National Sausage Pizza Day is observed each year on October 11. This food holiday is a favorite of pizza lovers across the country.
- In ancient Greece, the Greeks covered their bread with oils, herbs, and cheese which some attribute to the beginning of the pizza.
- In Byzantine Greek, the word was spelled “πίτα”, pita, meaning pie.
- The word “pizza” dates back over a thousand years—it was first mentioned in a Latin text written in southern Italy in 997 CE.
- The modern pizza had its beginning in Italy as the Neapolitan flatbread.
- The original pizza used only mozzarella cheese, mainly the highest quality buffalo mozzarella variant which was produced in the surroundings of Naples.
- The first United States pizza establishment opened in 1905 was in New York’s Little Italy.
- Each person in America eats about 46 pizza slices a year.
- About 93% of Americans eat at least one pizza every month.
- Pizza accounts for more than 10 percent of all food service sales
- About 350 slices of pizza are consumed every second in the United States.
- Over 5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year
- The most pizzas are delivered (and eaten) on New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Halloween, Thanksgiving Eve, and Super Bowl Sunday.
- The three dots in the Domino’s Pizza logo represent the first three Domino’s Pizza stores.
- Pepperoni is the most popular pizza topping in the United States. Sausage is second.
- Roughly 1,000 years ago herb-and-spice-covered circles of baked dough grew exceptionally popular in Naples, Italy. Known as focaccia, these rounds were served as an appetizer or a snack.
- In 1830 pizza truly began with the opening of the world’s first pizzeria. Named Port’Alba, the pizzas were cooked in an oven lined with lava from Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located on the Bay of Naples.
- In the 1800s, most Italians thought of pizza as a peasant meal. That changed when a baker named Raffaele Esposito created a margarita pizza for visiting royalty. The king and queen were impressed by the colors of the Italian flag represented by the pizza’s white mozzarella cheese, red tomato sauce, and green basil. Pizza became fashionable overnight and was soon a staple in restaurants all across the country.
- Americans eat approximately 350 slices of pizza per second?
- There are approximately 61,269 pizzerias in the United States.
- In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened the first licensed American pizzeria, Lombardi’s Pizzeria Napoletana, at 53-1/2 Spring Street in New York City.
- According to a recent Gallup Poll, kids between the ages of 3 to 11 prefer pizza over all other food groups for lunch and dinner.
- Each year, thousands of people involved in the pizza industry attend Pizza Expo, the world’s largest pizza-only trade show. Pizza Expo is held each year in Las Vegas, Nevada.
- Regular thin pizza crust is still the most popular crust, preferred by 61 percent of the population. Thick crust and deep dish tied for second, at 14%. Only 11 percent of the population prefers extra thin.
- The average pizzeria uses roughly 55 pizza boxes per day.
- The highest-grossing single-unit independent pizzeria in the nation, Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria, is in Anchorage , Alaska. Its annual sales are approximately $6 million.
- In the late ‘60s, the U.S. Army’s 113th Military Intelligence Unit spied on reporters and politicians using fake pizza deliveries.
- There’s a pizza museum in Philadelphia called Pizza Brain that is home to the world’s largest collection of pizza memorabilia.
- In 2001, the Russian Space Agency was paid more than a million bucks to deliver a six-inch pizza to the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut,Yuri Usachov had the honor of being the first person to receive a pizza delivery while in orbit.
- Did you know that there is technical term for “crust”? Well there is, it’s called cornicione or the “end crust”.
- The Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada. In 1962 by Sam Panopoulos, a native of Greece who was running a pizzeria in Ontario Canada. Bored with only having three toppings available mushroom, bacon, or pepperoni he took down a can of pineapples from the top shelf and decided to throw it on pizza. The rest is history.
- The U.S. Military Lab recently invented a ready-to-eat pizza. This handy pizza can last for up to three years. Intended for soldiers abroad who just have to have a slice. Making its grand entrance in 2017 solders can open MRE #37 and enjoy their treat!
Sources:
