My favorite dish is pizza.
While munching on a crunchy pizza slice last week, I started thinking.
Let’s take a look at the ingredients of two popular, yet very different pizzas: the classic Italian-style Pizza Margherita and the rich, non-Italian-style Supreme Pizza.
| Pizza Margherita Ingredients | Supreme Pizza Ingredients |
| Pizza dough | Pizza dough |
| Tomato sauce | Tomato sauce |
| Fresh mozzarella cheese | Mozzarella cheese |
| Fresh basil leaves | Pepperoni |
| Extra virgin olive oil | Italian sausage |
| Salt | Ham |
| Ground beef | |
| Bacon | |
| Onions | |
| Green bell peppers | |
| Mushrooms | |
| Black olives | |
| Sliced tomatoes | |
| Jalapeños | |
| Oregano | |
| Basil | |
The deliciousness of Pizza Margherita comes from six simple and fresh ingredients, prepared to perfection.
On the other hand, the Supreme Pizza has seventeen ingredients, which require a much more complex preparation.
Despite its simplicity, Pizza Margherita outsells the Supreme Pizza by a large margin.
Complexity does not equal sophistication.
Therefore, subtraction is often superior to addition.