Pizza actually didn’t used to be sold by the very convenient slice, it used to just be sold by the pie. But the day was save in 1933 as Patsy Lancieri sliced up a pizza and sold it by the convenient slice, people recognized how genius this was and adapted the trend.
The first pizzeria to appear in the U.S. was a place called Lombardi’s, located on Spring Street in Manhattan. Lombardi’s opened in 1905 and is still in business today. In fact, it still has the same oven that it did when it first began!
The record for the world’s largest circular pizza was set in South Africa in 1990. The pizza was 122 feet, 8 inches across and weighed 26,883 pounds! They used 3,968 pounds of cheese and 1,984 pounds of sauce to make the record-breaking pie.
Pizza may have originated in Italy, but countries all over the globe have their own special pizzas, too. Brazilian pizza makers often top their pizzas with green peas while the French love fried eggs on their pizzas! The Japanese like squid or potatoes, mayonnaise, and bacon on theirs.
In 2009, Neapolitan pizza became safeguarded in the European Union as a Traditional Specialty Guaranteed dish! Can you imagine that?! A program just to guarantee the greatness of pizza!
Did you know that pizza is mentioned in the first history of Rome? When Cato the Elder wrote the history during the 3rd Century B.C., he described round dough baked on stones with herbs, honey and olive oil.
Ordering and chowing down and a huge pizza is a pretty good feeling, if anything you have a lot of left overs. The biggest pizza ever recorded happens to have a diameter of about 131 feet, and if that sounds like too much don’t worry, it’s gluten free.
As the story goes, at the height of the Persian Empire, the soldiers of Darius the Great ate a version of pizza. They baked a kind of bread flat on their shields and then covered the whole thing with cheese and dates.
Some people dream of eating pizza every day for a few months, but Alexandre Dumas found that the Neapolitan didn’t have a choice. In Naples, the poor Neapolitan poor would actually eat nothing but watermelon in the summer and nice warm pizza during the winter.
The most expensive pizza created was made by the restaurateur Domenico Crolla who created a $2,745.00 priced Valentine pizza which included toppings such as sunblush-tomato sauce, Scottish smoked salmon, medallions of venison, edible gold, lobster marinated in the finest cognac and champagne-soaked caviar.
Do you prefer veggies or meat on your pizza? On average, 62 percent of Americans prefer meat, with women being twice as likely as men to order vegetable toppings on their pizza.
What toppings do you put on your pizza? Surveys find that cheese and pepperoni are the most popular pizza toppings.
Naples has many historical records involving pizza, since the year 1000. The first mention refers to flat breads called laganae, and later they are named picea. Pizza was originally dressed with garlic and olive oil, and anchovies, or small local fish.
If you’re looking for a kid-friendly meal that the whole family will enjoy, then pizza may be your best bet. According to a recent Gallup poll, kids under 11 prefer pizza over all other options for both lunch and dinner.
The first pizzas were pretty basic. They typically included just two toppings. Can you guess what they are? If you guessed tomato sauce and cheese, you're right. The use of meats like pepperoni and sausage, and vegetables like mushrooms and peppers, came later.
There’s a huge debate over whether or not pineapples belong on pizza or not, but the person who most likely invented the grounds for this argument was Sam Panopoulos. As a native of Greece, he ran a pizza place in Canada in 1962.
Did you know that as recent as 2009 the European Union set forth a pizza-related ruling? This initiative was designed to protect the culinary heritage of Naples’ Neapolitan pizzas, citing that anyone making this dish must comply with strict traditional standards regarding ingredients and preparation.
The world’s largest pizza was made by a team of 200 people under the supervision of restaurant owner Bill Bahr of Iowa Falls, Iowa. The pizza contained 4,000 pounds of cheese, 700 pounds of sauce and 9,500 sections of crust.
Did you know that 36 percent of people think that pizza makes the perfect breakfast? That’s all the more reason to save last night’s leftover pizza for breakfast.
Pizza truly migrated to the United States with the Italians in the latter half of the 19th century. Stalls were often set up in major cities or the vendors simply sold it right on the street.
Did you know that Americans eat more pizza on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year? In fact, statistics tell us that almost 60 percent of Americans order pizza on that particular day—making it the largest pizza takeout day of the year.
Domenico Crolla created the world’s most expensive pizza, called the “Valentine pizza.” It was worth $2,745 and included toppings such as sun blush tomato sauce, Scottish smoked salmon, medallions of venison, edible gold, lobster marinated in the finest cognac, and champagne-soaked caviar.
