According to USA Today, “Just four months after a desperate Domino’s (DPZ) tossed its much-mocked pizza recipe out the window and rolled out a spicy new one, the chain reported on Tuesday what CEO J. Patrick Doyle calls a “historic” leap in sales at locations open at least one year.”

“That gain of 14.3%, Doyle says, ranks as one of the largest quarterly same-store sales jumps ever recorded by a major fast-food chain. Even more impressive, the turnaround is taking place at a time when the $22 billion pizza-delivery business — quashed by the recession and vastly improved frozen-pizza technologies — fell 3%, researcher Technomic estimates. Domino’s was painfully aware of its old pizza recipe’s bottom-of-the-barrel reputation. It even ran a self-flogging ad campaign earlier this year in which it let a consumer rant about its former crust tasting like cardboard and its sauce tasting like ketchup.”