Pizza history

Basic pizza most likely began in prehistoric times with the 'dough' or bread cooked outdoors on hot flat stones. Roughly 1,000 years ago herb-and-spice-covered circles of baked dough grew exceptionally popular in Naples, Italy. Known as focaccia, these rounds were served as an appetizer or a snack. (Source: Smithsonian)

Pizza developed in Italy in pre-refrigerator times. After focaccia, its most direct ancestor was "Casa de nanza," which means "take out before." Housewives would pound out dough into a thin crust and place leftovers to bake. Pizza was a peasant food designed to be eaten without utensils and, like the French crepe and the Mexican taco, was a way to make use of fresh produce available locally and to get rid of leftovers.

Pizza as we know it could not have evolved until the late 1600s when Old World Europeans overcame their fear of a New World discovery - tomatoes. Native to Peru and Ecuador, a plant which produced yellow or red fruit (later called tomatoes) was introduced to Europe in the early 1500s. Brought back by Conquistadors to Spain, the tomato was thought to be poisonous and was viewed with suspicion. It wasn't until the late 1600s that Europeans began to eat the tomato. (Source: Smithsonian and PIZZA TODAY)

The peasants of Naples, Italy, who lived mostly off of bread and little else, were the first to add tomatoes to their focaccia bread rounds. In 1830 pizza truly began with the opening of the world's first pizzeria. Named Port'Alba, the pizzas were cooked in an oven lined with lava from Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located on the Bay of Naples. (Source: Smithsonian)

Modern pizza was born in 1889 when Queen Margherita Teresa Giovanni, the consort of Umberto I, King of Italy, visited Naples. Don Raffaele Esposito, who owned a tavern-like place called Pietro Il Pizzaiolo, was asked to prepare a special dish in honour of the Queen's visit. Esposito developed a pizza featuring tomatoes, mozzarella cheese (a never before used ingredient made from the milk of water buffalo) and basil - ingredients bearing the colors red, white and green for the Italian flag. He named it the Margherita Pizza, after the guest of honour. Thus, the modern-day tomato-and-cheese pizza was born. (Source: Smithsonian and PIZZA TODAY)

Shops in the volcano-devastated city of Pompeii bear the characteristics of a pizzeria. Marie Antionette's sister, Marie Carolina, wife of Ferdinand I of Sicily and Naples, had ovens built in the forest so she could enjoy pizza while the Royal Hunting Party feasted on wild ducklings and pigs killed in the hunt.

The popularity of pizza exploded throughout the country when World War II servicemen returning from Italy began opening pizzerias and raving about that "great Italian dish."

In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened the first licensed American pizzeria, Lombardi's Pizzeria Napoletana, at 53-1/2 Spring Street in New York City.

America is the new pizza renaissance leader in the world and is exporting technology of pizza production and promotion on an ever-increasing basis.

Pizza restaurants are opening in such unlikely locations as the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Bonaire; the South Pacific atoll of Palau; and in most Arab countries. The deep-dish pizza was invented in Chicago by pizza entrepreneur Ike Sewell; his restaurant Pizzeria Uno, is still going strong today.

Pizza statistics

Pizza Hut is the largest pizza purveyor in the world, with 12,583 total restaurants and combination delivery/takeout units in 90 countries; 6,590 units are company-owned.

Domino's Pizza is the world leader in delivery, with 5,500 stores in 46 international markets.

Papa John's is considered the fastest growing franchise in the USA, with 1,160 units generating £383 million in sales in 1996. (source: "Chain Store Guide".)

Of 31,386 pizza franchise units in the United States, roughly 83 percent (24,381 stores) offer delivery, 91% offer takeout, and 51% offer dine-in service.

Pizza trivia

October is National Pizza Month in America. It was first so designated in 1987. Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices per second. Pizza is a £30 billion per year industry

There are approximately 10,000 pizzerias in the UK and 61,269 in the United States. (Source: American Business Lists). Each man, woman and child in America eats an average of 46 slices of pizza a year.

Over 5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year. According to a recent Gallup Poll, kids between the ages of 3 to 11 prefer pizza over all other food groups for lunch and dinner