Half of a pepperoni pizza from the Costco food court in a cardboard pizza box

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Is any Costco run truly a Costco run if you don't stop by the food court for a bite to eat? Many Costco aficionados would say no, and the chain's food court pizza remains a fan favorite. The 18-inch pie sells for $10 — a bargain compared to many pizzerias — and Costco lovers say it's delicious. But you can't make a good pizza without a good base, and in Costco's case, that base comes from Lamonica's Pizza Dough of Vernon, California.

Lamonica's manufactures and distributes pizza dough from its five facilities located in California, Indiana, and New York. The company started in Brooklyn, New York in 1962 before expanding to the Golden State, and according to its website, it produces 150 million pounds of frozen pizza dough annually. One unusual part of its production process: Before the frozen dough balls leave the manufacturing plant, they're X-rayed as part of a quality inspection.

Though the Lamonica's website confirms that it supplies pizza dough to Costco's food courts (further evidenced by pictures posted to Reddit showing Lamonica's boxes in a Costco kitchen), the company hasn't publicly named any other restaurant partners. If you want to make your own pie at home, the dough is available for purchase through Costco and some regional grocers, such as New Leaf Community Markets on the West Coast.

What happens to Lamonica's dough when it arrives at Costco

Customer eating Costco pizza in food court with plastic fork and knife.

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It starts with Lamonica's frozen dough balls, but how is Costco's food court pizza actually made? When the dough arrives in stores, it's thawed to prepare for pizza-making, which a Costco supervisor writing on Quora said can take over 24 hours. That process also proofs the dough, resulting in a light, airy texture.

The balls naturally soften as they thaw, but they don't fully flatten out until an employee places them in a machine that presses them onto a metal plate in lieu of a traditional pizza toss. The employee then stretches the crust out by hand onto a metal baking tray before rolling it with a spiky tool that pops any air bubbles. The most satisfying part of how the pizza is made, though, is when an automated device pours sauce in a moving ribbon as the crust spins to ensure even distribution.

Workers then place the pizzas inside an oven equipped with a conveyor belt. The process is standardized so they don't have to check if the pizza is done when it comes out of the oven. Instead, the conveyor belt is timed to fully cook the pies in six minutes. That control starts at the beginning of the process: Lamonica's website names consistency is one of its core values, and that evenness allows Costco food courts to turn out uniform, perfectly cooked pies every time.