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Roughly 1,000 years ago
herb-and-spice-covered circles of baked dough grew exceptionally popular
in Naples, Italy. Known as focaccia, these rounds were served as an
appetizer or a snack. (Source: Smithsonian)
Pizza developed in Italy in
pre-refrigerator times. After focaccia, its most direct ancestor was
"Casa de nanza," which means "take out before." Housewives would pound
out dough into a thin crust and place leftovers on to bake. Pizza was a
peasant food designed to be eaten without utensils and, like the French
crepe and the Mexican taco, was a way to make use of fresh produce
available locally and to get rid of leftovers.
But pizza as we know it could not
have evolved until the late 1600s when Old World Europeans overcame
their fear of a New World discovery - tomatoes. Native to Peru and
Ecuador, a plant which produced yellow or red fruit (later called
tomatoes) was introduced to Europe in the early 1500s. Brought back by
Conquistadors to Spain, the tomato was thought to be poisonous and was
viewed with suspicion. It wasn't until the late 1600s that Europeans
began to eat the tomato. (Source: Smithsonian and PIZZA TODAY)
The peasants of Naples, Italy, who
lived mostly off of bread and little else, were the first to add
tomatoes to their focaccia bread rounds.
In 1830 pizza truly began with the
opening of the world's first pizzeria. Named Port'Alba, the pizzas were
cooked in an oven lined with lava from Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located
on the Bay of Naples. (Source: Smithsonian)
Modern pizza was born in 1889 when
Queen Margherita Teresa Giovanni, the consort of Umberto I, king of
Italy, visited Naples. Don Raffaele Esposito, who owned a tavern-like
place called Pietro Il Pizzaiolo, was asked to prepare a special dish in
honor of the Queen's visit. Esposito developed a pizza featuring
tomatoes, mozzarella cheese (a never before used ingredient made from
the milk of water buffalo) and basil - ingredients bearing the colors
red, white and green for the Italian flag. He named it the Margherita
Pizza, after the guest of honor. Thus, the modern-day tomato-and-cheese
pizza was born. (Source: Smithsonian and PIZZA TODAY)
Shops in the volcano-devastated
city of Pompeii bear the characteristics of a pizzeria.
Marie Antionette's sister, Marie
Carolina, wife of Ferdinand I of Sicily and Naples, had ovens built in
the forest so she could enjoy pizza while the Royal Hunting Party
feasted on wild ducklings and pigs killed in the hunt.
The popularity of pizza exploded
throughout the country when World War II servicemen returning from Italy
began opening pizzerias and raving about that "great Italian dish."
In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened
the first licensed American pizzeria, Lombardi's Pizzeria Napoletana, at
53-1/2 Spring Street in New York City. (From The Art of Pizzaiolo, by
John Thorn.)
America is the new pizza
renaissance leader in the world and is exporting our technology of pizza
production and promotion on an ever-increasing basis.
Pizza restaurants are opening in
such unlikely locations as the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Bonaire;
the South Pacific atoll of Palau; and in most Arab countries. The
deep-dish pizza was invented in Chicago by pizza entrepreneur Ike
Sewell. His restaurant, Pizzeria Uno, is still going strong today.
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