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Brush Up On Your Pizza Knowledge With These 20 Interesting Pizza Facts

Pizza is one of the most beloved food across the world. There are countless varieties and different styles synonymous with food cultures from every corner of the globe. You can find it in cheap takeaways and fine dining restaurants alike, and it can be as simple or as extravagant as you like.

But how much do you actually know about pizza? Do you know where it came from? About how its made or about the largest pizza in the world? Brush up on your pizza knowledge with these 20 interesting pizza facts!

pizza facts

How much do you actually know about pizza? Brush up on your knowledge of the world’s most beloved dish with these 20 interesting pizza facts.

1 – The word “pizza” can be traced back more than 1000 years. The first instance it can be found in writing is from a Latin text discovered in southern Italy that dates back to around 997 AD.

2 – Popular legend has it that the classic margherita pizza was invented in 1889 by a pizzaiolo named Raffaele Esposito for Queen Margherita. Esposito was commissioned by the Royal Palace of Capodimonte to create three pizzas for the Queen – the one she favored the most was a variety featuring tomato, mozzarella and basil because the colours reminded her of the red, white and green of the Italian flag.

3 – Pizza was brought to the States by Italian immigrants in the late 19th century, and America’s first pizzeria, the famous Lombardi’s, opened in 1905.

4 – The dish really exploded after World War II when American soldiers came home from Europe with a taste for Italian dishes – this hunger was supplemented by the troves of Italian immigrants who flooded into the US after the war.

5 – The first pizzas eaten in the US were in the classic Italian style, with a thin crust and minimal toppings. The first Chicago-style deep dish pizzas emerged in 1943, created by the Pizzeria Uno chain.

6 – The most expensive pizza in the world costs $12,000 – it’s called the Louis XIII. The dough is made from organic Arabian flour, is dusted with Murray River pink salt and takes 72-hours to prepare. It is topped with three types of rare caviar – Oscietra Royal Prestige, Kaspia Oscietra Royal Classic from the Iranian coast, and Kaspia Beluga – Norwegian lobster and 7 types of cheese. It is also served with host of hand selected beverages including Champagne Krug Clos du Mesnil 1995 which compliments the lobster and caviar, followed by Carta Real Sanches Romate Finos brandy and Louis XIII cognac – the rarest cognac in the world.

Louis XIII

7 – Frozen pizzas emerged in the 1960s. The Celentano Brothers hold the trophy for the first frozen pizza brand. But it was the Totinos that perfected the art of making them taste almost as good as they would be fresh. They sold their frozen pizza empire in 1975 for $22 million dollars.

8 – In 2013, Macaulay Culkin formed a band called the Pizza Underground – a pizza-themed Velvet Underground comedy rock band. The band gives out pizza boxes to their fans who attend shows and some of their songs include ‘I’m Waiting For The Pizza Man’, ‘Take a Bite of the Wild Slice’, and ‘All Pizza Parties’.

9 – In 2001, a pizza chain delivered a pizza to the International Space Station – the only pizza ever delivered to outer space. It was a 6-inch salami pizza.

10 – The record for the most pizzas ever made in one hour was set by a pizza place in Australia with 837 pizzas.

11 – The biggest pizza you can buy commercially is made at Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria in LA and costs $200 – it is a massive square, 1.37m x 1.37m.

12 – The longest criminal trial in American history was the ‘Pizza Connection trial’, which prosecuted a mafia drug ring who were using pizza restaurants as a front for drug trafficking.

13 – The classic Hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple) was invented in 1962 by Sam Panopoulos, a Greek man living in Canada who ran the Satellite Restaurant in Ontario with his brother, Nick.

14 – In 2011, the American government found the two tablespoons of tomato sauce on pizza in school cafeterias to meet the requirements of what is to be considered a ‘vegetable’ serving.

15 – There is such a thing as the World Pizza Championship – a weekend-long event with competitions ranging from dough-spinning to the best dough and best pizza.

16 – In 2014, a group of scientists in New Zealand studied the baking properties of different cheeses and found that mozzarella is, officially, the best choice for pizza (highest moisture, lowest quantity of ‘free oil’, and that cartoon-pizza elasticity).

17 – In America, 350 slices of pizza are sold every second.

18 – The first bitcoin transaction ever was for pizza that cost 10,000 BTC  – this is now worth around $1, 219, 000 USD.

19 – The price of a slice of pizza in New York City has risen at the same rate as the cost of a subway ride with uncanny precision. This phenomenon is called the ‘Pizza Principal‘

20 – NASA is currently developing 3D printers that can print pizzas for astronauts.

We have the world’s best pizza right here in Enmore and Marrickville. If all this pizza talk us making you hungry drop by Manoosh or order from us online. We guarantee you will love everything we have to offer from our delicious pizzas, to more traditional Lebanese street food and desserts (our baklava is pretty much the best).

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Is pizza Chinese? | The shady origins of pizza

The origins of pizza are cloudy. There are claims that it dates back to the Ancient Greeks who used to put oil, herbs and cheese on flat bread in a crude version of the modern dish. Other purists say Italians invented the ‘classic’ pizza, and though the universal term for the dish stems from the their interpretation, the truth is, it is almost impossible to trace the exact origins of pizza, and even harder to resolve who actually ‘invented’ the pizza.

is pizza chinese
Image source Dave Rozek via Flickr

The Greeks, the Italians, the Lebanese – so many different nations claim to have invented the pizza. But there is one who is quite unexpected, a dark horse in the pack. Is pizza Chinese?

The Scallion Pancake

Traditional Chinese food is often associated with a combination of sweet and salty flavours, with rice, vegetables and soybeans at the heart of many dishes. These staples don’t indicate any correlation with the modern pizza with its cheese and tomato sauce base. However, when you think of the different origins from which pizza has stemmed – such as Lebanon with its man’oushe – then it might seem possible that the Chinese may have developed a form of pizza long before anybody else. Let’s break pizza to its most simple definition – a baked dough crust with toppings. And consider for a moment what a scallion pancake looks like. Despite its name, a scallion pancake is made with dough, not batter, and is garnished with oil and green onion. Baked goods of this kind can be dated back almost 5,000 years.

Scallion pancakes
Image source elaynam via Flickr

Marco Polo

This throws a new player into the game. Most believe that early forms of pizza either came from the Mediterranean or the Middle East, which then made their way to Italy – eventually evolving into the classic modern pizza. What if, in fact, it was the scallion pancake that made its way to Italy to be revamped and given to world? Would this make China the official inventor of pizza?

Marco Polo, the famed Italian explorer, spent a lot of time in China in the early-mid 13th Century, and is often (incorrectly) referred to as the first European in China. Although there were Europeans in China before him, Polo was the first to write widely about his experiences and influenced many famous explored after him.

Legend has it that it was in fact Polo that brought the pizza to Italy – or the scallion pancake at least. The story goes that he missed the pancake so much that he convinced a chef at a friend’s dinner party to try to recreate it for him. To no avail, Polo suggested that the fillings be put on top rather than inside the ‘pancake’ dough. The dish, the first ‘pizza’ per se, was a hit and the chef returned to Naples with a mission to improve it – the rest is history.

is pizza chinese
Image source Wikipedia

What’s the verdict?

Like all legends, sources are shaky at best for this version of the pizza story. But like all good myths, it could very well be true. That being said, in all of Polo’s revered recounts of his travels in the East there are none that talk of the scallion pancake, though it is most likely that he ate them.

So then, are we back to square one? Though it is plausible that Polo brought the idea of the pizza back to Italy, the reality is that it is most likely that the groundwork for the modern dish was done either in the Middle East (like man’oushe) or the Mediterranean (the etymology of the word does point to some sort of Latin connection with pita bread).

Luckily the modern Australian pizza takes all of this into account, and has elements from around the world ingrained into its unique personality. We don’t really mind where pizza actually came from, we just care that our pizza is great.

If you’re in Sydney and want to try a great modern Aussie pizza or our Lebanese take on the dish, drop by Manoosh or order online. Or if you’re after top quality mobile pizza catering, get in touch today!

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A Brief History of Pizza in Australia

Pizza is the most popular takeaway food in the world, with minor variations of the dish scattered all across the globe. Delicious, comforting and versatile, it has a proud and colourful history, with different cultures boasting their own variations dating back thousands of years. Today in Australia we are blessed with a variety of different pizza options thanks to our multi-national food culture. Let’s have a look at how we got to where we are today.

a brief history of pizza in australia
CC image courtesy of Steven Lilley

Let’s take a look at a brief history of pizza and how it got to Australia: from the classic Pizzas to the modern, multicultural variations of the dish.

A Brief History of Pizza

Pizza is one of the world’s most beloved foods; there’s no doubting it. In its most simple form, pizza can be described as an oven-baked flatbread topped with sauce and cheese, but the modern pizza has become so much more than that. Its origins can be traced back to the Ancient Greeks, who would adorn their breads with ingredients like oil, herbs and cheese, in a crude version of the now illustrious dish.

The etymology of the word ‘pizza’ itself is, of course, Italian, with the first recorded use of the word dating back to a Latin text from Gaeta in southern Italy, around 997 AD. Going even further back, the word can be traced to the Ancient Greek work pikte, the Latin picta, or the Old High German word bizzo or pizzo, meaning mouthful. As is the case with many modern words, nobody is exactly sure where it originated from.

history of pizza sydney
Image courtesy of rob koziura

The modern flatbread pizza was born in Naples, Italy, around the end of the 19th century. Popular legend details that the classic pizza Marghertia was invented in 1889 when Raffaele Esposito, a famous pizza maker, was commissioned to create a dish for Queen Marghertia.

Of the three different types of pizza he made for her, the Queen preferred the one that best represented Italy – with red tomato sauce, white mozzarella and green basil – the colours of the Italian national flag. Thus the modern marghertia pizza was born.

Man’oushe

One of Lebanon’s most famous dishes, man’oushe, or manoosh, is a close relative of the classic Italian pizza. Following a similar method to its Mediterranean cousin, traditional Lebanese man’oushe is a dish made from flatbread, topped with zaatar and ingredients such as fresh herbs and vegetables, meats and cheeses, and cooked in an oven at very high temperatures.

Traditionally consumed for breakfast, man’oushe is a mainstay of traditional Lebanese food culture. Differing from Italian pizza, man’oushe uses a bread that is chewier, with a crusty exterior and zaatar as a base, and harnesses the possibility of endless topping combinations. You can see why we used it as our namesake.

history of lebanese pizza

Pizza culture in Australia is very much ingrained in our multicultural identity. In the mid to late 19th century, troves of European migrants came to Australian shores in search of gold and work. By the 1920’s pizza had begun to become a part of Australia’s food culture, but it wasn’t until the post-WWII mass migrations of Europeans in the 1950’s and 60’s that saw our obsession with pizza really explode. In 1961, Toto’s Pizza House, the country’s first dedicated pizza restaurant, opened its door in Carlton, Melbourne – a classic, modern Italian pizza place.

Since that time, endless cultural crossovers have seen the modern Australian pizza evolve into something marvellous, containing elements from around the world that have come together to create something that is both universal and unique.

If you’re in Sydney and want to try a great modern Aussie pizza or our Lebanese take on pizza, Drop by Manoosh or order online.