Today pizza is a kind of food that is commonly eaten throughout the world. With roots that span back to ancient Egypt, tasty creation has made an important impact on history.

Although many cultures created some form of pizza, the dish that is so favored today was not created until the 16 ^th century when explorers brought tomatoes back to Europe from the New World. The people of Naples are credited with inventing the first pizza, having combined the new, red fruit with dough.

Pizza did not really gain popularity in America until the 20 ^th century when American soldiers tasted it while stationed in Italy. Check out this video to learn more about pizza and how it became a favorite food that traveled all the way from places like Italy to Palo Alto, California.

Pizza has existed in some form for many years and has evolved from a basic flatbread with simple toppings to the food you know and love today. You can benefit from years of pizza innovation and tradition when you dine at the best place for deep-dish pizza in Palo Alto . Watch this video to see how pizza evolved from its basic beginnings.

Since around 500 B.C., people have been putting fruits, cheese, oil, and herbs on top of their flatbreads. While you might not recognize the food from so long ago as pizza today, that’s where it got its start. Greek settlers in Naples around the 1500s would put tomatoes, cheese, oil, garlic, and anchovies on their flatbreads as a convenient food. In the late 1700s, pizza was being made in Naples with the dough and toppings baked together. Naples is also home of the first pizzeria, which opened in 1830 and is still in business today. Luckily, you don’t have to live in Italy to enjoy delicious pizza, as it traveled across the world and became increasingly popular after World War II. You can even enjoy authentic Chicago-style pizza right here in Palo Alto.

What do you get when you combine dough, tomato sauce, cheese, vegetables, and meat? If you answered pizza, you’re absolutely right. No matter how you slice it, pizza has been around for centuries and has evolved into the taste treat you know and love today. Get fast pizza delivery in Palo Alto and share it with your friends and family as you learn more about where pizza came from. Enjoy this time-tested meal and give yourself some food for thought at the same time!

The Early Days
The city of Naples was founded around the year 600 B.C. and was a waterfront city teeming with people. Naples was still considered an independent kingdom up through the 1700s and 1800s, and it was filled with working poor. These people needed food that was affordable, convenient, and quick to eat, which is where pizza as we know it started to emerge. The wealthy majority ate more elaborate meals, while the poorer people would enjoy flatbreads topped with ingredients such as cheese, anchovies, tomatoes, oil, and garlic. Though certain classes looked down on these early pizzas , things were about to change quickly in the late 1800s.

The Unification of Italy
Italy became a unified nation in 1861, and Naples was no longer an independent kingdom. In 1889, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita paid a visit to Naples and quickly grew tired of the decadent French food they had been eating. The pair asked to try the pizzas from a local pizzeria, and pizza was never the same. As legend has it, the Queen’s favorite pizza was called pizza mozzarella, a simple pie that had soft cheese, tomatoes, and basil atop it. The pizza bore a resemblance to the colors of the Italian flag, and from then on, this combination became known as pizza Margherita.

The 20 ^th Century
The first pizzeria in the U.S. was G. Lombardi’s, which was licensed in 1905 to sell pizza on Spring Street in Manhattan. It’s said that Chicago-style pizza was invented in 1943 by Ike Sewell. Whatever the truth is behind the many tales of the origins of pizza, you can reap the rewards today by enjoying it at your favorite pizzeria in Palo Alto.

Pizza is nothing new to most Americans, but the pizzas we enjoy today are often traced back to flatbreads created in Naples around the 19 ^th century. However, flatbread creations have been enjoyed since the 6 ^th century B.C. as you will learn in this video.

Pizza in America was not popularized until after WWII, though it was introduced much earlier by Italian immigrants in New York City. Once Americans began to enjoy pizza, it took on many regional forms—including the famous Chicago-style deep dish that comes piled high with toppings, sauce, and mounds of cheese. Pizza is not just a favorite in America, though diners in other nations enjoy many toppings that would be considered rather unconventional in the U.S.

Pizza is now one of the most beloved foods on the planet, but it has not always been held in such high esteem. At its core, pizza is a food intended to be served at informal venues, sold on the streets to feed the masses, but today it can be found in restaurants of all varieties. Until 1940, pizza was actually little-known outside of Naples, but it gained significant popularity in Italy once Queen Margherita dined on the pie now named for her. This article will explore more of pizza’s history so you can see how it went from being known as the food of peasants to being one of the most popular foods in the world.

Humble roots
For most people today, pizza must have red sauce, cheese, and a variety of toppings. However, pizza was created as a more humble offering that only had a small selection of toppings—often excluding tomatoes altogether. Pizza began as flatbread, which was topped with whatever was affordable and available.

Noble recognition
In 1889 King Umberto and Queen Margherita visited Naples, where the queen dined on the local cuisine as a departure from the French haute cuisine she was accustomed to. A variety of pizzas were served to her, but her favorite by far was topped with tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzarella—each topping representing a section of the Italian flag. From this point, pizza became a staple of Italian cuisine.

Americanization
While Italy embraced pizza as a national dish, it took some time to gain popularity in the United States. Italian immigrants brought pizza to American cities, but it was not until the end of WWII that the food became a staple of American dinner tables. Now each region has its own unique take on pizza, including the iconic thick-crust deep dish famous in Chicago.

Now pizza has become so well-traveled that you do not have to fly to Chicago to sink your teeth into deep dish pizza.