French dressing on pizza is a MS Coast thing. It all started at this Biloxi restaurant.
If you’re in New Orleans or Atlanta or Miami, chances are if you ask Domino’s for a side of Catalina or Pizza Hut for a side of Honey French dressing, you’re going to get a puzzled look.
That’s because what is a way of life on the Mississippi Coast is not a thing anywhere else in the United States.
Yes, we’re talking about tangy, sweet, bright red dressing that goes on top of our pizza. Whether you’re ordering from a chain or having dinner with friends at a local restaurant, every pizza place on the Coast has their own version of French dressing.
The tradition goes back decades and started in Biloxi.
Hugo J. Rungo Sr., a New York native stationed at Keesler Air Force Base, opened Hugo’s Pizza in 1951 at the corner of Division Street and Forrest Avenue. And it was there that Biloxi High students started putting “liquid cheese,” or French dressing, on their slices of pie.
“Liquid cheese” became a delicacy at Hugo’s in the ‘50s, ‘60s and 70s, according to the Sun Herald archive.
The dressing got so popular that local restaurants began making their own versions, and Domino’s locations here started carrying Kraft’s Catalina, which is a vinegar base rather than a cream base, for customers ordering delivery.
Hugo’s closed their doors permanently in 2003 and was voted one of the Coast’s most missed restaurants, but local places still carry on their own flavor of “liquid cheese.”
“With pizza, it’s a Gulf Coast tradition,” Tony’s Brick Oven Pizza owner Tony Swigris told the Sun Herald in 2015.
This story was originally published January 26, 2023 at 10:52 AM.
