Very few people know that Pizza’s birth started as ‘Focaccia’ as flat oven-baked Italian breads. There’s an interesting story to the birth of Pizza. The Greeks, first laid the foundations for Pizza were as they were the ones who first baked large, round and flat breads. To add taste, they topped it with various items such as olive oils, spices, potatoes and other things. But the real story began in the 18th century in Italy where flat breads called “Pizzas”, were sold on the streets and in the markets. They were poor man’s food as they were relatively cheap to make, were tasty and filling. It was an instant in Naples.


Pizza’s image transformation started in about 1889 when Queen Margherita and her husband Umberto I, took an inspection tour of her Italian Kingdom. During her travels around Italy she saw many people eating this large, flat bread. The queen ordered her guards to bring her one of these Pizza breads and when she tasted it, she got instantly attracted by the taste of Pizzas. Soon, the Queen would eat it every time she was out amongst the people. Not thinking of what people would say, she summoned the famous Chef Rafaelle Esposito from his pizzeria to the royal palace and ordered him to bake a selection of pizzas.
Rafaelle decided to make a very special pizza for the beloved ‘Queen’. He baked a Pizza and topped it with tomatoes, Mozzarella Cheese, and fresh Basil (to represent the colours of the Italian flag: Red, white, and green). Queen Margherita liked the Pizza very much and soon this became Queen Margherita’s favourite pizza. The Queen also started a culinary tradition, the Pizza Margherita, which lasts to this very day in Naples and has now spread to all parts of the world.

Pizza was still restricted to the Italian cuisine until after World War II. While occupying Italian territories, many American and European soldiers tasted Pizza for the first time and it was love at first taste! Soon Pizzas came out of the quiet Italian neighbourhoods into the main stream of city life in America, England, Spain and France. Today, Pizza is consumed much more in many other countries than in its home country Italy. Its available in many varieties.

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