History Of The Invention Of Pizza

There would be very few things in this world that are loved by almost everyone, and Pizza is one of it. Everyone just loves It. ! This dish gained immense popularity ever since it was invented. Today, most people eat pizza, whether they eat it alone at home, with their friends, colleagues, families, and so on. There are so many different types when it comes to pizza, you can go for a thin crust, Chicago style, and meat lovers, vegetarian or the classic cheese. With so many options, it just becomes impossible to ever get sick of it.

After hectic working hours, Pizza is considered to be a perfect excuse to take a short break and party while enjoying this delicious meal. Since Pizza is such a common food nowadays, people usually wonder who they have to thank for creating such a remarkable treat. Are you also one of them trying to find the answer as who invented this delicious food? According to many, this dish was first made in Naples by Raffaele Esposito. But is it so?

Who Invented Pizza?

Pizza comes in a lot of varieties, from a simple one to a meal full of ingredients. When the pizza was first invented, it was considered to be a meal for poor people with not too many ingredients. A simple pizza consisted of only tomato, sauce, mozzarella cheese, and basil. After many years this simple pizza was named as Margherita, in honor of Margherita of savoy, who was the queen of Italy. But the real question that stands here is that who actually invented Pizza?

Who Invented Pizza First?

This question is generally asked by a lot of people, with the right intentions as well, Pizza is food that is eaten by every country in this world. A well-known historian called Giuseppe Nocca, who works at the Alberghiero di Formia Institute, claims that Italians were the ones who actually created a pizza, but not in the region of Naples, as it was initially thought. Nocca seems to believe that pizza was first made about 60 miles from Naples, in the Gaeta region. Unnecessary to say, the people of Naples weren’t pleased to hear that. They continued believing that we should only credit Raffaele Esposito, a Naples baker, with crafting the original pie.

Raffaele Esposito

Raffaele Esposito was the owner of an Italian tavern called Pizzeria di Pietro Basta Cosi. You could easily find this in Naples in the nineteenth century. At that time, the pizza we know today as Margherita did exist, but it wasn’t much famous and only poor people used to eat it. When Raffaele came to know that he would have to make this dish for Queen Margherita, he decided to improvise with the dish, he used tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil to imitate the colors of the Italian flag. The queen at that time was known to be quite selective with her eating choices, and she had not eaten pizza before in her life, but even she loved the dish. Raffaele got famous and made a name for himself as the most popular pizza-maker. People believed that after this event the popularity of pizza increased even more and turned Raffaele into the father of modern pizza.

Pizza Arrive in the United States

It was the immigrants from Italy who actually bought pizza to the United States. All this happened at the dawn of the twentieth century. A grocer named, Gennaro Lombardi, is said to have opened the first pizza place in America in the year 1906, in New York. In the 1930s, he even added tables and chairs to his establishment and crafted a proper pizzeria. Despite failing in earlier goes, Pizza became a true American favorite in the 1950s. That was the moment when this dish gained immense popularity outside of the Italian-American community.

Pizza in Present Times

Ever since pizza was created, it has never stopped reinventing itself. Today, it comes in a wide range of forms, tastes, and versions. For instance, the pizza that is most popular these days is the stuffed crushed pizza. In a short span of time, this pizza gained a lot of popularity as soon as it was first offered to the public. If you’re thinking who did this, that’s another matter that has controversy attached to it. According to most of the people, it is Pizza Hut whom we should thank for bringing stuffed crust pizza into the market.

More specifically, it is Chaz Romano who first thought of combining a breadstick and cheese. When he was 23 years old, he stuffed the remaining Olive Garden breadstick with string cheese and warmed it up, and it was Pizza Hut who first served this dish, after buying this idea from Romano.

Conclusion

The answer to this question as who was the real inventor of pizza depends upon how you define pizza. Some pizza varieties go way back to Ancient times. For example, many peoples such as Greeks, Italians, Egyptians, and Israelites prepared flatbread recipes. It’s true, however, that modern pizza was made in Italy. It’s not easy to credit someone with the invention of the pizza, but one thing is for sure, that we can now enjoy tasty slices of pizza thanks to the Italians.