From Naples to the wide world: The triumphal march of the pizza

Topped flatbreads existed long before modern pizza. However, the decisive factor for the form known today was the development in Naples, Italy. There, in the 18th century, people from the poorer sections of the population began topping yeast flatbreads with inexpensive ingredients. One evaluated by the historian Antonio Mattozzi List recorded for the year 1807 a total of 54 pizzerias. With Italian immigrants, the pizza crossed the Atlantic to the USA at the end of the 19th century. The first pizzerias soon emerged in New York, from where the pizza spread further across the USA.

Margherita Pizza: From poor people's food to royal myth

The most famous story about the Pizza Margherita set in 1889. At that time, the Neapolitan pizzaiolo is said to have Raffaele Esposito have prepared a pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil for Queen Margherita of Savoy. The colors red, white, and green would have been reminiscent of the Italian flag, the queen was enthusiastic, and Esposito then named the pizza after her.

The story sounds so plausible that it is repeated to this day on menus, in travel guides, and in countless texts about pizza. However, it is not historically proven. Doubts exist primarily regarding a supposed Royal thank-you letter, which is considered the most important evidence of the encounter. The ingredient combination of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil was also already in Naples before 1889 well-known. Raffaele Esposito can therefore hardly have invented this pizza.

Above all, however, pizza had long since become a widespread food by this time. Evidence of this is provided by the French writer Alexandre Dumas, the Naples 1835 visited. In his later published travelogue, he described pizzas in various sizes and price ranges: A small one was enough for one person, while a larger one could satisfy an entire family. They were topped with oil, lard, cheese, tomatoes, or small fish, among other things.

The pizzas were sold not only in bakeries and simple eateries, but also by street vendors. Anyone who didn't have any money at the moment could, in some places, according to the principle „Pizza to go“– roughly translated as „eat today, pay in eight days“ – to buy on credit and pay only a few days later. When the royal court supposedly became aware of the pizza, it had thus long been part of an urban food economy that primarily provided for people with little money.

Emigrants take pizza across the Atlantic

The decisive step beyond Naples was taken by the pizza not through royalty, but through Migration. From the late 19th century to the early 1920s more than four million Italians emigrated to the United States. Many of them came from the economically weaker south of the country and settled in densely populated neighborhoods of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, or New Haven.

With them traveled not only dialects, religious customs, and family histories, but also familiar foods. This included pizza. At first, it remained primarily a dish of the Italian immigrant communities.

Neapolitan bakers and grocers sold pizza where their compatriots lived and worked. It was not considered exotic specialty marketed, but fulfilled a similar function to that previously in Naples: it was cheap, filling, and could be eaten without cutlery.

It is also important that pizza by no means stood for all of Italian cuisine back then. Many immigrants from northern and central Italy scarcely knew the originally Neapolitan dish themselves. It was only in American cities that it increasingly became a common symbol of Italian heritage.

Lombardi's and the Myth of America's First Pizzeria

is considered the most famous example of early American pizza history Lombardi’s in Manhattan, which has long been called the first pizzeria in the United States. Named after Gennaro Lombardi is said to have sold pizza there starting in 1905. Research by the independent pizza historian Peter Regas however, call this version into question: Immigration documents evaluated by him show that Lombardi only in November 1904 at the age of 17 arrived in the USA.

For the future location of Lombardi's in the Spring Street on the other hand, there is evidence that goes back several years further. According to Regas, the Italian immigrant Filippo Milone already there 1898 a pizzeria and later sold the business to Giovanni Santillo, who will be there at the latest 1901 Pizza on the house.  An ad in the Italian-language newspaper „The Telegraph“documents Milo's activity at least for the year 1903. The available sources thus suggest that pizza was already being sold in New York by several Italian businessmen before Lombardi's entry.

Distinct traditions also emerged outside of New York. Italian immigrants brought pizza to Trenton, Boston, Chicago, and New Haven, among other places. There, a native of the Naples area opened Frank Pepe 1925 a pizzeria and shaped with his thin, coal-oven-baked „Apizza“a regional style known to this day. Such businesses adapted the dish to new ingredients, ovens, and local preferences. As a result, pizza did not remain unchanged, but evolved a little differently in each city.

After the Second World War, the breakthrough into the mainstream is achieved

After World War II, pizza reached a significantly larger audience in the US. This change is often explained solely by American soldiers who had discovered the dish during their deployment in Italy. In fact, returning soldiers contributed to growing demand for Italian food.

However, pizza was long since available in the immigrant neighborhoods of American cities by that time. The war therefore did not bring it to the US, but rather helped make it popular beyond those neighborhoods. A New York Times article„ from September 20, 1944 introduces pizza to a wider audience as a popular specialty in Italian neighborhoods. The newspaper already described establishments where guests waited for their pizza or took it home.

Added to this were the social changes of the post-war period. Rising prosperity, the spread of the suburbs, more private cars and television changed how Americans spent their leisure time and ate. Ready-made takeaway meals became more attractive. Already 1944 bot Luigino’s Neapolitan-Style Pizzeria in the West 48th Street in Manhattan Pizza to take away. The New York Times reported that the pizzas were packed hot in specially designed boxes.

In the 1950s went Casa D’Amore in Los Angeles still one step furtherThe restaurant delivered orders free of charge starting at a value of 2.50 dollars. Pizza thus early on became a dish that was not only eaten in the restaurant, but could also be conveniently picked up or delivered.

1950s: Pizza conquers the market

Starting in the 1950s, pizza transformed from immigrant food into a lucrative business model. In 1958, the brothers Dan and Frank Carney opened with borrowed 600 dollars the first branch of Pizza Hut in Wichita.

Two years later, took over Tom Monaghan in the US state of Michigan a small diner named DomiNick’s, from which later Domino’s emerged. While Pizza Hut relied on standardized restaurants and franchising, Domino’s increasingly focused on delivery.

At the same time, pizza conquered the frozen food aisles. Pre-baked dough, non-perishable toppings, and industrial cold chains turned it into a product that could be transported nationwide and reheated at home. As a result, pizza was no longer tied to a pizzaiolo, a specific neighborhood, or a restaurant. It could be produced according to strict specifications, packaged, and sold in large quantities.

This also changed its social function. From a cheap street food for Naples' poorer population, it became a commodity that could be sold in restaurants, from the freezer aisle, or at the front door. Later, it could be topped with pineapple and ordered at night via an app — presumably not quite what Naples' first *pizzaioli* envisioned when culinary immortality had introduced.

How pizza became a mass-produced product in Europe

The American business model was not limited to the USA. In Europe, the standardized pizza met two developments that additionally accelerated its spread: Italian labor migration and growing tourism to Italy.

Since 1950s Italian immigrants opened restaurants and pizzerias in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and other countries. At the same time, millions of vacationers got to know pizza no longer just as Neapolitan street food, but as a supposedly typical Italian dish. Migration and tourism turned a regional specialty into a European symbol for Italy.

The industry then adopted what American chains had already demonstrated: pizza could be standardized, frozen, and sold almost anywhere. 1970 brought Dr. Oetker with the „Roman-style pizza“the first frozen pizza on the German market. 1985 followed the product line „Restaurant“, whose name already promised to deliver the feeling of an Italian restaurant straight from your home oven.

This closed a remarkable historical loop. A dish of the poor population of Naples was brought to America by emigrants, turned there into a delivery and industrial product, and subsequently marketed in Europe in this commercialized form. Pizza was thus not popularized by a single queen, a pizza maker, or a corporation. Poor Neapolitans developed it, migrants spread it, and businesses made it available en masse.

FAQ: The most important questions about the invention of the pizza at a glance