No one can be sure of the origin of what we know today as pizza. In a way, it would depend on what your definition of pizza is. A flatbread? A round flat bread? A round flat bread with something on top? Or a round flatbread with tomato sauce and pepperoni? Well, take your pick. In the Mediterranean there was a fairly common use of flatbreads. This type of bread was probably introduced to southern Italy (Magna Graecia) by its early Greek settlers.
In the third century a. C., Marcus Porcius Cato describes something that seems very similar to what we know today as pizza: “round flat of dough dressed with olive oil, herbs and honey baked on stones”. In the year 79 AD C., archaeologists excavated shops that could have been pizzerias. The tomato only became a common ingredient in the late 1800s, as until then it was believed to be poisonous. The pizza eventually grew rapidly in popularity and word of its delicious taste quickly spread throughout Europe, prompting large numbers of tourists to travel to Naples to sample the local specialty.
the oldest pizzeria on record opened in 1830 in Naples and is still active today. Until 1889 pizza was not considered food for the rich, that’s when Rafaele Esposito, a pizzaiolo, was called by King Umberto I to prepare a pizza. It is believed that he made two traditional flavors and one in the colors of the Italian flag with red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves. The new pizza is named after Queen Margherita.
Pizza became popular in the United States in 1897 when Italian immigrant Gennaro Lombardi opened a small grocery store in New York. The store began selling pizzas that were adopted primarily by Italian immigrants at the time, Lombardi later opening the first American pizzeria in 1905.
There were two major factors that helped pizza gain more popularity among Americans after World War II. First of all, the American troops who were stationed in Italy brought their acquired taste to America, in addition, the millions of Italian immigrants who were called in to help restore the economy brought their cuisine to the US and the rest of Europe. In the fifties with the growing popularity of pizza, some restaurant chains began to appear, among them Pizza Hut which was founded in 1954. The pizza business grew steadily leaning towards home delivery, which today is responsible of most of the pizzeria’s profits.
Today, pizza has taken over the palates of almost every culture in the world and can be found in a huge variety of toppings, and can be easily made at home or bought frozen in any supermarket.