The Incredible History of How Pizza Conquered the World
- A slice of the action
- Pizza of the past
- Ancient pizza in the Aeneid?
- Did pizza originate in China?
- The first record of the word ‘pizza’
- Pizza for the poor
- Not off to a great start
- You say tomato, I say tomato…
- Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba: the first true pizzeria?
- Queen (pizza) Margherita
- A margherita by any other name
- Official pizza protection
- Rules for proper pizza
- From Italy to the US
- One of the first pizzerias in the US
- The original and the best in the US?
- What about the rest of the US?
- New York pizza
- Detroit pizza
- Chicago deep dish pizza
- California pizza
- Other US pizza styles
- Regional pizzas in Italy: Naples, Puglia and Sicily
- Regional pizzas in Italy: Rome and Torino
- Pizzas around the world: Poland, Turkey and Armenia
- Pizzas around the world: Middle East, France and Germany
- The magic of frozen pizza
- Pizza chains: Pizza Hut
- Pizza chains: Domino’s Pizza
- Pizza chains: Papa John’s
- Pizza in popular culture
- Pizza in popular culture
- Which country eats the most pizza?
- Pricey slices
- Does pineapple belong on pizza?
A slice of the action
Who doesn’t love the doughy, cheesy stuff? Pizza is one of the world’s most popular foods, with more than five billion eaten every year. While people have been eating pizza in one form or another for thousands of years, what we’ve come to know (and love) as modern pizza only really appeared in the late 1800s. Need to know more? Grab a slice of the action and read on to discover a fascinating pizza history.
Pizza of the past
Pizza, in some form or another, dates back thousands of years. In the 6th century BC, Persian soldiers used to bake flatbreads with cheese and dates on top of their battle shields. And in ancient Greece, a flatbread called plakous was eaten, which was flavored with ingredients like herbs, onion, cheese and garlic. All across the ancient Mediterranean world, there are references to different flatbreads which are still eaten today and could be the early origins of pizza: focaccia, Greek pitta, lepinja in the Balkans and manakish in the Levant.
Ancient pizza in the Aeneid?
There’s an early reference to something resembling pizza in books three and four of the Aeneid, the epic poem written by Virgil (around 19 BC). Celaeno, the Harpy queen from Greek mythology, foretold that the Trojans would not find peace until they ate their tables. In book four, Aeneas and his men eat a meal consisting of round cakes topped with vegetables. They eat the bread (or early form of pizza?) and realize this is what Celaeno had predicted.
Did pizza originate in China?
The origins of pizza are quite complicated, and one popular story is that pizza and pasta originated in China. The legend goes that explorer Marco Polo tried a dish called cong you bing (scallion pancakes) which at the time was a bread dish filled with cheese and other ingredients. When he was back in Italy, he tried to find a chef who could make the dish and after several failed attempts, eventually suggested putting the ingredients on top of the bread, rather than inside it. Lo and behold, pizza was born. However, historical evidence points to this being a myth.
The first record of the word ‘pizza’
The first known record of the word ‘pizza’ was in AD 997. Food culture historian Giuseppe Nocca revealed his findings back in 2015. The reference was discovered on a notarial document written in Latin from Gaeta, a city in southern Italy. The document demanded payment for, “12 pizzas, a pork shoulder, and a pork kidney on Christmas Day, and 12 pizzas and a couple of chickens on Easter Day.” It’s not however known what a pizza would have been at this time.
Pizza for the poor
Like many foods we love today, pizza started as a dish for poor people. In the early 1800s, Naples was packed with lazzaroni – the working poor. These Neapolitan people needed cheap food that could be eaten as quickly as possible. Street vendors (like the illustration of a pizzaiolo pictured here) and informal restaurants used to sell flatbreads topped with various things to the lazzaroni, which are thought to be early forms of pizza.
Not off to a great start
Carol Helstosky, associate professor of history at the University of Denver and author of Pizza: A Global History notes that Italian authors in the early 1800s labeled the habits of the lazzaroni – including their early pizza-eating – “disgusting”. It’s believed these flatbreads were topped with the typical pizza ingredients we know and love today.
You say tomato, I say tomato…
For many, a tomato base is key to a perfect pizza. Interestingly, although tomatoes came to Italy in the 1530s, for a long time it was thought they were poisonous and only grown for decoration. The fruit was only introduced into Italian cuisine in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba: the first true pizzeria?
As pizza’s popularity grew throughout the 1800s, pizzerias began to emerge. Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba is widely believed to be the world’s first pizzeria, having opened in 1830 in the center of Naples. It’s still in business today, the small, unassuming spot nestled between two book shops.
Queen (pizza) Margherita
In 1889, 28 years after the unification of Italy, Queen Margherita visited Naples. And when in Naples, she did what a Neapolitan would do and ordered a pizza from Pizzeria Brandi. Chef Raffaele Esposito and his wife created a masterpiece which resembled the Italian flag, featuring tomato (red), mozzarella (white) and basil (green). The story goes that they named the pizza after her and so, the margherita pizza was born.
A margherita by any other name
Although most stories say the Queen’s margherita pizza was the first to combine tomato, cheese and basil, its origins can be traced back to at least 1866. In Francesco DeBouchard’s book, Customs and Traditions of Naples, he describes one of the most popular pizza toppings at the time which included tomato and basil, often topped with slices of mozzarella.
Official pizza protection
Did you know it’s illegal to change the recipe for some pizzas? The Specialità Tradizionali Garantite (STG), or Traditional Guaranteed Specialty, is an EU designation that identifies a product made according to a traditional practice or produced from traditionally-used ingredients. Basically, it protects an original recipe and how it’s made. Since 2009, there are three Neapolitan pizzas with a STG: pizza margherita, the margherita extra (which uses mozzarella di bufala Campana DOP, basil and tomatoes) and the marinara (tomato sauce, garlic and oregano).
Rules for proper pizza
According to the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, which was established in 1984 to protect all things pizza, there are some very strict rules about how a true Neapolitan pizza must be prepared. The rules include that your pizza can only be a marinara or a margherita; it must be cooked in a wood-fired oven; and use a particular set of ingredients like type 00 or type 0 flour. Bigger than 35cm (13.7inches)? Not allowed. The center more than 0.25cm (0.09inches) in height? Not a proper pizza.
From Italy to the US
Although Neapolitans had started to realize how wonderful pizza was in the 1800s, it would still take a while for that craze to spread around the world. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, as Italian immigrants made their way to the US, they brought their pizza skills with them. Although initially, pizza was once again seen as something that poor Italian-Americans ate at hole-in-the-wall restaurants or on the street.
One of the first pizzerias in the US
One of the first documented pizzerias in the US was G Lombardi’s on Spring Street in Manhattan, New York City, which got the first pizza-business license in 1905. The place is still going today, although it has moved location. In his book How Italian Food Conquered the World, food critic John Mariani said Lombardi’s is still using the same pizza oven from 1905. This photo shows the original Lombardi’s location at 52 Spring Street around 1925.
The original and the best in the US?
Of course, when it comes to conversations around the best slice in town, things can quickly get heated, but there are a handful of places where John Mariani says are still making pizzas like the good old days: Totonno’s in Coney Island, NYC which opened in 1924; Mario’s in the Bronx, NYC which opened in 1919; and Pepe’s in New Haven, Connecticut which opened in 1925. This photo shows the late Joseph Migliucci and daughter Regina Migliucci-Delfino, owners of Mario’s Restaurant in New York City.
What about the rest of the US?
In the aftermath of the Second World War, many Italian-Americans moved around the US – and took pizza with them. Soldiers returning from Europe had also tried pizza while away and craved it back at home. Author Krishnendu Ray says in his book The Ethnic Restaurateur that it was only as Italian-Americans climbed the socioeconomic ladder that their food became accepted and popular. What had started out as an ‘ethnic’ treat was now increasingly seen as American, with non-traditional variations emerging.
New York pizza
New York City is bursting at the seams when it comes to the food on offer, but nothing is so quintessentially New York as a dollar slice. But what sets it apart? First, the slices are large and floppy (folding them in half while eating is highly recommended). New York pies are also a little thicker than the Neapolitan equivalents, but still classified as thin. Pizza researcher Liz Barrett says New York pizzas must be made with high-gluten bread flour and hand-tossed, with herbs often added to the tomato sauce and hard mozzarella used.
Detroit pizza
You might think Detroit is known for its coney dog, but Motown’s got a new name: dough town. Detroit pizzas are rectangular (like the grandma pizza associated with Long Island) and are similar to the Sicilian style of pizza: tomato sauce on a focaccia-like bread. They’re thick and big, but also still light. Detroit is the Motor City too, and that applies to its pizzas which are cooked in blue steel automotive pans. Legend has it, Gus Guerra got these pans from his friend who worked in a factory and his Sicilian mother-in-law came up with the recipe. Detroit-style pizza was born.
Chicago deep dish pizza
One of the most recognizable pizza styles is the Chicago deep dish pizza pie. It’s filling, it’s cheesy and it’s probably more pie than pizza. The buttery, almost pastry-like crust, which is at least 2.5cm (1inch) thick, is covered with mozzarella, then the toppings (if using sausage, it will be added raw), sauce and a light sprinkling of Parmesan. These pizza pies spend around 30 minutes in the oven. Uno’s, which is credited with being the birthplace of the deep dish, Lou Malnati’s and Giordano’s are considered the holy trinity of deep-dish spots in the city.
California pizza
California-style pizza is a little harder to define. It’s a bit of an ‘anything goes’ philosophy, with a focus on seasonality and local produce. It emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, thanks to chefs like Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame and Ed LaDou, who was hired by Wolfgang Puck to run Spago and brought smoked salmon and caviar pizza to the world. Pies were also topped with goats’ cheese, Thai chicken, kimchi, nettle, duck prosciutto… the extensive list of ingredients goes on.
Other US pizza styles
Americans have changed it up over the decades with many different regional variations available. Sicilian-style pizzas are served in square slices in New Jersey and in Connecticut it’s all about the charred crust with clams. Over in Omaha they’re made with a biscuit crust and in Colorado you’ll find thick bases with even thicker crusts. St Louis pizzas meanwhile have an incredibly thin crust made with no yeast, toppings to the edge, sweet sauce, square slices (called ‘the party cut’) and Provel processed cheese.
Regional pizzas in Italy: Naples, Puglia and Sicily
Neapolitan pizza might be the original, but other regions in Italy have developed their own styles. Even Naples is responsible for more than one style, with pizza fritta – fried pizza dough in many shapes and sizes – also enjoyed. Panzerotti, which originated in Puglia, is another version of this: half-moon pizza dough stuffed with various ingredients and fried. In Sicily, the sfincione pizza has a thick, spongy crust and is topped with caciocavallo (a dry, crumbly cheese), breadcrumbs, onions and tomato sauce.
Regional pizzas in Italy: Rome and Torino
Over in the capital, Rome is responsible for a couple of different styles. Pizza alla pala (paddle pizza) was invented as a way to use up leftover dough. It uses highly hydrated dough and is cooked at a lower temperature in an electric oven. The result is a crisp exterior and a fluffy interior. There’s also the pizza tonda Romana which has a crispy, very thin crust. In Torino, you’ll find Italy’s Chicago deep dish equivalent: pizzas baked in small round pans with a thick, soft crust.
Pizzas around the world: Poland, Turkey and Armenia
Other countries also have their own styles of pizza, whether it’s close to what we know as pizza or bears a passing resemblance. In Poland there’s zapiekanka (pictured), a baguette-like pizza topped with cheese, Polish ketchup and other ingredients. Across Turkey and Amenia, people enjoy lahmacun/lahmajoun, a thin and crispy flatbread topped with seasoned ground meat and other garnishes.
Pizzas around the world: Middle East, France and Germany
In several Middle Eastern countries, sfiha (known as different things with different spellings; pictured) is made in the shape of a pizza and filled with ground meat and labneh (a strained yogurt-cheese). There’s also tarte flambée in France and Germany which is a thin pastry topped with crème fraîche, cheese, onions and lardons.
The magic of frozen pizza
Although nothing beats a fresh pizza, sometimes the ease of a frozen pizza calls. And they’re seriously big business. In 2020, the global frozen pizza market was worth an estimated $16.2 billion. But where did it all begin? In the 1950s, pizza restaurants began offering refrigerated pizzas for customers to cook at home. And in 1950 in Philadelphia, Joseph Bucci filed the first official patent for frozen pizza titled ‘Method for Making Frozen Pizza’. However, the patent wasn’t granted until 1954, by which point various other companies were selling frozen pizzas.
Pizza chains: Pizza Hut
Everyone has their favorite pizza restaurant, but the best known are the huge global chains: Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza and Papa John’s. Pizza Hut started in 1958 when brothers Dan and Frank Carney borrowed $600 from their mother to open a pizza restaurant in Wichita, Kansas. The place looked like a hut and there wasn’t enough room on the sign for more than nine letters, so it became known as Pizza Hut. Today, there are more than 18,000 locations in more than 100 countries.
Pizza chains: Domino’s Pizza
Domino’s Pizza’s origin story is rather similar to Pizza Hut’s. In 1960, brothers James and Tom Monaghan borrowed $900 to buy DomiNick’s pizza store in Ypsilanti, Michigan. James traded his half of the business to his brother for a Volkswagen Beetle and Tom changed the named to Domino’s Pizza Inc., opening the first franchise store in 1967. Today, there are more than 18,300 locations in more than 90 countries around the world, with the company selling an average of three million pizzas a day. Apparently, there are more than 34 million ways to create a single Domino’s pizza.
Pizza chains: Papa John’s
Papa John’s came a little later than Pizza Hut and Domino’s. High school student John Schnatter was working at a local pizza place in Jeffersonville, Indiana, but felt there was something missing. So in 1984, he turned a closet at his father’s pub into a place where he could make pizzas, with just $1,600 of funding for equipment. The pizzas became popular with locals and in the same year he opened the first Papa John’s restaurant. There are now more than 5,000 Papa John locations in 45 countries around the world.
Pizza in popular culture
We’ve established how important pizza is, which is probably one of the reasons it’s featured so often in TV shows, movies and even music. There are some iconic moments: from Kevin McCallister devouring pizza in both Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, to Walter White angrily throwing an extra-large pizza on the roof of his house in Breaking Bad (pictured). The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are as obsessed as the rest of us (maybe even more so?) with pizza.
Pizza in popular culture
Julia Roberts plays Elizabeth Gilbert who discovers herself and proper pizza in Naples in Eat, Pray, Love and she also starred in 1980s rom-com Mystic Pizza, set in a Connecticut pizzeria. Then there’s John Travolta’s suave pizza slice stacking in Saturday Night Fever. Perhaps he inspired Joey Tribbiani’s ‘Joey Special’ in Friends – the character’s personal order of two large pizzas.
Which country eats the most pizza?
There’s no doubt that pizza is popular. Around five billion pizzas are sold worldwide every year, with three billion of those in the US and 1.6 billion in Italy. But which country eats the most? It might be surprising to learn on a per-person basis, Norwegians apparently eat the most pizza. With a population of around 5.5 million, the average Norwegian eats 27.5 pizzas a year. The average Brit eats 731 pizzas in their lifetime (nine pizzas per person per year), and in Germany, 94% of people eat pizza at least once a month, with 20% eating it more than three times a month.
Pricey slices
Pizza may have started as a food for the poor but today there are pies for the super-rich. Splash out on the 24k Pizza from Industry Kitchen in NYC, which is topped with foie gras, truffles, Stilton cheese, Ossetra caviar and 24kt gold leaf, and will set you back $2,700. But that’s nothing compared to the Louis XIII pizza from Renato Viola in Salerno, Italy which costs a whopping $12,000. The 72-hour dough is topped with three types of caviar, eight cheeses, Australian pink salt, prawns, mantis shrimp and lobster. It’s served with Rémy Martin Cognac Louis XIII and a bottle of vintage 1995 Krug Clos du Mesnil Champagne.
Does pineapple belong on pizza?
We couldn’t not address the decades-old controversy over Hawaiian pizza. It was created in 1962, in Canada of all places, when Sam Panopoulos introduced pizza to his restaurant’s menu after a trip to Naples. He loved combining sweet and savory flavors, so topped a pizza with pineapple and ham, and customers loved it. And the name? It came from the brand of tinned pineapple which was called Hawaiian. Over the years, the topping combo has split opinion – even landing the Icelandic president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson in hot water after he said pineapple on pizza should be banned.