Pizza
Pizza is a savoury dish of Italian origin. It consists of a round flattened base of wheat dough, topped with tomatoes, cheese, or other ingredients such as anchovies, mushrooms, onions, olives, pineapple, ham, etc. It is then baked at a high temperature, in a wood-fired oven. A person who makes pizza is known as a “pizzaiolo”.
History
Foods similar to pizza have been eaten since ancient times. In the 6th century BC, during the rule King Darius I, Persian soldiers baked flatbreads with cheese and dates on their battle shields. The ancient Greeks also ate something similar, that they called ‘Plakuntos’, enhancing their bread with oils, herbs, onions and cheese. Later in history the Romans enjoyed their own version of this dish they called ‘picea’ which might be where the name originated from. Around 1000 AD, the local population of Naples Italy started experimenting and improving on this ancient dish by adding new flavours and ingredients such as: ham, anchovies, local cheeses vegetables and spices. But modern day pizza as we know it, really came into its own in the sixteenth century, with the arrival of the tomato from Mexico and Peru which proved to be a match made in heaven. From that moment onwards ,Naples was pinpointed on the map as the Pizza capital of the world.
Margherita
In 1889, the Royal Palace of Capodimonte, commissioned the Neapolitan pizzaiolo (pizza maker) Raffaele Esposito to create a pizza in honour of the visiting dignitaries King Umbert I and Queen Margherita. Esposito decided to use natural ingredients symbolising the Italian flag of the new found indipendence of Italy, in which the Savoia royal family had played a major role some thirty years earlier in 1861. Esposito used the red of the tomatoes, the white of the mozzarella and finally the green of basilico. The Queen loved this dish and from that moment onwards the world famous pizza Margherita was born. An official letter of recognition from the Queen’s “head of service” still on display to this day in Esposito’s shop, now called the Pizzeria Brandi.
Roughly in the same period pizza migrated to America with the arrival of the first Italian. The first pizzeria in the U.S. was opened in New York in 1905 on 53 Spring Street Lower Manhattan, by Gennaro Lombardi, butfor many years it remained a well kept Italian secret. The popularity of pizza in the U.S. among non Italians really exploded at the end of the second world war, when many American servicemen returning home raved about this incredible dish they had eaten during their campaign in Italy. From then onwards it’s popularity grew, pizza had finally come of age as an International cuisine superstar.