Greeks, the first to make pizza!

The Italians may have made pizza in its modern form, but they certainly did not invent it. This idea is charged to the Greeks.

When the Greeks colonized southern Italy (730 BC – 130 BC) they brought with them the Greek culture and their culinary skills. As is well known, the Greeks of the time were the best known bread makers. They had learned this art from the first and best bakers, the Egyptians, so well that in the end they far surpassed even their teachers. Their methods of mixing different flours and their baking technique, which notably included the use of ovens and special molds for baking bread, were the most advanced in antiquity. With bread as a base, the Greeks were the first to establish the idea of pizza as a meal and not as an appetizer. They were the first to simultaneously bake the bread (base) with a variety of delicacies (meze) in flat round breads “Plakountes”. In ancient Greek, the word “meze” means anything spread or baked on bread, e.g. oils, onions, garlic, olives, vegetables and cheese. In these round breads, the rim was left to dry out so that it could be used as a handle, as it is still used today in our pizza.

It is a fact, however, that pizza as we know it today comes from Italy. That’s where the modern pizza originated, but its creation may be
more out of necessity.

The eating habits of the poor

Italian Naples began life as a Greek settlement around 600 BC, but by the 18th and 19th centuries AD. it had become an independent kingdom and a thriving city in its own right. It was also notorious for its high percentage of working poor.

Pizza was invented around this time, more out of necessity since the working poor Neapolitans needed a cheap meal that could be
eaten quickly

Pizza served this purpose well, and poor Neapolitans enjoyed their bread with tomatoes, cheese, anchovies, oil and garlic, while those of the upper social class looked down on the eating habits of the poor

Raffaele Esposito, the man who made pizza famous.

In 1889, the Italian King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy visited Naples and the Queen expressed a desire to enjoy the best food Naples had to offer. Their royal chef threshed all of Naples until he tasted Raffaele’s food Esposito, owner of Pizzeria Brandi, and was thrilled. He then suggested that Esposito present his previously unknown food to the queen.

Esposito presented the queen with three pizzas: A garlic marinara pizza, an anchovy pizza, and a three-ingredient tomato, mozzarella, and basil pizza. The queen loved the third pizza so much that Esposito gave it its name: Pizza Margherita.

So Esposito’s reputation soared after the royal visit, and it became the occasion for it to become the favorite food of rich and poor not only in Italy but worldwide.