History of Pizza
Humble beginnings of the most popular dish in the world.
Arguably the most popular dish in the world comes from Italy, is centuries old but was not even well known outside the Campania region until just a few decades ago. Learn about pizza`s humble beginnings and how it became Italy’s staple dish and conquered the world.
Pizza is not a new dish. It is a type of flatbread with toppings, which were popular around the world for thousands of years. Even the word behind this dish is pretty ancient – according to some etymologists pizza derives from latin pinsere (meaning to pound or stamp), or from an old lombardic word pizzo/bizzo (meaning mouthful).
In the place where modern pizza was born, Naples people tend to believe more in the latter explanation. In the XVIII century this was a pretty big city. Full of factories, with a shipyard and large docks it was a home for a lot of factory workers, labourers and builders. Inexpensive, on-the-go street food was in high demand back then. Pizza was a perfect dish to take hold there, especially since Campania was always known for great food ingredients. Tasty tomatoes, growing in the shade of Mount Vesuvius, salty, aromatic anchovies, abundance of garlic, basil and delicate mozzarella cheese. These were served as pizza toppings back then, ages ago and still are seen on modern pizzas.
At the beginning pizza was popular amongst poor people. Produced en masse by street vendors and a growing number of pizzerias.
It gained more fame shortly after Italy was unified. Italian monarchs – king Umberto I and his wife Margherita visited Naples in 1889. They visited one of the local eateries, pizzeria Brandi where they were served “pizza mozzarella” – flatbread topped with tomatoes, basil and of course the white mozzarella cheese. They loved it and since pizza with this combination of toppings is called “pizza Margherita”.
This event did not make pizza popular outside Campania yet though. Pizzerias started appearing on the world stage mostly thanks to emigrants. Many Italians migrated to the US, especially from the poorer South. They carried with them the culinary wealth of knowledge about simple, yet appealing mediterranean cuisine. First pizzeria opened in 1905 in Manhattan. Soon after more pizzerias were opened in New York, and after the World War II popularity of pizza and Italian cuisine boomed in the whole United States.
As American products gained more popularity around the world, so did the pizza. It was popular along with jeans, coca cola and rock and roll all, especially in the western Europe. It was then when pizza gained huge popularity all around Italy.
Nowadays pizza is still considered to be best around Napoli, but local variations in other parts of Italy are also good and interesting. For example Rome is famous for its “pinserias”. Pinsa Romana has a different shape and uses some different toppings, but is basically a re-invented pizza.
Modern pizza is sold by whole chains of restaurants and takeaways and is enjoyed with many various toppings all around the world – in Brazil you can get sweet pizza with chocolate, or one with boiled eggs. In Australia you can get it with Kangaroo meat, in Finland – with smoked reindeer. Arguably it is the most popular dish in the world nowadays!
Here, in Ireland the first pizzeria was opened around 1967 in Dublin (Honey Bee on Wicklow Street). Kilkenny pizza arrived not so long ago, in the 1990s.
We can guarantee that pizza prepared in the Kings Mill lives up to the highest standards, thanks to the best ingredients from Italy and Ireland and the base – proper stonebaked sourdough.
Please come by and give it a try!