The history of pizza Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The history of pizza - Assignment Example Different analysts agree that the Italians prepared a basic form of pizza as early as the Stone Age. At this time, the bread served as a plate as it was used to sop up broth or gravies. The idea of using bread as a plate did not originate from the Italians; it originated from the Greeks. Between 521 and 486 B.C., historians note that the soldiers of Darius the Great made a kind of bread using their shields as ovens. They then covered the flat bread with dates and cheese and ate them for nourishment during their long marches. The third century B.C. saw Marcus Porcius Cato write about how people made flat bread on stones before dressing them with such things as honey, herbs, and olive oil. For the next several centuries, the trend of baking flat bread and topping it with different foods became well established. Between 1700 and 1800 A.D., the Greek settlement of Naples grew to become a populous city. The poor people who lived and worked in the city needed cheap food that they could conveniently consume as they went about their businesses. To meet this need, street vendors and informal restaurants prepared flat breads that they topped with different things. Although considered disgusting by many people at the time, the early pizzas that the poor people of Naple fed on have a close resemblance with what people consume as pizza today. Like it commonly happens today, these early pizzas were dressed with garlic, anchovies, tomatoes, and cheese. One individual that receives a lot of credit for inventing the modern form of pizza is Raffaele Esposito, a baker from Naples. The baker who owned a restaurant named Pizzeria di Pietro baked something that he fondly called â€Å"pizza†. His drive to make the pizza resulted from his desire to please the Italian, King Umberto I, and his wife, Queen Margherita, whom he learnt would be visiting his area. Although served with a variety of pizzas as they sought a break from their constant diet