Eye of the Tiger.

"Rising up, back on the street" ... We've all heard the 1980's rock band Survivor poignantly tear through that song as Rocky runs through the streets of Philadelphia, a sea of children at his heals. Taken out of context, the lyrics seem fitting for the

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More now than ever, those companies fighting to be the last one standing atop the skyrocketing $2.4 billion frozen category are focusing on quality, and the high-end items are getting gobbled up. It's also the summer of the sequel, and pizza fans are coming back to sample new offerings, which mimic a variety of flavors that were once found only in the passenger seat of pizza delivery vehicles.

The result has been an explosion of innovative varieties, as companies look to win over pallets and keep consumers running on their heals.

"We're not catering to the kids when it comes to our pizza," says Michael Geminari, a ConAgra spokesman. ConAgra recently acquired Canada-based Del Maestro, and now features what Geminari claims is the "only authentic wood-fired pizza in North America." That's because the Del Maestro line is completely cooked in a wood-fired oven. Although Geminari admits that the deluxe pizza is still the best seller, ConAgra has added six adult-oriented toppings to the arsenal, such three cheese with goat cheese and vegetarian with artichokes. The line comes in single 11-in. packs or with two 7-in. in a box.

Perhaps no company has capitalized the gourmet-craving trend like Freschetta, the superpremium frozen pizza brand of Tony's Pizza Service, a unit of Schwan's Sales Enterprises Inc.

Boasting a year that saw brand sales grow faster than any of the other top sellers, Freschetta is taking product development and marketing to another level--or at least a new direction. The Freschetta Culinary Council, a collection of five respected chefs from around the nation, was hired to enhance current pizza offerings, develop new products, and of course, lend their credibility to the promotional campaign, which uses the tag line, "Fresh Thinking, Fresh Baking, Freschetta." The first pizzas with the "council's touch" hit retail freezers in March.