Pizza is one of the popular dishes in Italy as well as around the world.
Pizza is one of the popular dishes in Italy as well as around the world. However, the true origin, as well as who was the first to make it, are still controversial. Some documents say that the history of pizza stretches back to ancient times in Egypt, Rome and Greece.
From bread thousands of years ago
Queen Margherita and her favorite pizza.
For thousands of years, humans have combined different herbs, spices, vegetables, mushrooms and meats to create dishes that not only sustain life, but also make them flavorful. delicious, attractive. Some of these combinations can result in pizza. The name of this dish first appeared in the city of Gaeta (Italy) in 997.
Going further back in history, archaeologists have found evidence of bread made from fermented dough “baked” on rocks about 7,000 years ago in Sardinia. Gradually, ancient people decided to add flavor by combining oil, vegetables, meat and spices into the daily cake.
According to Science Trends, in the 6th century BC, Persian soldiers under the leadership of King Darius I spread dates and cheese evenly on flat bread.
Meanwhile, the ancient Chinese had a flat round cake called bing, and India made a fat-soaked bread called paratha. In addition, we can also find similar flatbreads in other South and Central Asian cultures, called roti and naan.
Ancient Roman historians recorded dishes in many different documents. In the 3rd century, Cato the Elder wrote about a round flatbread topped with herbs and olives. In the 5th century, Virgil also described a similar dish.
Archaeologists later found cooking utensils from the ruins of Pompeii that could have been used to make dishes similar to pizza, meaning they date back to at least the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in around 72.
To modern pizza
Most historians today believe that modern pizza originated in Naples. The city began its existence as a Greek settlement around the year 600, but by the 18th and 19th centuries it had become an independent kingdom that, while prosperous, had a high proportion of working poor. High.
Raffaele Esposito is considered the “father” of modern pizza and the plaque commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of pizza.
Pizza was invented around this time. Carol Helstosky, Associate Professor of History at the University of Denver and author of the book Pizza: A Global History, explains that the working poor in Naples needed a meal that was cheap and could be eaten quickly.
Pizza serves the above purpose well. Poor people love bread topped with tomatoes, cheese, anchovies, oil and garlic, while people from higher social classes are surprised by eating habits they consider “disgusting”. ” This.
In 1805, Napoleon conquered Naples and ruled it until he was forced to abdicate in 1814. It was not until 1861 that the kingdom officially became an Italian city.
In 1889, the Italian king, Umberto I, and queen Margherita visited Naples. The Queen expressed her wish to enjoy the unique dishes of this city. The royal chef introduced Raffaele Esposito, owner of Pizzeria Brandi, who has a talent for making delicious, attractive cakes.
Esposito presented the queen with three pies: Pizza marinara (with garlic), pizza with anchovies, and a three-ingredient pizza topped with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil. The queen liked the third pie so much that Esposito named it after her: Pizza Margherita.
After the royal visit to Naples, Esposito’s fame reached its peak, but the dish did not gain immediate popularity in his country. In fact, pizza thrived in America, before the pizza craze spread throughout Italy.
In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened G. Lombardi’s on Spring Street in Manhattan, making his bakery one of the first licensed pizza businesses in America. Soon, similar stores appeared throughout New York, Chicago, Boston, New Jersey and wherever Neapolitans settled.
The same thing happens in Europe. Naples immigrants carried their cherished dish wherever they went. After World War II, pizza was no longer a “national” dish in America, and non-Neapolitans stepped in, creating their own versions to their liking.
During the 1950s, pizza’s global popularity continued to surge. Rose Totino, a pizzeria proprietor, had a brilliant notion of introducing frozen pizza to the market. In 1958, the inaugural Pizza Hut establishment debuted in Wichita, Kansas.
A year later, the first Little Caesar’s opened in Garden City, Michigan. In the subsequent year, Domino’s set up shop in Ypsilanti. In 1962, a Greek-Canadian named Sam Panopoulos claimed to have invented Hawaiian Pizza.
As of 2022, the worldwide pizza market is a $141.1 billion industry. In the US alone, there are more than 75,000 pizza locations, more than half of which are independent.
In 2001, Pizza Hut made a splash by delivering a sausage pizza to the International Space Station (ISS). Just over a decade later, NASA-funded scientists have built a 3D printer that can produce a pizza in one minute and fifteen seconds. This is part of a project to produce food for astronauts on Mars.
