Pizza is the most famously delicious dish in Italian cuisine. It is considered an antique plate since it has been cooked for many centuries now and has been constantly evolving. Centuries ago, pieces of flatbread were seasoned in a traditional but in an exquisite way, only for those who did not have the money to buy ‘proper’ dishes, and where in constant movement searching for new jobs.
This changed at the start of the 19th century in Naples (city in Italy) where the pizza that we eat today was born. During this period Italy was ruled by the Bourbon kings, and Naples had become one of the biggest cities in the country, spreading at a rapid state. This was when the urban economy started to struggle to keep up, which meant that a large amount of people had to live in poverty. People who lived in these conditions where constantly in a rush and seeking for new jobs, so they needed food that they could afford and was fast to eat. Pizza met their needs. Pizza was only sold in streets by hawkers, which cooked pizza only with garlic, lard, salt, and sometimes tomatoes. Tomatoes were something new because it has recently added to the market, so people had an unsure and unpopular opinion about the product, for this reason the low prices. Normally people who ate pizza were the poor and were normally looked down by royalty and visitors. However, all of this changed after the Unification of Italy (a political and social movement that consolidated different states of the Italian peninsula to form the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century).
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By the end of the 19th century, Queen Margherita went to Naples. She was given every day the same dishes for all her meals and started to get tired of these. The Queen demanded to have them cooked some traditional food of the area, this was when she was given three different types of pizza. The first included cheese of horse milk, and basil. The second included whitebait, and the third was with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. The queen was completely shocked about how exquisite the dish was. The one she most liked was the third one, and for this reason this type of pizza was named after her ‘pizza Margherita’. This changed the ideology towards the Italian cuisine during the time. By the approval of the Queen this meant that now the royals can enjoy the dish to, but more importantly it brough a new dish into their traditions. Nonetheless, pizza was slowly moving out of Italy. It was America that fostered pizza as a second home.
By the start of the 20th century Italian started to immigrate towards the East Coasts of the United States, and in 1905 the first pizzeria called ‘Lombardi’s’ was opened in New York City. After a couple of years Americans started to adopt this style of food, creating new tastes, combinations and needs, it started growing all around the country specially in restaurants, which were often not from Italian background. After the 1950’s the United States economy experienced a boom and there was a large increase in economy and technological advancements which helped transform pizza even more. As the income of people was increasing there was also an increase on the demand of fridges and freezers. This promoted the idea of frozen pizza, which changed the recipe of pizza’s. Instead of having scattered tomatoes, it now had tomato paste, and a new cheese which helped withstand freezing. Another main change was the fact that people were starting to commercialize the product by having delivery services. Examples include Domino’s, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, etc.
Today’s pizzas are completely different from what they were hundreds of years ago, but it is one of the most delicious dishes the Italian cuisine can offer, where economic and social changes are seen.
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