11 Fun Facts Everyone Should Know About Pizza

Because there’s always something new to learn about what you love!

The word pizza is (at the very least) 1000 years old

The first written attestation of the word pizza dates back to 997 AD. It comes from the Latin pinsa, past participle of the verb pinsare, which means “to flatten out” and likely refers to the shape of pizza itself.

The oldest type of pizza is "Pizza Marinara"

Among tomato-based pizzas, Marinara is the oldest of them all, as it was created in 1734. Simple and wholesome, it was topped — and still is today — with tomato sauce, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil. And it was called “marinara” because it was a favourite among fishermen!

The first pizzeria was in Naples

Indeed, the oldest pizza place in the world opened in 1738 in Naples and it’s still up and running. Pizzeria Port’Alba started as a stand for peddlers but then, in 1830, it turned into a full-fledged pizza restaurant. Among its most famous customers Gabriele d’Annunzio, Ferdinand of Bourbon, Francesco Crispi and Benedetto Croce.

Pizza Margherita is named after Italy’s first queen

(or is it?)

Because Vittorio Emanuele II was already a widower when he became the first king of unified Italy, it was his son’s wife, Margherita di Savoia, to be the country’s first queen.

The story goes that in 1889, while in Naples, a famous pizzaiolo called Raffaele Esposito offered three varieties of pizza to the queen, who expressed her preference for the one topped with tomato, mozzarella and basil, to symbolize the colours of the Italian flag. Thus the name pizza Margherita. To be honest, many believe the story was a ploy to attract business to Esposito’s restaurant, but it really doesn’t matter: this is a case where legend has become more real than reality.

Alexandre Dumas knew pizza was to become iconic

The Three Musketeers’ author travelled to Naples in 1835. While there he noticed that Neapolitans had peculiar eating habits: loads of watermelon in the Summer and loads of pizza during the rest of the year.

America’s first pizza parlour is still open

The first pizzeria in the US opened in 1905 in New York City. A mere 16 years after the invention of pizza Margherita, Italian immigrant Gennaro Lombardi opened his own pizza parlour, Lombardi’s, and it became an immediate hit. Lombardi’s is still open today.

The fastest pizzaiolo (pizza maker) is from the UK

Pali Grewal, from the UK, won a competition held in Las Vegas in 2014 and was elected the fastest pizza maker in the world: he made and put in the oven three pizzas in just over 32 seconds.

The World’s Largest Pizza was Created in Rome

In 2012, Rome broke the world record for the world’s largest pizza. A group of chefs came together and created a pizza with a surface area of an impressive 13,580 square feet. 10,000 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 20,000 pounds of flour were used to produce this majestic pizza, which was aptly named Ottavia, after Octavian Augustus, a Roman emperor.

The Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada by a Greek

Love it or hate it, Hawaiian pizza is bound to make people talk, even when it comes to its origins. Not many know that it was not created in the US, but in Canada where, in 1962, Greece born Sam Panopoulos added it to the menu of its pizza parlour.

The most expensive pizza in the world is worth 10k

Created by Italian pizzaiolo Renato Viola, the Luigi XIII is made with a special dough that needs to rise for 72 hours and it’s topped with "mozzarella di bufala" DOP, pink Australian salt, caviar, lobster, prawns and champagne.

Americans are the biggest pizza eaters and Italians gets the silver medal in pizza consumption

With their 23 pounds of it per capita each year, Americans are the biggest pizza lovers in the world. Pepperoni pizza is America’s favourite. With their 16 pounds each every year, Italians reach second place in the list of people eating the most pizza.

Pizza is a word that is the same all over Earth! From Antarctica to Greenland, from California to China the word Pizza has the same meaning

Source: LifeInItaly, Gozney, Royal Splendor Blogger, NewyorkCity.de, TrendMax