The History of Pizza
Activity one Do you know any famous foods from these countries?
Country Food
Spain
Italy
Germany
Japan
Hungary
China
Mexico
The United States
The United Kingdom
France
Thailand
Can you think of and foods/dishes that are popular in ALL countries?
Your answer:
Activity two Reading
Global Pizza by Connie Odone
So you think the hamburger was the world’s most popular fast food? After all, Mc Donald’s
Golden Arches span the globe. But no, there is another truly universal fast food, the ultimate fast
food. It’s easy to make, easy to serve, much more varied than the hamburger, can be eaten with the
hands, and it is delivered to your front door or served in fancy restaurants. It has been one of
America’s favorite foods for over 50 years. It is, of course, the pizza.
A brief history of Pizza
It is kind of silly to talk about the moment when pizza was ‘invented’. It gradually evolved
over the years, but one thing is certain- it’s been around for a very long time. The idea of using
pieces of flat, round bread as plates came from the Greeks. They called them plakuntos and ate
them with various simple toppings such as olive oil, garlic, onions, and herbs. The Romans enjoyed
eating something similar and called it picea. By about 1000 CE in the city of Naples, picea had
become pizza and people were experimenting with more toppings: cheese, ham, anchovies, and
finally the tomato brought to Italy from Mexico and Peru in the sixteenth century. Naples became the
pizza capital of the world. In 1889, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita heard about pizza and
asked to try it. They invited pizza maker, Raffaele Esposito, to make it for them. He decided to make
the pizza like the Italian flag, so he used red tomatoes, white mozzarella cheese, and green basil
leaves. The Queen loved it and the new pizza was named “Pizza Margherita” in her honor.
Pizza migrated to America with the Italians at the end of the nineteenth century. The first
pizzeria in the United States opened in 1905 at 53 ½ Spring Street, New York City, by Gennaro
Lombardi. But the popularity of pizza really exploded when American soldiers returned from Italy
after the Second World War and raved about “that great Italian dish”. Americans are now the
greatest producers and consumers of pizza in the world. On average Americans eat 350 slices of
pizza every second.
Answer these questions
1. What does
McDonald’s Golden
Arches span the globe
mean?
2. What are the
similarities and
differences between
the hamburger and the
pizza?
3. In what year was the
modern pizza
invented?
4. Which came first,
picea or plakuntos?
5. Why are Mexico and
Peru important in the
development of pizza?
6. What do the Italian flag
and Pizza Margherita
have in common?
7. When and how did
pizza become really
popular in the United
States?
Read the article again and make questions using the prompts below and answer your questions.
What is
How many
When and when
How much
Which toppings
Which month
Activity three What do you think?
Which facts in the reading did
you find interesting? Why?
Do you think different countries
like different toppings? Can
you give examples?
Who you like pizza? What are
your favorite toppings?
What are the most popular fast
foods in your country?
What is your favorite fast food?
Activity four Writing
This week you are to do a little bit of research on a famous dish from your country and write a brief
history of the dish. There is no upper limit, but the minimum is 12 lines of text (about 120 words).
