History and Facts on Pizza

Some interesting facts and history on Pizza..on this site:

Did you know?

* 670 MILLION pounds of cheese is sold every year!
* 75 ACRES of cheese is eaten every day!
* 350 MILLION tons of frozen pizza is sold every year!
* 30 TIMES a year is how often the average family eats pizza at home!
* 96% of people buy pizza out. Only 4% never go out for pizza!
* 23 POUNDS of cheese is eaten every year by the average person
* 1.1 BILLION frozen pizzas were sold last year!
* 4 BILLION fresh pizzas were sold last year!

The History behind the modern pizza…

Considered a peasant’s meal in Italy for centuries, modern pizza is attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito of Napoli (Naples) in the Italian region of Campania, who in 1889 created a pizza especially for the visit of Italian King Umberto and Queen Margherita. The pizza, named Pizza Margherita after the queen, was very patriotic and resembled the Italian flag with its colors of red (tomatoes), white (mozzarella cheese), and green (basil), and got rave reviews. It set the standard by which today’s pizza evolved. The idea of using bread as a plate came from the Greeks, who ate flat round bread (plankuntos) baked with an assortment of toppings. The tomato came to Italy from Mexico and Peru through Spain in the 16th century as an ornamental plant first thought to be poisonous. True mozzarella is made from the milk of the water buffalo imported from India to Campania in the 7th century. So the Neopolitan baker, as the saying goes, put it all together. Also, in 1830 the world’s first true pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria Port’ Alba in Naples, opened and is still in business today!

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