Mad Ernie's More or Less: Everybody Loves Pizza (or at least, they should)

I am an unabashed food-loving freak of pizza. It is hands down my favorite food. One of the first things I learned to cook as a child was English muffin pizzas from a recipe off a Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee pizza sauce can. I’ll eat most any type of pizza and enjoy pretty much all of them: frozen, thin, deep-dish, take-out, home-made … you name it. I have actually met some people who say they don’t like pizza. Not many, to be sure, nevertheless, they do exist. To them, I say, let them eat cake – and leave the pizza for us!

Since I have such a fondness of this self-contained meal, and I know many others do, too, I thought I would spend some time writing about pizza and sharing what I know and perhaps don’t know. This may become an on-going piece on the blog, as I doubt I will be able to cover everything I know and like about pizza in one entry, so consider this to be part 1 and we’ll go from there.

History
Go to most resources on the history of pizza, including wikipedia and it will probably tell you that pizza began in Naples, Italy sometime in the 18th to 19th centuries. Most of those resources will also go into the story of the first pizza Margherita made for Queen Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna di Savoia in the late 1800’s, which involved a bread crust topped with tomatoes, basil, and cheese (red, green, and white, the colors of the Italian flag). Beyond that, you tend to get very little information on this food’s origins. Modern pizza that Americans think of today did originate in the Mediterranean area, but to be true to the food, the idea of cooking a bread plate and placing toppings on it probably dates back thousands of years to the Greeks and Romans. Everything today from an open-faced burrito to focaccia to Indian naan bread can be considered a close cousin to what most people think of as pizza.

I came across a wonderful book just over a year ago called “Everybody Loves Pizza” by Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby. It’s a coffee table book with everything from the history of pizza to best places to eat pizza in the U.S.A. and a handful of recipes to get people started. Not having been to Naples (though I would not mind making the holy pizza pilgrimage), I decided I would start this blog entry with pizza here in the states: the who’s, where’s, when’s, and so forth, borrowing information from that book and other sources (see below for helpful links).

American Pizza
Along with barbeque, pizza is probably one of the few foods that so many American people have opinions concerning what it is, what it is not, what is good, and what is not so good. Clearly using a baked flatbread as the base for a variety of toppings has expanded horizons in the USA over the last 100 years, going from mere tomatoes, cheese, and herbs all the way to tofu and barbeque chicken. And, yes, it is all pizza. You may not want to admit it, but it is, like it or not.

Because pizza is such a feel-good, comfort food for so many people, it is not surprising there is more than one place that considers itself to be THE originator here in the States. Athough most folks are willing to concede that Lombardi’s in New York City was the first official pizzeria to open in the good, ole’ U.S. of A., pizza was likely being made in more than one area of the country due to an influx of immigrants from Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In late 19th century Chicago for example, pizza was introduced by a peddler who walked up and down Taylor Street with a metal washtub of pizzas on his head, crying his wares at two cents a chew.

Safe to say, by the early 20th century, most major metropolitan areas of the country had at least one pizzeria somewhere in the city. But because of the somewhat segregated areas of these cities, it was virtually unknown outside of the Italian communities. It was peasant food. Of these Italian-American areas, it tended to remain more of an northern East Coast phenomenon with few exceptions (Chicago being one of them). It remained that way until the big one: World War II, or as some folks would say, “dubya-dubya two”. It seems not only did brave American G.I.’s go across the pond to help save Europe and the rest of us from fascist dictators, they also inadvertently became archeologists and sociologists. Wouldn’t you know it, one of the things they discovered and helped to bring back to the U.S. was pizza. First to be recognized were the already established pizzerias. Now, places like Lombardi’s, Frank Pepe’s, Joe’s Tomato Pies, Totonno’s and others had expanded business and more diverse clientele from doing virtually nothing but say, “Here we are.” Of course, that handful of pizza joints around the country just wasn’t enough. Expansion was necessary. Pizza was still more confined to larger metropolitan areas by the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, but change and unheard of growth for the food industry was about to come in such a wave, it would roll over North America and then some. The fuel was demand. What drove pizza to become so popular was good, old American commerce: make a buck.

The Birth of the American Pizza Parlor
Pizza may have started on the East Coast in the United States, but the impetus to create entire restaurants built on pizza as the main (or only) meal to be sold and eaten by middle-class America came from other parts of the country. No longer peasant food, pizza was now a meal that would be enjoyed and shared by families and friends from Pittsburgh to Peoria to Pacific Grove. Who, how, where, and when did this all begin, you ask? As near as I can determine, the progression of pizza into the popular and perfect sit-down, take-out, and delivery food came about mainly due to four men, all from the Midwest and West:

Ike Sewell

Sherwood “Shakey” Johnson

Dan and Frank Carney

Tom Monaghan

Ike Sewell. He was the original owner of Uno's Pizzeria in Chicago, IL, the originator of the Chicago deep-dish pizza. Though many question whether or not Sewell actually “created” the first deep-dish pizza in 1943, he and his establishment were certainly instrumental in creating a whole new style of true pizza pie, with pizza as the centerpiece of his bar & restaurant. His vision was to have something that was truly a meal, that people would sit down to eat with a knife and fork in a nice, decent place, not a folded triangle in your hand that you bought from some hole-in-the-wall you’d be ashamed to take your mother to. Today, Pizzeria Uno and Due are still going strong, and they have managed to franchise their operation out to other locations across the country. But if you want a true, good Chicago deep-dish pizza, stick with the original.

Sherwood “Shakey” Johnson. If you can’t figure out what contribution this guy made to pizza in America, you were probably born after 1987 and need to do some serious reading. To get you started, Shakey Johnson was a former G.I. who decided to open a tavern in Sacramento, CA. Initially, the place did just okay, but after he decided to add some food to the menu, things changed. Shakey’s became a hit virtually over night, and was one of the first restaurants in America to institute franchising as a means to get the word (and pizza) out. Shakey’s was always intended to be a family affair. You could watch the guys in the back making your pizza. There was dixieland music on player pianos, banjos, and sometimes even old-time movies. Pizza is and remains a food that is meant to be shared, and Shakey’s emphasized this aspect. Again, pizza had moved out of the poorer areas of large cities and had now become a family food for everyone to eat and enjoy.

Dan and Frank Carney. You may recognize the names, but if not, you’re forgiven. Try this name: Pizza Hut. And where did this auspicious beginning … uh, begin??? Well, Wichita, KS, of course. That’s right, not only is Wichita the birthplace of the first hamburger chain, White Castle, the largest pizza chain in the world was started there with very little money in a small building the Carney brothers had bought in 1958 to serve beer to college students. Food became a question, as in, what are going to serve these kids if they also want to eat? The Carneys had some friends who suggested pizza. “What’s pizza” they asked. A friend of their friends (with me so far) had a recipe for making pizza. He was invited over one night to make the Italian-influenced pie. One pizza down, tens of thousands of restaurants later, Pizza Hut is an unmatched success in the pizza restaurant business.

Tom Monaghan. What originally started out as DomiNick’s in Ypsilanti, MI, in 1960 became the now famous Domino’s Pizza. Domino’s had a successful formula that translated into big business, and their pizza was actually a second ingredient. The key to Domino’s success was delivery. Domino’s tended to locate themselves in college towns, and most studious college co-eds were too busy (or drunk) to make the trip to their favorite local take-out place. But a pizza place that delivers – whoa, Nellie, that’s manna from heaven! Where places like Uno’s, Shakey’s, and Pizza Hut encouraged folks to come in and eat, Domino’s really kept people out by opening strictly take-out & delivery places. It certainly worked, though, as over 8500 restaurants in 55 countries will testify.

That’s all that I have for now about pizza, but I will be revisiting this topic again in the days to come. In the meantime, bone-up on the history of pizza and check out the links below.

Mad Ernie's More or Less

Monday, January 12, 2009

Everybody Loves Pizza (or at least, they should)

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