A BriefHistory of PIZZA

By Nicole

Monturo

In the United States alone, pizza is a $30billion a year industry. Each year, every

person in the United States eats an averageof 46 slices of pizza, and we cumulativelyconsume over an acre of pizza each day.

So where didpizza

come from?

Pizza was first created in Naples sometime inthe late 1700s. While Naples was a thriving,waterfront city, the working poor lived incramped, densely populated conditions.

As a result, theworking class requireda food that was simpleto make and easy toeat, and thus, the pizza

was born.

These 'pizzas' weremade by topping

flatbread with variousingredients, includingcheese, oil, tomatoes,garlic, and anchovies.

Wealthy Neapolitans looked down onthe eating habits of the working class, sowhen pizza was first created, it was

considered a peasant dish.

In 1889, Queen Margherita and King Umberto Ivisited Naples and requested a variety of pizzasfrom local establishments. A restauranteurnamed Raffaele Esposito created a specialpizza in honor of their visit that consisted ofgreen basil, white mozzarella, and red

tomatoes, the colors of the Italian flag. TheQueen loved this pizza so much that it's stillnamed after her today: Margherita Pizza.

Pizza in Italy didn't become common untilthe 1940s, but across the ocean pizza

experienced a boom around the turn of the20th century. The first documented

pizzeria in the United States, G. Lombardi's,opened in 1905, and it's still around today.