Pizza is more famous as an Italian dish but as a fact is not the country of its origin. Flat breads were eaten as a common food in Greece, in which the main constituents were herbs, spices and dates along with flour.
The idea of flat bread found its way into Italy during the 18th century and got the name “Pizza’s”, during this time pizza was not topped with anything but was sold just plain on the streets of Italy. It was cheap to make and was very tasty.
In the end if the 18th century Queen Margheritta along with her husband was on a tour in their Italian province, during her travels she noticed peasants eaten this flat bread and curious to taste the queen ordered the guards to get some of this bread for her to eat, the queen loved the bread and would eat it every time she was amongst the native’s. The queen was delighted every time she ate flat bread and ordered her chef to bake this bread in the royal palace for her own pleasure.
In honor of the queen her chef baked a special pizza just for the queen, He topped the flat bread with tomatoes, Mozarella Cheese and fresh basil, It also symbolized the Italian flag. This became the queens favorite pizza, and as an honor to the queen this pizza was called margeritta which spread along the natives and is now famous through out the world.
After the innovation of margherita the people began variations in different parts of the country, The pizza was topped with various other delicacies which included Bologna and meat along with different vegetables, herbs and other flavorings. It was about this time that a special break ovens came into existence just to bake pizza.
Pizza spread to America, France, England and Spain, During the World War While occupying Italian territories, many American and European soldiers tasted Pizza for the first time. It was love at first taste! Italian immigrants had been selling Pizzas in their American stores for some time, but it was the returning soldiers with a lust for the saucy delight that drew the Pizzas out of the quiet Italian neighborhoods into the main stream of city life all over the continent. Today we celebrate Pizza. February 9 is International Pizza Day and the Guinness Book of Records states that the largest Pizza ever made and eaten was created in Havana, Florida and was 100 feet and 1 inch across!