A Short History of Pizza

It’s impossible to date the first pizza, since it was never invented as such, but rather evolved over thousands of years. Starting from the flat rounds of bread that go as far back as Neolithic man (probably woman!), every people had a flat round of bread, and most spread some mixture of herbs and oil over them before or after baking. But pizza, as we know it, came into its own when the poorer Neapolitans started topping these humble rounds of dough with tomato.

The first pizzeria in America was opened on Spring Street in Manhattan in 1905. However, pizza never caught on in this country until after World War II, when GLs returning home from Naples refused to leave these delectable pies in Italy. But it took until the ’70s and ’80s for Americans to develop their own pizza styles. Now we can enjoy New England, Chicago, Tex-Mex, New Haven, and California pizzas.