|
AN AMERICAN HISTORY OF PIZZA
Pizza. Everyone knows it's an Italian food (though its earliest origins are a matter of some debate) but it is undoubtedly more popular in America than in any other country. Pizza is a $20 billion industry in the US. According to studies, 93 percent of Americans eat a slice at least once a month, nearly 70 percent of Super Bowl viewers eat pizza while watching the game, and the average American puts away about 23 pounds a year. But that wasn't always the case. Pizza was a tough sell when introduced in the US early in the 20th century. What follows is an American history of one of the world's favorite foods.
Pizza's International Roots
Pizza is assumed to have originated in the Middle East, and to have evolved from pita and other flat, seasoned yeast breads, like Indian naan. But modern pizza really took shape amongst Italy's poor in the 16th century after explorers brought the tomato back from South America. Many Europeans were wary of the New World fruit, in the same family as the deadly nightshade, fearing that it was poisonous, but the peasants of Naples added it to their yeast dough, and so created a simple version of the dish we now call pizza. By the 17th century, the dish had gained local notoriety in Naples and visitors would visit the poor section of the city to sample the new creation. In 1830, Naples saw the opening of its first pizzeria.
It wasn't until the 19th century that buffalo mozzarella became a standard ingredient. According to pizza legend, Neopolitan piazzaiolo (pizza maker) Raffaele Esposito was the first to top a pizza with tomato, mozzarella and basil (creating a pie with the colors of the Italian flag) and did so to honor the visit of Queen Margherita, in 1889. The pizza became quite popular, and was called pizza alla Margherita.
Coming to America
During the early 1900s, million of Italians crossed the Atlantic in search of new opportunities, and brought with them many regional varieties of pizza. Across the Northeast, a desire for pan-Italian unity inspired Italian Americans to create and embrace a simple, standard pizza, which became the unofficial national dish. This simplified pizza evolved in response to its new surroundings: buffalo-milk mozzarella was replaced with cow's milk mozzarella, oregano with sweet marjoram, and pizzas got bigger, growing into a larger pie, typically about 18 inches in diameter. As the popularity of pizza in the US grew, men began to form "sausage and pizza" clubs, and women participated in pizza competitions and exchanges, and expressed their creativity and familial pride by molding the dough into unusual shapes and even baking family names into the dough.
Gennaro Lombardi was the founder of what is generally believed to be the nation's first licensed pizzeria. Lombardi's, which began as a grocery in Lower Manhattan's Little Italy, started selling pizza in 1905 after New York began issuing mercantile licenses. An entire Lombardi's pizza sold for a nickel, but as many could not afford the whole pie, they also sold slices, the size of which depended on how much the customer could spare. Lombardi's partner, Antonio Totonno Pero, left Lombardi's in 1924 to open his own pizzeria, Totonno's, on Coney Island. The original Lombardi's shut its doors in 1984, but was reopened down the street in 1994 and is still run by the grandson of the original owner.
The Growing Popularity of Pizza Pie
Up until the 1940s, pizza was slow to catch on amongst non-Italians. It wasn't until after World War II that pizza really took off - soldiers who had been stationed in Italy fell in love with the dish and brought their cravings for it back to America. The modern pizza industry was born in the unlikely setting of the American Midwest, an area with few Italians, but lots of cheese.  The first Chicago pizzeria was opened in 1941 by Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo. Sewell, a native Texan, had no intentions of opening a pizzeria when he partnered with Riccardo. Rather, Sewell had planned to open a Mexican restaurant, but when Riccardo, who had signed on to the restaurant venture without ever having sampled Mexican food, tried his first enchilada, he hated it so much that he reportedly fled to Italy to recover from his experience. While there, he fell in love with Neapolitan pizza. He brought his discovery back to America and to Sewell, who found it too small a dish to satisfy Midwestern appetites. They began by offering free samples of pizza with drinks in the bar, and it was initially accepted as a snack. Sewell later thickened the crust and piled on ingredients, and Chicago deep-dish was born at the now-famous Pizzeria Uno. Little mentioned in pizza literature is Sewell's wife, Florence, who helped her husband throughout the 1940s and 1950s with recipes and décor for Pizzeria Uno and the restaurants that followed: Pizzeria Due and Su Casa.
The postwar economy boom, coupled with the idealism of the 1950s, set the stage for pizza to really take off. Easy to share with a group, it was the perfect food for sleepovers and sock hops. But people were still confused about how to eat it - Dear Abby instructed her readers to eat respectfully, with a knife and fork, and Look magazine published an illustrated guide to eating pizza in 1954. National celebrities helped pizza along in its path toward gastronomic fame: Sophia Loren told the Los Angeles Times in 1959 that she'd been raised in Italy to think of pizza as a food of poverty, but that after moving to the US, found that "eating pizza here is like eating hot dog-for fun." And of course, Dean Martin's 1953 love song "That's Amore!" which compared the moon to a "big pizza pie" helped seal the deal, too.
The advent of home delivery is attributed to two brothers from Michigan. Tom Monaghan and his brother James bought a pizza joint called Dominick's in Ypsilanti in 1960. Tom Monaghan changed the name to Domino's when the original owner accused him  (James had since traded his share for a Volkswagon Beetle) of "besmirching his name" with an inferior product. But Monaghan managed to best his competitors and change the entire industry by offering free delivery, a service that every major pizza chain has offered since.
Sustainable Pizza
Today, the American pizza industry is dominated by restaurant chains in all but the largest urban areas. But there are a number of restaurants around the country that serve pies made with sustainable ingredients. West Coast restaurateur and food activist Alice Waters is credited with the evolution of California-style pizza. Also known as "gourmet" pizza, this west coast variety boasts a crust thick enough to serve as a foundation for more toppings than its New York counterpart. (And Waters's Chez Panisse Café still serves up a great pizza pie.) Wolfgang Puck, owner of Spago (which opened in 1982), is also credited with the rise of the gourmet pizza industry. Puck announced in March 2007 that he would only source eggs and meat raised humanely. Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria in Seattle was the first Northwest restaurant to receive certification from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, which holds the ingredients and cooking methods to exacting standards. Owner Joe Fugere traveled to Naples before opening the restaurant in 2004 to hone his skills as a pizzaioli. His restaurants are endorsed by Slow Food. You can make your own gourmet pizza by topping your pie with sustainable ingredients, sourced locally!
(Pizza) Pie Across America
While we're on the road we'll be visiting Crust, the Midwest's new (and only!) sustainable, USDA Certified Organic pizzeria, so be on the lookout for mouthwatering photos, videos, and blogging about America's favorite Italian food! Click here to learn more about Pie Across America.
-Leslie Hatfield
Bibliography
|
Home