Pizza is a disc shaped, flat bread which is normally topped with cheese, tomato sauce & numerous other toppings depending upon the place where it is made.

Pizza History
Originating in Italy and a Neapolitan cuisine, pizza is now a popular dish in many parts of the world. A place which mainly produces & sells pizza pie is known as pizzeria. Some other common names which are used are pizza place, pizza parlor, pizza shop and pizza house.

Interesting facts about pizzas
Let us now look at some interesting facts about pizzas:

1. In U.S. there are near about 60,270 pizza parlors.
2. It is a $29 billion industry.
3. In U.S. everyone eats about 46 slices of pizza each year.
4. About 2.9 billion pizzas get sold alone in the U.S. every year.
5. Of all the pizza orders, 35% want pepperoni topping on their pizza.
6. In America people prefer meat toppings compared to veggie toppings in a ratio 62:100 with women ordering twice as many vegetable toppings in comparison to men.
7. Most pizza deliveries are on New Year’s eve, Thanksgiving eve, Super Bowl Sunday and Halloween.
8. In U.S., around ninety three percent of the population eats at least 1 pizza per month.
9. 17% of all restaurants in U.S. are pizza shops.
10. 60% of pizza lovers like the thin crust while 15% like the thick crust pizzas.

Pizza baking methods

In restaurants various methods are used for baking pizzas such as baking in an oven with large stone bricks on top of heat source, baking in electric deck or conveyor belt oven, in a coal fired oven.

In deck oven, the pizza is slid inside the oven in long paddle which is called peel & the pizza is baked on hot bricks or on a round aluminum grate. When making pizza at home people use pizza stone inside their normal oven to get the effect of brick oven. Another method is the grilled pizza where crust bakes directly in barbecue grill. In Chicago style the pizza is baked in pan rather than directly on bricks in the oven.

Different styles of pizza

California style pizza: It is a single serving style of pizza which combines Italian & New York thin crust and has toppings from Californian cuisine. This type of pizza was mainly popularized by Wolfgang Puck.

New York style pizza: This style of pizza developed in early 1900s and is thin, wide & foldable. Traditionally it is light on sauce and hand tossed with toppings such as mozzarella cheese & tomato sauce. The main difference between pizza from other parts of the country and New York pizza is the crust which is made out of bread flour with high gluten.

Pizza toppings

The toppings are generally placed on pizza in a particular order, not just because it’s tidy but because the sauce on the pizza keeps the dough moist, the cheese after the sauce creates a bed for toppings to rest & thus they do not fall off when someone holds the pizza. Cheese is again added for keeping the dough moist & lastly the garnish is applied after the baking is complete. This is the normal order:

1. Pizza dough
2. Pizza sauce
3. Cheese
4. Pizza toppings
5. Cheese
6. Garnish

Pizza business in America is primarily dominated by companies which specialize in delivery of pizzas like Papa John’s Pizza, Domino’s, Brooklyn Pizzeria, Piza Ranch, Giordano’s Pizza, Godfather’s Pizza and Mazzio’s. A new development has been the concept of take & bake pizzeria like Papa Murphy’s which is also slowly gaining popularity.

In present times pizza is as popular as baseball & apple pie and is growing in popularity in all parts of the world. It has now become a favorite food for all of us.