Pizza is one of the most versatile foods around. With a collection of different types of toppings, sauces and crusts, the pickiest eater is bound to create a pizza that they enjoy. According to data collected in 2015, the annual pizza sale revenue in the United States is $32 billion and 93 percent of Americans eat at least one piece of pizza per month.
October is "National Pizza Month," and this holiday can be observed by simply ordering or making your favorite type of pizza.
"National Pizza Month" was introduced in the United States by “Pizza Today” magazine publisher Gerry Durnell in 1984. The holiday was started along with the publication when Durnell, a pizzeria owner from Indiana, noticed the lack of a trade publications for the pizza industry.
Pizza’s original origins can be traced back to the Bronze Ages, after an ancient preserved pizza was recently found in the Veneto region of Italy.
In the United States, the birth of the pizza industry began in the early 1900s after the influx of southern Italian immigrants arrived in the United States. In 1905, Italian immigrant Gennaro Lombardi became the first person to make and sell pizza in the country when he applied to the New York City government for a license to sell the pizza in his grocery store.
Over time, pizzerias started popping up across the country in Boston, San Francisco, New Haven, New Jersey and Chicago. In many of these cities, many of the Italian immigrants were working in near by factories and pizza was considered a poor person’s food that the Italians ate and made in the urban neighborhoods they lived and worked in.
Pizza didn’t become a popular and mainstream food until after World War II, when the soldiers returned from the European front with a craving for the pizza they had been eating while overseas. In 1945, one returning soldier named Ira Nevin, used his knowledge of pizza and his knowledge of repairing ovens to create the first gas-fired pizza oven.
With the new ovens, aspiring pizza makers could make quickly and cheaply make their pizzas in a clean and efficient way.
Before the end of the war, in 1943, the pizza game was changed once more when Ike Sewell, one of the non-Italian pizza moguls, invented the Chicago-style deep dish pizza.
From the end of the war to 1960, local pizzerias were opening up all around the country. All the pizzas were being home made and the ingredients were made or grown locally.
In 1958, the pizza industry changed forever after Pizza Hut was first opened in Wichita, Kansas. Pizzas were still home made and prepared in store, but the chains sold pizza at several locations with cheap prices. Little Cesar’s came into the picture a year later in 1959 and was followed by Domino’s in 1960. Papa John’s was the last chain to join the pizza industry in 1989.
Many of the local and independent pizza makers were unable to compete with the chains and had to close down, but there are still plenty of independent pizza makers around that are dedicated to their craft.
No matter what style of pizza they like, whether it is thin crust or deep dish, there is no doubt that Americans love their pizza and that people will be finding multiple ways to celebrate “National Pizza Month.”
