HISTORY OF PIZZA

Pizza is a baked pie of italian origin consisting of a shallow bread-like crust covered with seasoned tomato sauce,cheese and often other toppings such as sausage and olive.The foundations for pizza were originally laid by the early greeks who first baked large,round and flat breads which they topped with oil,herbs,spices and dates.Eventually the idea of flat bread found its way to italy where,in 18th century,the flat bread called ''pizzas'' were sold in the streetsand in the markets.They were plain bread without filling relatively cheap to make and sold to the poor all over naples by street vendors.The acceptance of the tomato by the neapolitans and the visit of a queen contributed to the pizza as we know and enjoy it today.In about 1889,Queen Margherita,accompanied by her husband,Umberto 1,took an inspection tour of her italian kingdom.During her travels around italy she saw many people,especially the peasants,eating this large,flat bread.Curiou,the queen ordered her guards to bring her one of these pizza bread and she loved it.The queen summoned Chef Rafaelle Esposito from his pizzeria to the royal palace and ordered him to bake a selection of pizzas for her pleasure.To honor the queen ,Rafaelle decided to make a very special pizza just for her.He baked a pizza topped with tomatoes,mozzarella cheese and fresh basil (to represent the colour of the italian flag:red,white and green).this became Queen Margherita's favorite pizza and when word got out that this pizza was one of the queen's favorite foods.Soon it became well known all over world as pizza margherita