NATIONAL PIZZA DAY - THE HISTORY

zeeny360 .com 10 February 2023

Though ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks ate flatbreads with toppings, the contemporary birthplace of the pizza is southwestern Italy's Campania area, which includes Naples. Naples, which was founded in 600 BC as a Greek town, was a thriving beachfront city in the 1700s and early 1800s. Although technically an autonomous kingdom, it was infamous for its swarms of working poor, or lazzaroni. These Neapolitans required cheap meals that could be devoured fast. Pizza - flatbreads with toppings that can be eaten for every meal — met this requirement. These early pizzas included excellent toppings including tomatoes, cheese, oil, anchovies, and garlic. More affluent Italian authors criticised Naples' creativity, frequently labelling their eating habits repulsive.

Italy was ultimately united in 1861, and King Umberto I and Queen Margherita visited Naples in 1889. Legend has it that the travelling couple grew bored with their continuous diet of French food and requested a selection of pizzas from the city's Pizzeria Brandi, founded in 1760. The queen's favourite was pizza mozzarella, a pie covered with soft white cheese, red tomatoes, and green basil, much like the Italian flag. Since then, this particular combination of toppings has been named the Margherita pizza.

Despite the Queen's fondness for the dish, pizza remained poorly recognized outside of Naples until the 1940s. Across the water, immigrants from Naples were recreating their flatbreads in New York and other American cities. They were looking for industrial work but inadvertently made a gastronomic statement. Pizza's tastes and fragrances rapidly captivated non-Neapolitans and non-Italians equally.