cauliflower at all, which is a good thing for picky eaters. It tasted almost like a real flour crust which was surprising to me. The beyond the meat pieces of Italian sausage was too chewy. At this point, I realized I probably overcooked it. The vegan cheese camouflaged among the rest of the ingredients and was tasteless. I knew it was there because you could see it, but taste-wise did not make a difference.

Overall, I was surprised at how good it was. I had plant-based pizza before and it was a fiasco, which is probably the reason why I was not expecting much from Oggi. However, even though I overcooked it because I did, this plant-based pizza can trick you into thinking you are having the real thing.