The History of Pizza

Pizza didn’t wasn’t invented overnight. Throughout the centuries cultures existing around the Mediterranean Sea have contributed in some way to the development of pizza as we know it today.

• Ancient Greeks baked flat bread called plankuntos which were eaten with various toppings.
• Tomatoes were originally thought to be poisonous until the Spaniards returning from Mexico and Peru introduced the tomato to Italy in the 16th century.
• Mozzarella cheese was originally made with the milk of Indian water buffalo in the 17th century and brought to Italy in the 18th century.
• The world’s first actual pizzeria opened up in1738 "Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba" and is still in business today at Via Port’Alba 18 in Naples, Italy.
• Italian and Greek peasants ate earlier forms of pizza for several centuries before it became known to aristocracy in1889 when a Neopolitan – Rafaele Esposito prepared it for King Umberto I and Queen Margherita.
• An Italian immigrant Gennaro Lombardi opened the first U.S. pizzeria on Spring Street in New York City in 1905.

Pizza took the form that we are now familiar with in pre-Renaissance Naples where poor peasants using their limited ingredients of wheat flour, olive oil, lard, cheese and natural herbs made seasoned flat bread. Mozzarella cheese was available because Asian people had brought the water buffalo to Italy. Today the best mozzarella cheese is still made from water buffalo milk.

Once southern Europeans overcame their suspicions of tomatoes which the Spaniards brought from overseas tomatoes became very popular in Mediterranean cuisine.

Before pizzerias opened their doors street vendors walked around Naples with small tin stoves on their heads calling out to attract customers. The first pizzeria finally opened in 1738. Pizza was baked in large, brick ovens which gave it an unusual distinct flavor. Pizza is still prepared this way in Naples. In 1889, Rafaele Esposito of the "Pizzeria di Pietro e Basta Cosi" (today known as "Pizzeria Brandi") baked pizza for the visit of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. To make the pizza patriotic looking he used red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves for the topping depicting the colors of the Italian flag. Queen Margherita loved the pizza and now more than 200 years later "Pizzeria Brandi" displays a royal thank you note signed by Galli Camillo, "head of the royal table of the royal household", dated June 1889.

Today pizza is popular throughout the world and is made in many different ways with many topping combinations. Two places in New York City that still prepare pizza the old fashioned way are "Lombardi’s Pizzeria" on Spring Street featuring coal-oven pizza and "Il Mattone Pasta/Grill Brick Oven Pizza" on Greenwich Street. Pizza Margherita can still be found on most pizza menus and the rest as they say is history.