The Origin and Evolution of Pizza

The origins of pizza can be traced back to ancient civilizations, where flatbreads topped with various ingredients were common. However, the modern pizza as we know it today has its roots in Naples, Italy, during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Naples was a thriving port city with a significant working-class population that required inexpensive, quick, and filling meals. This need led to the creation of pizza as a street food, designed to be both affordable and satisfying.

The earliest pizzas were simple flatbreads, often topped with garlic, salt, olive oil, lard, and cheese. With the introduction of tomatoes from the Americas in the 16th century, pizza underwent a transformative change. Initially met with skepticism, tomatoes became a staple topping by the late 17th century, giving pizza its distinctive flavor and color. By the 19th century, pizza had evolved into a popular dish in Naples, with pizzerias and street vendors catering to the city's large population.

A pivotal moment in pizza's history occurred in 1889 when Queen Margherita of Savoy visited Naples. The story goes that the queen asked to try the local specialty, prompting pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito to create a pizza that mirrored the colors of the Italian flag—red tomatoes, white mozzarella, and green basil. This pizza, named Pizza Margherita in her honor, became a symbol of Italian pride and remains one of the most famous varieties today.

The widespread popularity of pizza truly took off with the wave of Italian immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In cities like New York and Chicago, Italian immigrants introduced pizza to the American public, where it quickly became a beloved dish. Over time, pizza has undergone countless regional adaptations, including Chicago deep-dish, New York-style, and California gourmet pizzas. Today, pizza is a global phenomenon, with unique variations enjoyed worldwide, from traditional Neapolitan pizzas to fusion styles incorporating diverse global ingredients.
The Origin and Evolution of Pizza

Frozen pizza

Pillsbury is the third largest frozen pizza marketer in the U.S. The Jeno’s and Totino’s labels are value-based lines, while Pappalo’s caters to a slightly higher quality, premium-priced group.

In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizzeria in the U.S. Pizza did not become popular until after World War II. War veterans who had been stationed in Italy returned home craving the pizza they had eaten there. In the 1950s, Celentano Brothers became the first brand of frozen pizza to be marketed nationally.

The first major investment in frozen pizzas occurred in 1962 when Rose Totino initiated mass production. Totino used crust she purchased in Chicago and topped it with ingredients at her company in Minnesota.

In her quest to avoid cardboard-like crust, Totino was granted a patent for dough in 1979 that was designed for freezing and subsequent baking. Totino’s Finer Foods became a nationwide business, Rose hire brokers, people who will sell a product in different towns, to sell her pizzas across the country.

In November 1975, Pillsbury entered the frozen pizza business by acquiring Totino’s Finer Foods, Inc., a leading manufacturer and seller of frozen prepared pizza, with sales in excess of $39 million in its fiscal year ending October 31, 1975, which Pillsbury now operates as its frozen foods division. For its fiscal year ending October 31 1976, Pillsbury frozen food division had frozen prepared pizza sales in excess of $48 million.
Frozen pizza

History of frozen pizza

The technological innovation of the home freezer, which proliferated in the 1950s, made possible the rise of the frozen pizza market. By 1972, one in every three households had a home freezer.

In Newark, the Celentano brothers opened an Italian specialty shop in 1947. Their product line included every imaginable meat and cheese, freshly made, for Italian cooking. In 1957, the brothers applied their expertise to pizza, making a frozen version available for home cooking.

Pizza soon became the most popular of all frozen foods. Soon after, Rose and Jim Totino, owners of one of the frist pizzerias in Minneapolis, who had opened a pizza parlor in 1952, came out with their own brand of frozen pizza.

Totino’s Finer Foods became a nationwide business. Rose hire brokers, people who will sell a product in different towns, to sell her pizzas across the country.

Pillsbury acquired Totino’s in 1975 for $20 million, giving them a nationwide market in frozen food distribution. By 1969, Totino’s frozen pizza had cornered the market with 75% of all frozen pizza sales, but it faces the competition of an emerging rival, Tombstone, bought by Kraft in 1986.
History of frozen pizza

History of pepperoni

Pepperoni, a small, firm, spicy salami, well known to American pizza lovers, is unknown in Italy but it may be added to affettato if desired.

The origin of fermented sausages can be traced back with accuracy to 1730, when salami was first mentioned in Italy. Although it was inspired by spicy Italian salami, the sausage of pepperoni is an Italo-American invention dating back to the 1930s.

The word ‘pepperoni’ originated from peperone ‘cayenne pepper plant’. Pizza makers found that manual peeling and slicing of pepperoni was expensive because of the labor involved – and because of the injuries.

Better safety and easier slicing were facilitated, first by the invention of slicing machines for pepperoni in the late 1960s and then by the development of edible protein films to replace the traditional pigs casing.

Pepperoni is usually made from cured pork and beef although poultry may also be used. Thinly sliced pepperoni is a popular pizza topping in American-style pizzerias, a filing in the West Virginia pepperoni roll, and is used to make some varieties of sub sandwiches.
History of pepperoni

History of Domino’s Pizza

In 1961, brothers Thomas S. and James Monaghan , purchased Dominick’s, a pizzeria store in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Eight months later, James Monaghan trades his half of the business to Thomas for a used Volkswagen Beetle. In 1965, Thomas Monaghan, the sole owner, renames the business Dominos Pizza, Inc.

The first franchise store was open in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1967. The company expanded and in 1978 the two hundredth Domino’s franchise opened.

The first Dominos international was opened in Winnipeg, Canada in 1983. By 1989 there were 5000 Dominos store. In 2005 Domino’s had more then second thousand store in sixty-one countries.

To stay competitive, Domino’s addressed both the taste deficiency complaints and the growing preference for fresh products by introducing a re-formulated pizza recipe in late 2009.

Domino’s introduced many innovations into pizza industry, one was home delivery. Another innovations was its Heat Wave, which is a bag that keeps the pizza hot during delivery.

In 2009, Domino’s launched Oven Baked Sandwiches, effectively growing its customer base and lunchtime revenues.
History of Domino’s Pizza

History of Pizza

The actual term “pizza” begins to circulate in Italy for the first time in 997 in the Codex Cajetanus of Gaeta Italy.

The true “pizza napoletana” as it is understood in Naples is a disc of dough on which tomato is spread. This use of the term pizza was born after a specific historical event: the discovery in 1492 of the New World by Christopher Columbus. It was precisely the Genoese navigator who brought the tomato plant to Europe.

In 1596, the tomato plant was exported to Naples by Spain where it was used as an ornamental plant. The first historical indication of the use of the tomato in the kitchen is found in the “Cuoco Galante (Naples - Ed. Raimondiane 1733) by Vincenzo Corrado Oritano” head chef of Prince Emanuel of Francavilla. The same Corrado in a successive tract on the foods most commonly used in Naples declares that the tomato was used to top both pizza and pasta, thus grouping together these two traditional products which helped to make Naples’ culinary fortune and establish its place in the history of world cuisine. From this information, one can reconstruct the appearance of “pizza napoletana” as a disc of dough topped with tomato.

The first pizzerias, without doubt, were born in Naples and until the middle of the 20th century the product was exclusively a commodity of Naples and its pizzerias. From 1700 various botteghe were active in the city, called «pizzerie», whose fame arrived so far as the King of Naples, Ferdinando di Borbone, who in order to try this typical dish of the Neapolitan tradition, violated court etiquette by entering into one of the most renowned pizzerias. From that moment, the «pizzeria» was transformed into a fashionable locale, a place designated exclusively to the production of the «pizza».

The most popular and famous pizzas in Naples were the «marinara» born in 1734 and the «margherita» from 1796-1810, which was offered to the Queen of Italy on a visit to Naples in 1889 precisely for the color of its condiments (tomato, mozzarella and basil) which brought to mind the flag of Italy. Over time, pizzerias were born throughout the cities of Italy and even abroad, but every one of these, if in a city diverse from Naples, always tied its very existence to the phrase «pizzeria Napoletana» or, alternatively, used a term which could evoke in some way its tie with Naples, where for almost 300 years this product has remained virtually unaltered.

In 1984, in the month of May, nearly all the old-line pizzaioli (pizzamakers) in Naples participated in the creation of a brief disciplinary manual signed by all and registered by an official act by the notary Antonio Carannante of Naples.
Food History