Interesting facts about pizza

pizza

Pizza is a savory dish of Italian origin, consisting of a usually round, flattened base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and various other ingredients (anchovies, olives, meat, etc.) baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a wood-fired oven.

The wordPizza” was first documented in the Italian city of Gaeta in 997 AD.

Modern pizza evolved from similar flatbread dishes in Naples, Italy, in the 18th or early 19th century.

Most would never guess it, but pizza originally started off as a dish for poor people, sold in the streets and not a food for upper class people.

It is very interesting the way pizza rose from the local low-class meal in the poor districts of Naples to the world’s famous food today.

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A popular contemporary legend holds that the archetypal pizza, pizza Margherita, was invented in 1889, when the Royal Palace of Capodimonte commissioned the Neapolitan pizzaiolo (pizza maker) Raffaele Esposito to create a pizza in honor of the visiting Queen Margherita. Of the three different pizzas he created, the Queen strongly preferred a pizza swathed in the colors of the Italian flag — red (tomato), green (basil), and white (mozzarella). Supposedly, this kind of pizza was then named after the Queen.

In 1889, King Umberto and Queen Margherita had the privilege of getting the first known pizza delivered by Raffaele Esposito, the most famous pizza chef in Naples, Italy.

The popularity of pizza in the United States began with the Italian community in New York City. The first pizzeria appeared there in 1905. After World War II the pizza industry boomed.

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If you ever wondered how pizza managed to gain such popularity in our modern society, the answer is very easy – pizza can be make very easily and it offers infinite possibility of variation with its crusts, toppings, cheeses and sauces.

The most expensive pizza in the world was created by Renato Viola for a select crowd in Salerno, a coastal city in Italy. The pizza is named Louis XIII and costs $12,000. It is topped with three types of caviar, organic buffalo mozzarella and 7 other cheese varieties, Australian pink salt from the Murray River, prawns from Cilento, mantis shrimp, and lobster. Remy Martin Cognac Louis XIII and a bottle of vintage 1995 Krug Clos du Mesnil champagne are your accompaniments.

The most expensive pizza commercially available costs $2,700, and is sold at Industry Kitchen (USA) in New York, New York, USA, as of 24 April 2017.

The longest pizza measures 1,930.39 m (6,333 ft 3.60 in), and was achieved by Pizzaovens.com, Venice Bakery, Orlando Foods, At-Pac, Sysco, TFX Non Stick, Capstone Scaffold Services, Scaffold Works, SoCal Gas, Tony Gemignani, Giulio Adriani, John Arena (all USA), and Italforni (Italy) in Fontana, California, USA, on 10 June 2017.

The largest pizza has a total surface area of 1,261.65 m² (13,580.23 ft²) and was prepared by Dovilio Nardi, Matteo Nardi, Marco Nardi, Andrea Mannocchi and Matteo Giannotte (all Italy) from
NIPfood at Fiera Roma, in Rome, Italy, on 13 December 2012.

The largest pizza commercially available has an area of 1.98 m² (21 ft² 48 in²), and was achieved by Moontower Pizza Bar (USA) in Burleson, Texas, USA, on 26 May 2018. “The Bus” is a rectangular pizza measuring 8 ft x 2 ft 8 in. It costs $299.95 (plus tax), includes one topping, and is deliverable within a limited area. Orders must be made 48 hours in advance.

largest pizza commercially available

The largest pizza delivery was organised by Pizzas 4 Patriots (USA), who sent 30,000 pizzas with DHL Express to the United States Armed Forces, in Kandahar Airfield, Bagram Airbase and Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, on 4 July 2012.

The greatest variety of cheese on a pizza is 154 and was achieved by Johnny di Francesco (Australia) at ‘400 Gradi’ restaurant, Melbourne, Australia, on 5 September 2018.

Pizza Hut made a pizza delivery to the International Space Station in 2001. They paid the Russians $1 million to transport the Pizza and even make a commercial from it.

In Scotland, they deep fry pizzas.

In the United States, pepperoni dominates as the most popular pizza topping.

pizza pepperoni

The most popular pizza toppings in Japan are eelsquid and Mayo Jaga (mayonnaise, potato, bacon).

There is a pizza place in Alaska that delivers pizzas by plane.

Saturday nights are the most popular nights to eat pizza.

One of the earliest frozen pizza companies was actually run by a family named Pizza.

The world’s quickest pizza maker can make 14 full-size pizza pies in 2 minutes and 35 seconds.

National Pizza Month is an annual observance that occurs for the month of October in the United States and some areas of Canada.