The Journey of Pizza through the Ages

Written by Vinaya Ranade.

Pizza is the favourite food among people all around the world. It is a very simple and traditional food yet has gained enormous popularity. The trend of eating pizza has brought significant changes in the food industry and its economics over the years. Numerous restaurants and factories have opened which produce and sell pizza.

Pizza is one of the most preferred food by people on all occasions right from parties to times when they are too busy to cook. In many countries like Italy and America, it is consumed almost every day.

Traditional pizza is considered to be healthy by many researchers and nutritionists however the commercialization of pizza over the years has lead it towards being considered as junk food. Pizza, however, has brought a lot of changes in terms of trend, lifestyle and food habits of people.

The Origin Of Pizza

The origin of pizza took place in Naples. A  city in the Campania region of southwestern Italy. The earlier versions of pizza were usually flatbread with toppings which were usually sold by street vendors of Naples. Around  1860 Queen Margherita visited Naples and tasted the famous pizza Margherita. The fame of Margherita pizza is the blessing of Queen Margherita.

The Famous Italian Pizza

Pizza is a staple diet of the Italian culture. Italy has its own styles and twerks of pizza. The pizza Margherita and pizza Marinara are known to be authentic Italian pizzas. A traditional Neapolitan pizza usually has oregano, anchovies and garlic and the dough is made with flour, oil and tomatoes.

The pizza Margherita may have set a trend but Italy also has varieties of pizza with toppings varying from mushrooms, vegetables, and different types of cheese. Apart from these Pizza Capricciosa is another famous pizza of Italy. It has toppings of mushroom, prosciutto, artichoke heart, olives and boiled egg. However, apart from these Italy has many lip-smacking and delicious pizza styles.

America The Second Home

The pizza popularity in America boomed after World War II. People migrated from the east to the west. These Italian Americans who had migrated to the large cities set up their bakeries in the city to make flatbread and pizza. Antonia ‘Totonno’ pero established his own restaurant called Totonno’s in Conney Island of America.

Around 1943 the popularity spread and various American style pizzas began developing. By 1950 pizza was the staple food of most American families. A large number of pizza parlours sprang up on the streets of America. The American pizza was usually thick and had meat and cheese toppings. Most of the pizzas were usually made with tomatoes, cheese, olives and spices.

Around 2009 America had machines to mix ingredients and make pizza. This changed the speed of deliveries and completing customer orders in America. Soon pizza became a favourite food of America. In America, about 13 million pizzas are sold on a typical Super Bowl Sunday which is the second-largest food consumption day of the year, behind Thanksgiving.

Popularity Overseas

Soon after America, the pizza recipe found home overseas. Around 2013 pizza gained popularity in Korea, Japan, Philippines, UK, Germany and France. Over time the variety of toppings changed to beef, chicken, pepperoni, vegetables etc. Many individual shops, as well as large pizza chains, had opened up all around the world by the twenties. After 1950 pizza was radically transformed.

There were two changes one was the domestication of pizza and the other was the commercialization of pizza. The domestication implied the growth of frozen pizzas due to development of fridges and freezers and hence the recipe was changed accordingly with the change in storing conditions.

The commercialization of pizza was due to development in machinery and availability of cars, bikes etc. The freshly made pizza could now be delivered to the doorstep in a very small amount of time. These were the main reasons that lead to the expansion of pizzas abroad.

India and Pizza

Western culture has seeped into the Indian society, and this is evident in the clothes that people wear, the food they consume and the lifestyles they lead. And one of the foods that Indians have become a fan of is the pizza. In India, the growth in demand for pizza was rapid in the cities as well as towns.

Various individual shops and restaurants developed in India over the years which sell pizza. Apart from individual shops large chain pizza sellers also established such as pizza hut, Sbarro, Dominos, pizza corner, a slice of Italy had reached India and captured about 55% of the market by 2016.

Conclusion

Today we cannot imagine a weekend without pizza. Pizzas are now available made of different types of bases, variety of toppings and even different choices of cheese. According to the type of consumers, that is ones who prefer fast food and the ones who are health conscious pizzas are now customized according to the customer.

Pizza outlets have now reached a wide consumer base due to their quality and speed of delivery. According to the global market pizza annual pizza market is approximately $145 billion. Hand-tossed, deep-dish, thin-crust, gluten-free, Anchovies or pineapple regardless of how we prefer to consume it, it’s not hard to understand that pizza is beloved.

The pizza industry has grown rapidly and still shows a high growth rate. People cannot get enough of their favourite Pizza. Madeline Oles rightly said Pizza is like the entire food pyramid.

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Vinaya Ranade a contributor at The Strong Traveller. Currently, apart from pursuing an undergraduate degree in Instrumentation engineering, she loves writing and is a keen learner.

 

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