Pizza is a very simple food. It’s basically a flattened loaf of bread baked with a combination of ingredients on top. Most of these combinations feature cheese and/or tomato sauce, but they’re not essential. It can be anything. Even maple syrup and whipped cream. The pizza base is a blank canvas for chefs, allowing for some creativity – and an unintentional means to display one’s financial situation. It’s no surprise that there is a huge variety of pizzas out there for every walk of life, from gold flakes and truffles for the rich to hotdogs and pineapple for whoever likes that sort of thing. Been a simple invention, it’s no surprise that the pizza has ancient origins. But the pizza most people call “pizza” (made with cheese and tomato sauce as standard) is a more modern invention.
The
origin of “pizza”
The word “pizza” has been written down as early as 997CE, when someone was stated to bring to the Bishop of Gaeta duodecim pizze (“twelve pizzas”) every Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. But please note that the Italians have used the word “pizza” to describe any form of baked flat food, such as pies and cakes, as well as what we call pizza. It has Greek and Germanic origins. Its Greek roots comes from pitta bread. “pitta” traces back to ancient Greek to either pikte (“fermented pastry”), which later became the Latin word “picta.” Or it came from pissa (“pitch”) or pḗtea (“bran”). Naples began life as a Greek colony – its name comes from neo polis (“new town”). Its Germanic roots are from the Lombards, who invaded Italy in the 6th century CE. They had the word bizzo or pizzo, meaning “mouthful.” Its related to the English word “bit” and “bite” and the German word imbiss, meaning “snack.”
Pitta (“pie” in modern Greek) also links to the Bulgarian word pitka (“bread”).
"...there
is no earlier evidence than third century Macedonia for the use of a flat loaf
of bread as a plate for meat, a function which bread continued to perform in
the pide of Turkey, the pita of Greece and Bulgaria, the pizza of southern
Italy and the trencher of medieval Europe. Although meat and other relishes
were seen earlier in Greece as accompaniments to cereal, the cereal had taken
other forms."
---Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 1996
Ancient
Pizza
It can be
argued that as long as people have been making bread some form of pizza (or
flat bread) existed. Neolithic tribes gathered grain, made it into a crude
batter, and cooked them on hot stones near campfires. This “bread” was filled and eaten, like a tortilla.
Then the
Etruscans came to Italy in about 1000BC, and bought with them a thick gruel
called pulmentum (Latin for “stew”), or puls
in short. This later became a staple of Roman cuisine. The Etruscans baked this
gruel on stones under the ashes of fire, and the resulting cake was seasoned
with oil and herbs and eaten with broth or meat. The Romans quickly adopted it
and called it focaccia (from the Latin panis focus, meaning “hearth bread”, later Italian for “flat bread”). The Romans bought focaccia all over the
empire, leading to the creation of many flat bread dishes across Europe,
including fougasse and fouée in France and the British oatcake.
Meanwhile, the Greeks, who learnt their great baking skills from the Egyptians, had come up with the idea of an editable plate for a meal made of bread, called plankuntos. These round, flat breads were baked with a selection of “relishes” (things spread or baked on bread), such as oils, onions, garlic, cheese, herbs, vegetables, olives, etc. They had a rim of crust left around it to serve as a handle for the eater – sound familiar? They are references to these “cakes” in Plato’s Republic. The Romans later adopted plankuntos and turned it into placenta (Latin for “cake”).
Naples – the birthplace of pizza
Been a Greek colony and part of the centre of the Roman Empire (and historically poor economically, but resourceful) Naples naturally became the birthplace of the modern pizza. But one main ingredient, tomatoes, didn’t arrive until the 16th century. (The earliest reference to tomatoes in Italy is from Tuscany in 1548.) But it took while for Italians to use it in their food, due to beliefs it was poisonous. By 1692 a Neapolitan cookbook was listing tomatoes as an ingredient. By the late-18th century the tomato had become the staple of Italian cuisine it is known for today, and Neapolitans were putting it on their flat breads, creating the prototype modern pizza.
The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana dates the creation of one Neapolitan pizza, the marinara, to 1734.
“the pizza
is a favourite Neapolitan
delicacy which is only made and eaten between sunset and two or three in the
morning, and it must be baked five minutes in the oven; at the very moment when
it is ordered it is pulled out of the oven and served up piping hot, otherwise
it is not worth a grano. … at this season of the year there is no person, high or low, from the
first Neapolitan duke to the lowest lazzaroni, with who it is not a primary
article of faith to eat pizza. The pizza cake is your only social leveller, for
in the pizza shops rich and poor harmoniously congregate; they are the only
places where the members of the Neapolitan aristocracy--far haughtier than
those in any other part of Italy--may be seen masticating their favourite delicacy side by side with their
coachmen, and valets, and barbers.” - The Morning Post [London] (17th December 1860)
Pizzerias
The pizzeria was an established business in Naples in the 18th century. Zi’ Ciccio opened in 1727. Ntuono opened in 1732. Capasso opened in 1750. These places began life as an oven where a pizzaiolo made pizzas and were sold to hungry workers (sometimes through a street vendor) who ate it on the street. By the mid-18th century these places began to install tables for customers to sit, which proved popular with Spanish soldiers stationed there. By 1807 68 pizzerias were in operation in Naples. By 1871 they were 120.
Many
believe that the Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba in Naples is the first ever
pizzeria. Starting off as a street peddler in 1738, it became a proper bricks
and mortar restaurant in 1830.
The
Pizza Becomes a National Dish (Not)
In many
tellings of the story of pizza, one incident is always mentioned, involving
pizza-lover Queen Margherita of Savoy. The story goes is that, in 1889, she and
husband Umberto I were visiting Naples. They were tired of eating French
cuisine, so they summoned pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito, of Pizzeria Brandi, to
make the queen a variety of pizzas. One of them (called pizza alla mozzarella
then) was made red tomatoes, white mozzarella and green basil. This proved to
be her favourite, and it became known since as the margherita.
The
Pizzeria Brandi (opened in 1780 as ‘Pizzeria di Pietro e basta cosi’) has on
display a thank-you letter signed by Galli Camillo, Head of the Table of the
Royal Household, dating June 1889, and a plaque outside stating it was the
birthplace of the pizza margherita.
However, there is doubt whether this story was 100% true or a creation to give Italy a nationalist myth. An Italian royal dismissing French food and favoring a meal made by a humble poor man that happens to have the same colours as the Italian flag does sound like one. And, if it did happen, pizza would have become a national food quickly afterwards. But evidence of this suggests otherwise. Italian cookbooks barely mention pizza at all until well into the 20th century. And even then, most reference it as a regional dish. By 1938, an official fascist guide to restaurants noted an abundance of pizza in the region around Naples – and nowhere else in Italy.
"Queen Margaret is in Naples at the palace of Capedimonte, and a story is related of her which explains the secret of her popularity among the people. A favorite eatable with the Neapolitans is the pizza, a sort of cake...that is in a round form, and seasoned with various condiments. The Queen sent for a pizzainolo who is famous for his skill in making these cakes, as she said 'she wanted to eat like the poor people.' The man went to the palace, was received, and having shown a list of thirty-fie varieties of pizza, was sent to the royal kitchen to make the kind which the Queen had selected. He made eight which were the ideals of their kind, and the little Prince and his mother found them excellent, but to eat as the poor people in Naples eat--that is often not all, and is more than could be expected. But she has visited the poor quarter of Naples, and sympathizes with the misery she seen there." - "Queen Margaret at Naples," Washington Post (25th July 1880)
How
Pizza Left Naples
Pizza could have remained a local Neapolitan delicacy if it wasn’t for the many Neapolitans that moved for better opportunities in Italy and Europe and immigrated to America in the 19th and 20th century. Pizza’s migration began during World War II, when American and British soldiers stationed in Southern Italy sampled it and kept asking for it wherever in Italy they went, prompting Italians to look up what this “pizza” thing is. Then, a high number of Southern Italians migrated north and across Europe during the 1950s and 60s economic boom, bringing their taste in food with them, leading to pizzerias appearing everywhere they went, including Stockholm. At the same time, there was an increase in money-conscious working and middle-class tourists visiting Italy, and many restaurants offered a regional eating tour of Italy, offering staples of various regions’ local cuisine to customers who couldn’t afford to travel to every region themselves. One of those “regional delicacies” offered was, of course, the Neapolitan staple that is … pizza.
Pizza in America
To most people pizza is a staple of American culture, like the hotdog, which shouldn’t be a surprise if you consider how popular it is there. In 2014 Americans spent $37 billion on pizza. Much of it through the country’s 75,000 stores, that employed over a million people (excluding corporate), where they had the choice 34 million different forms of pizza.
For a long time experts thought that the first pizzeria in
the US was “opened by Gennaro Lombardi in New York in 1905.” But it turns out a
number of pizzerias were in operation in New York long before his opened. In
fact, on the same location of the original Lombardi’s (it closed down in 1984
and moved down the street in 1994) Filippo Milone was operating a bake oven (for
making pizzas, possibility) in 1898. Gennaro was an employee in Filippo’s pizzeria,
hired in 1905.
Despite this, Lombardi’s became a cultural hot spot, attracting high class customers, including Enrico Caruso. By the 1920s the creation of smaller coal ovens allowed the springing up of many smaller pizzerias across America, including (in New York) Totonno's (in 1924) and John's (in 1929), by former Lombardi employees.
It didn’t take long for Americans to develop a taste for pizza. Families wanted a cheap meal. Workers wanted something to eat during lunch hour. Drunks wanted something to eat with their drink. By the end of prohibition in 1933 a lot more pizzerias opened up. Many of these places were “taverns” and only allowed kids in if accompanied with an adult.
When soldiers returned from Italy after World War II with a
taste for pizza finding a place that served it wasn’t much of a problem. But
the pizzeria had an image problem that conflicted with the post-war zeitgeist. Many
were small places found in the dark corners of cities, like speakeasies during Prohibition.
(And more so as many served alcohol). Not a place you want to take your family
out to celebrate a kid’s birthday. This was the situation where the chain
pizzerias we are familiar with began trading.
Pizza Gets Chained
One sign of when pizza becomes mainstream in a country is
when it starts their own national chains. In the US, that moment came in the
late-1950s. Brothers Dan and Frank Carney opened the first Pizza Hut in Wichita,
Kansas, in 1958. Couple Mike and Marian Ilitch opened the first Little Caesar’s
in Detroit, Michigan in 1959.
Sam Primucci and his family founded the first Pizza Nova in
Toronto in 1963.
Peter Boizot opened the first Pizza Express in London in
1965.
Couple Louis and Anne Jordan opened Peppes Pizza Pub in Oslo
in 1970.
Cresida Tueres opened the first Greenwich Pizza in the Philippines
in 1971.
Mario's Pizzeria opened in Trinidad and Tobago in 1972.
Jeno's Pizza opened in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1973.
Rabbe Grönblom opened his first pizzeria in Vaasa, Finland,
in 1976. He later expanded to become Kotipizza in 1987.
Mayer Ambar, Luiz Ambar, Álvaro Feio and Charles Saba opened
the first Mister Pizza in Rio in 1981.
Felipe Baeza opened the first Benedetti's Pizza in Mexico in
1983.
Rocco Pantaleo and Felice Nania bought a run-down pizza parlour
in Melbourne in 1985. It was called La Porchetta.
Haim Kedem opened the first Big Apple Pizza in Jerusalem in
1986.
Hidenori Asano (inspired by the movie E.T. and its inclusion of a Domino’s Pizza) opened the first Pizza-La
in Tokyo in 1987.
Jung Woo Hyun opened the first Mr Pizza in Seoul in 1990.
Craig McKenzie and Andrew Harvey opened the first Debonair’s
Pizza in Pietermaritzburg, South Afirca, in 1991.
Smokin' Joe's opened in Mumbai in 1993.
Mu Ji founded Origus Pizza Buffet in China in 1998.
Fyodor Ovchinnikov founded Dodo Pizza in 2011.
Pizza for the Home
Pizza is its best when fresh out of the oven. So, how can one get that in their home?
Make-your-own pizzas kits first appeared in 1948, when Frank Fiorello created Appian Way Roman Pizza Mix while working in a pizza shop in Worchester, Massachusetts. His kit contained the mix, along with dry yeast, cheese and tomato sauce. The only thing you needed to do is add water, combine the ingredients and cook it.
In 1950 some pizza restaurants in the US were offering
customers “ready-to-cook” refrigerated pizzas to take home. It didn’t take long
for the next step to happen – frozen pizza. In that same year Joseph Bucci patented
a” Method for Making Frozen Pizza.” His invention was a quick-freezing dough
that evened out its texture and temperature when cooked, preventing sogginess. By
the time his patent was granted in 1954 a number of regional frozen pizza
brands were already on sale across the US. The first frozen pizza brand sold
nationwide was by the Celentano brothers of Newark in 1957.
Pizza to your Door
As the Queen Margherita story states, pizzerias were offering home delivery in the 19th century. Many people claim Raffaele Esposito 1889 delivery was the “first pizza delivery.” But it was an afterthought, mostly. When a pizzeria got established and became a proper restaurant the delivery part of the business stopped. Then, World War II bomber navigator Dominick DiVarti bought an eatery in Ypsilanti, Michigan, turned it into a pizzeria and bar, and called it DomiNick’s. Been near Eastern Michigan University, it became a popular student hang-out. Later, he wanted out of the restaurant business. A local architect student wanting some income, Tom Monaghan, decided to, with his brother James, scrimp a $500 down payment, borrow $900, and buy DomiNick’s in 1960. It took up so much time and money that Tom dropped out and James (preferring his postman job) traded his share of the business for the 1959 Volkswagen Beetle they had been using for deliveries eight months later. By 1965, Tom bought two other pizzerias and wanted them to have the same branding. Because Dom didn’t want them to franchise his name, DomiNick’s was renamed Domino’s – thanks to driver Jim Kennedy. From the beginning, Domino’s has been a delivery-focused business. The original store was too small to be a proper sit-in restaurant.
The three dots on the logo represent the three original pizzerias the business owned in 1965. Tom originally planned to add more dots as they acquired more pizzerias. But the business’s quick expansion made this idea undoable by the time it was quickly forgotten. In 1983, Domino’s opened its 1,000th store and its first outside the US, in Canada.
In 1973 Domino’s introduced the infamous “30 minutes or your pizza’s free” offer. If an order didn’t arrive before 30 minutes after ordering you got it for free or a discounted price. It was very successful in making Domino’s the most popular choice in pizza delivery. But it did force delivery drivers to break the law to make their deliveries on time. It reached a point that, in 1989, the National Safe Workplace Institute recorded the statistic that Dominos employees had a death rate of 50 per 100,000 – similar to mining and heavy construction. The madness finally ended in 1993 when it led to them paying out millions in lawsuits. However, a number of businesses worldwide still have this offer, and the slogan has an afterlife in popular culture.
An “insulated container for pizza pies” was patented by Jean L Walsh in 1967.
Containing Pizza
In the 18th century, Neapolitan bakers were transporting their goods (including pizzas) in stufas (“ovens”), multi-layered metal containers that can be carried on the head. By the 1940s, pizzerias in America were using disposable packaging. Many pizzerias also sold pies, so they packaged them like pies. Either on a rigid cardboard base inside a paper bag, or in thin cardboard boxes, similar to cakes. These solutions tended to ruin pizzas and were unstackable. The corrugated cardboard pizza box was first patented by Abraham L Tunick in 1963. But many assume it was an innovation from Domino’s. But they did popularize it in the late-60s, when the business was booming and pizzas got bigger. Founder Tom Monaghan has said that the creation of the box was significant in developing his pizza delivering empire and proved tricky to develop for Traid Containers of Detroit, Michigan, who made his pioneering boxes.
Most pizza boxes are in the form of the Michigan style “Walker Lock” design.
A popular alternative design is the Chicago style box. Originally made especially for deep-dish pizzas, it’s designed to unfold flat when open. Its proven ideal, due been cheaper to make and faster to fold than the traditional box, as well as been more cutter friendly. Some Chicago boxes feature “ears” on the lid that fold around the sides to lock it closed.
This double-walled locking fold was patented by Elmer L
Winkler in 1951.
Cutting Pizza
The first tool made specifically to cut pizza was the
mezzaluna “half moon” knife. Something quoted a lot online is that “it was
invented by Silvio Pacitti in 1708.” But I can’t find proof or mention of this “fact”
before the 2000s, so be cautious when mentioning it. The wheeled pizza cutter
can be traced back to an 1892 US patent by David S. Morgan for a wallpaper
cutter. By 1922 Carl A. Frahm patented a practical cake cutter with a rotating
blade. By 1958 pizza cutters were advertised in America.
Dip Sauces
The dip sauce is an invention of the modern chains, to
encourage the eating of crusts. The first was Papa John’s garlic dipping sauce,
which has been sold with every Papa John’s pizza since its founding in 1984.
The pizza saver was patented by Carmela Vitale in 1985.
Neapolitan Pizza – A
Protected National Treasure
The archetypal modern pizza comes in three official varieties. The Margherita (made with tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil and extra-virgin olive oil. The Marinara (made with tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil). And the Margherita extra (made with tomato, sliced buffalo mozzarella from Campania, basil and extra virgin olive oil). Worried about the loss of traditional pizza, the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana was founded in Naples in 1984. They certify that pizzerias make pizza Napoletana to artistic traditions and proper ingredients. In 2009 the EU granted it the Traditional Specialty Guaranteed label, after 25 years of lobbying.
Anchovy – Pizza’s favourite fish
The anchovy is found in abundance in the Mediterranean, so naturally, the Greeks, Romans and other ancient civilizations based at the Med ate them – especially in the form of a fermented fish sauce called garum. In pizza’s early development in Naples, anchovies were an ideal ingredient. They were cheap, plentiful, can be preserved indefinably in salt and oil, and (been fish) it was editable during Lent. Naturally, when Neapolitans immigrated and started up pizzerias in the US, they included anchovies on the menu for fellow Neapolitans (and the occasional adventurous outsider). Neapolitan cuisine usually doesn’t mix cheese with fish, so authentic anchovy pizza shouldn’t have cheese.
Sicilian Pizza – Alternative shapes
Not all pizza has to be round. The people of Sicily have been eating what they call locally sfinciuni (or sfincione nationally) for as long as Neapolitans ate pizza. The name comes from the Latin spongia, meaning “sponge,” which describes its spongy dough base. Most forms of pizza from Sicily are rectangular, leading to all square-shaped pizzas made in the US been called “Sicillian.” Such pizza is mostly found served in North-eastern states, including Michigan – where (in 1946) Gus and Anna Guerra of Buddy's Rendezvous, in Detroit, first created “Detroit-Style” pizza, made using blocks of Wisconsin cheese and trays originally used as drip pans or to hold parts in local car factories.
Pepperoni – Pure American
Pepperoni is an American invention. Although pepperoni is Italian for “large peppers” no salami made in Italy is called that. But they are some that are similar in appearance and texture. The term “pepperoni”, referring to the sausage, is first found in print in 1919, just as Italian delis and pizzerias took off in the US. But it remained inside the Italian-American community until the mid-20th century. The earliest known evidence of pepperoni pizza is from a photo of a menu taken in The Spot in New Haven, Connecticut, dating from 1950. But even by the late-70s pepperoni wasn’t a popular topping. So much so that when Ezzo Sausage in Columbus, Ohio, (a prime producer of pepperoni) began in 1978, they created “sausage for pizza,” which was made like pepperoni, except wetter. Ezzo would later be the first producers of pre-sliced pepperoni made for pizza in the early-1980s. It was the chain pizza stores that helped make pepperoni America’s (and the world’s) favourite topping, to the point that its hard to imagine pizza without it.
“Bread, cheese and salami is a good idea … But America has a way of taking a good idea, mass-producing it to the point of profound mediocrity, then losing our sense of where the idea comes from.” - Michael Ruhlman, on the “bastard” dish that is pepperoni pizza
Chicago-Style Deep-Dish Pizza
Rosati’s Authentic Chicago Pizza, founded in 1926 by Saverio Rosati, claims to have served deep-dish pizza since opening its first restaurant. But historians point to its invention to Richard Novaretti (known as Ric Riccardo) and former Texan football player Ike Sewell. Ike originally wanted to open a Mexican restaurant because "there wasn't a really decent Mexican restaurant in Chicago then." But a botched test meal made Ric violently ill, which made him suggest a pizza restaurant instead. The Pizzeria opened in 1943, later becoming Pizzeria Riccardo. In 1955 it was renamed Pizzeria Uno, after Ike and Ric opened another restaurant, Pizzeria Due. But there’s also another partial creator of the deep-dish. Adolpho "Rudy" Malnati Sr was a bartender of Riccardo’s and was its most loyal employee, later becoming its manager in 1951.
A number of former employees of Uno and Due later founded some of the Chicago’s most famous pizza houses. Uno's cook Alice Mae Redmond opened Gino's East in 1966. Uno's waitress Helen Delisi opened Delisi's Pizzeria in 1977. Due's cook Louisa DeGenero opened Louisa's Pizza & Pasta in 1981.
Hawaiian – The divisive topping
Sam Panopoulos first encountered pizza in Naples, while immigrating from Greece in 1954. He settled and opened the Satellite restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. It was there in 1962 that pineapple was introduced to pizza. So, what processed him to do that? Sam was eager to make new dishes to entice customers and pizza was still a new thing for Canadians at the time. Unaware of its traditions, he cobbled a number of recipes. And canned pineapples had just become a household staple because of the craze for everything Hawaiian, due to Hawaii becoming a US state in 1959.
Stuffed-Crust – Innovating the Hut
By the 1980s pizza was big business in the US. In the 1980s
Pizza Hut hired David Novak as head of marketing to block the growth of its
rivals. He thought innovation would do it. A new product about every 6 to 8
weeks. Tom Ryan (the “Leonardo Da Vinci of fast food”) was hired as Director of
New Products in 1988. Among his team was Patty Scheibmeir, who got hired in
1990. After a number of successes (including the cheeseburger pizza) the COO
visited Ryan’s office and said “Tom you’re in trouble… Everything that can be
done in pizza has been done.” But that didn’t stop Them.
Patty was surveying a focus group when an odd middle-aged
man talked about “pizza bones.”
He was referring to the crust most people don’t eat and throw away (or give to the dog). She quickly wrote down an idea on a paper plate and later went shopping to get packets of stringed cheese to make the first stuffed crust pizza. Pizza Hut launched the stuff-crust pizza in 1995.
The idea of a stuffed-crust wasn’t unique. Anthony Mongiello patented some form of it in 1987 and sued Pizza Hut for $1billion for infringement. He lost because the courts, in 1999, decided that “[the] plaintiff does not have a product patent, and its method patent is not infringed simply because some examples of defendant's completed product approximate plaintiff's product.”
Anything Goes….
To show how versatile pizza is, a lot of things (including
pineapple) have ended up on pizza all over the world, catering to local taste
and customs. It’s safe to say that if a food stuff exists, someone has made a
pizza with it. For example,
Pickled ginger (India)
Green peas, raisins and hard-boiled eggs (Brazil)
Squid and eel (Japan)
Bananas (Iceland and Sweden)
Coconut (Costa Rica)
Canned tuna (Germany)
Cookie dough (South Korea)
Crab sticks (China)
Kangaroo (Australia)
Spaghetti (New Zealand)
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