The History of the Margherita
Pizza
Pizza Facts
How much pizza do the people of the United
States eat each second?
350 slices of pizza are eaten each second! This equals
100 acres of pizza a day!!
How big an industry is the pizza industry?
Each year pizza is a $30 billion dollar industry!
How many pizza parlors are there in the
United States?
There are 61,269 pizza parlors and counting in the
United States!
What is the most popular pizza topping?
Pepperoni is the most popular pizza topping.
What are the top five pizza delivery
days in a year?
1. Super Bowl Sunday
2. Thanksgiving Eve
3. New Year’s Eve
4. New Year’s Day
5. Halloween
World’s Largest Pizza
The pizza covered 10,000 square feet and
measured 140 feet across!
Who was Queen Margherita?
Margherita was the wife of King Umberto I and was the
first Queen of Italy (1878-1900)
Why did Queen Margherita have a pizza
named after her?
This happy culinary partnership was endorsed, so
the story goes, in 1889 when Queen Margherita
was accompanying her husband, King Umberto I
of Savoia on an inspection of his Italian kingdom.
During her trips around the kingdom she saw
many peasants and poor people eating a flat
bread. The curious queen summoned her guards
and asked them to bring her a piece of this flat
bread.
This endeared Margherita to her subjects and on her
next visit to Naples in the Italian section of Campania
she summoned Chef Raffaele Esposito of Pizzeria di
Pietro (now called Pizzeria Brandi) to the summer royal
palace to bake a selection of pizzas for the Queen.
Chef Raffaele designed a special pizza to honor the
queen. He embellished the classic Pizza Alla Marinara
with fresh tomatoes (red), fresh mozzarella cheese
(white), and fresh basil (green) to resemble the Italian flag.
The Queen loved the pizza, and what
eventually became Pizza Margherita has
since become an international standard.
Pizza migrated to the United States with the
Italians in the latter half of the 19th century.
Genna Lombardo opened the first true U.S.
pizzeria in 1905 in New York City at 1/3
Spring Street.
It wasn’t until after World War II when returning
GI’s created a nationwide demand for the pizza
they had eaten and loved in Italy that pizza went
public.
The original Pizzeria Brandi is still in operation in Italy today!
Pizza Jokes
How do you fix a broken pizza?
With tomato paste!!
What did the cannibal order for
take-out?
Pizza, with everyone on it!!
The
End!