Pizza Related

Italians are not the first nationality that came up with pizza. It goes a long way further back than that. Many believe that the Italians invented the pizza, however the origins of basic flat bread with toppings go back to the ancient times. It is known the Babylonians, Israelites, Egyptians and other ancient Middle Eastern cultures were eating flat, un-leaven bread cooked in mud ovens. The bread was very much like a pita, which is still common in Greece and the Middle East today. It is known that ancient Mediterranean people such as the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were eating the bread, topped with olive oil and native spices and ground chickpea paste. The city inhabitants of Naples, Italy is believed to have created pizza in a more familiar fashion. In the late 1800s a Italian baker named Raffaele Esposito, was said to have created a dish for visiting royalty. According to the story, the Italian monarch King Umberto and his consort, Queen Margherita were touring the area. In order to impress them and to show his patriotism Raffaele chose to top flat bread with food that would best represent the colors of Italy: red tomato, white mozzarella cheese and green basil. The king and queen were so impressed that word quickly reached the masses. In the early 1900's pizza made it's way to the inner cities United States, thanks to Italian immigrants, most notably New York and Chicago, because those cities had large Italian populations. Small cafes began offering the Italian favorite. American soldiers further prompted the dish to become very popular at the end of World War II, having been introduced to it while serving on the Italian front and demanding that it be copied back home.