History of Pizza

Pizza” – Definition: A baked pie of Italian origin consisting of a shallow bread-like crust covered with seasoned tomato sauce, cheese, and often other toppings, such as sausage or olives. The root word in Latin is “Picea” which describes the blackening of crust by fire.

Pizza can be traced back to about 1000 B.C. when the Etruscans first arrived into the northern part of Italy from Asia Minor. Pizza was originally known as “focaccia” and did not have tomatoes because they were thought to be poisonous. “Focaccia” was eaten by many people around the Mediterranean rim, such as Greeks, Egyptians etc. because flour, herbs, olive oil, cheese, and lard were readily available.

At first pizza was considered to be a peasant dish until the16th century when the Queen of Naples convinced her husband to let it be made in the royal oven. Since then its popularity has grown tremendously.

The first known pizzeria was Antica Pizzeria at Port’Alba in Naples, Italy which opened in 1738 and is still open for business today.

In 1889, King Umberto and Queen Margherita had the privilege of getting the first known pizza delivered by Raffaele Esposito, the most famous Pizzaaiolo (pizza chef) in Naples, Italy. In honor of the Queen, Raffaele made the pizza into the colors of the Italian flag: red tomatoes, green basil, and white mozzarella cheese. This later would become the basis for our American Neapolitan pizza.

The 1st pizzeria in the U.S. was opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1895, and it was located at 53 1/2 Spring St., New York City. Pizza was brought by the Italian immigrants but didn’t become popular until the American GI’s got the taste for it while in Italy.

The first frozen pizza was invented by non other than Rose Totino, of Totinos pizza.

Even though pizza has been the rage since the early 1900s, pizza recipes didn’t make their debut into recipe books until the 1950s.

I retrieved this info from http://www.pizzadelivery.com/funstuff/history.aspx