History of Pizza

The first pizza was flat bread that had oil, herbs, spices and dates. In Italy in the 18th century, any flat bread was called ‘pizza’. You could buy it on the streets and in the markets. In about 1889, Queen Margherita saw many people eating this large, flat bread in Naples. When she tried one, she loved it. One day, she asked the royal cook to bake different pizzas for her. Raffaele, the cook, decided to make a very special pizza just for her. He baked a pizza and put tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese and fresh basil (like the colours of the Italian flag: red, white and green) on it. This became Queen Margherita’s favourite pizza and when people heard that, it became everybody’s favourite. Ever since, people all over the world eat pizza and thank Raffaele Esposito for his great invention.