gina 2 Report Share Posted September 25, 2004 Heres some fun stuff for National Pizza Month: Pizza Trivia *Piz'za Defined! * piz' za, n. (It.) - 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 or olives. The Origins of Pizza Considered a peasant's meal in Italy for centuries, modern pizza attributes itself to baker Raffaele Esposito of Napoli (Naples), who in 1889 created a special pizza for the visiting Italian King Umberto and Queen Margherita. The pizza, named after the queen, was patriotic in it's resemblance to the Italian flag; red (tomatoes), white (mozzarella cheese), and green (basil). It received rave reviews, setting the standard by which today's pizza evolved. The idea of using bread as a plate came from the Greeks, who ate flat round bread (plankuntos) baked with an assortment of toppings. The tomato came to Italy from Mexico and Peru through Spain in the 16th century as an ornamental plant first thought to be poisonous. True mozzarella is made from the milk of the water buffalo imported from India to Campania in the 7th century. So, the Neopolitan baker, as the saying goes, put it all together. Also, in 1830 the world's first true pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria Port' Alba in Naples, opened and is still in business today! Pizza migrated to America with the Italians. Gennaro Lombardi opened the first U.S. pizzeria in 1895 in New York City at 53 1/3 Spring Street, but it wasn't until after World War II when returning GI's created a nationwide demand for the pizza they had eaten and loved in Italy that pizza went public. My first recollection of pizza is homemade "box" pizza (Chef Boyardee) with canned pizza sauce and parmesan cheese. In the late 1950's, Shakey's and various other mass production pizza parlors appeared and further popularized pizza. Pizza in this day and age is not limited to the flat round type. It's also deep-dish pizza, stuffed pizza, pizza pockets, pizza turnovers, rolled pizza, pizza-on-a-stick, pizza strudel, etc., all with combinations of sauce, cheese, and toppings limited only by one's inventiveness. However, the best pizza still comes from the individual pizzaiolo, a pizza baker, who prepares his yeast dough and ingredients daily and heats his oven for hours before baking the first pizza. Did You Know? 670 MILLION pounds of cheese is sold every year! 75 ACRES of cheese is eaten every day! 350 MILLION tons of frozen pizza is sold every year! 30 TIMES a year is how often the average family eats pizza at home! 96% of people buy pizza out. Only 4% never go out for pizza! 23 POUNDS of cheese is eaten every year by the average person 1.1 BILLION frozen pizzas were sold last year! 4 BILLION fresh pizzas were sold last year! What Your Pizza says about You Mercury News Wire Services Surveys conducted by vast Pizza conglomerates offers these observations: People and Pizza Men wearing muscle shirts when answering the door order pepperoni three times more often than any other topping. People who have pierced noses, lips or eyebrows ask for a vegetarian toppings 23 percent more often than a meat topping. Those who have wind chimes on the porch are four times more likely than the average to want olives. Television and Pizza A recurring element is the correlation between pizza-eating and TV- watching. Whatever day and time "Roseanne'' airs is always the biggest half-hour of the week for meat-topped pizza orders. Since you asked, the No. 1 pizza-ordering show (figured by comparing orders during its time slot with weeks when the show doesn't air) is "Melrose Place",' which is also by far the leading show for vegetable-topped pizzas. Pizza orders in the "Melrose Place'' time slot have gone up 14 percent since Heather Locklear joined the cast. Politics and Pizza There's more: As you look back on 1994, trying to make sense of Newt's rise and O.J.'s fall, you may want to consider these other statistics from Domino's: Since the Republicans won the election, meat-topped pizza orders have risen 32 percent in the Washington metropolitan area. Since Election Day, tipping of Domino's deliverers by Washington women has fallen off by 10 percent (except during "Melrose Place,' when it climbs by 30 percent). Since the election, tipping by House Republicans has been down 12 percent; tipping by House Democrats has been up 3 percent. Whenever Newt Gingrich appears on national television, pizza orders to Democratic offices go up 4 percent and go down 2 percent on the GOP side. And last, but not least: The single greatest hour for pizza delivery in national pizza history was the hour when O.J. Simpson was in the white Ford Bronco on the L.A. freeways. Published 1/11/95 in the San Jose Mercury News. Pizza Facts The first pizzeria opened in New York on 53 1/2 Spring Street in 1895. Between 1948 and 1956 oregano sales increased 5200%. This was due to the growing popularity of pizza and other Italian specialties discovered by US servicemen stationed in Europe. Pizza Hut opens its first store in Kansas City in 1958. Domino's Pizza opened its doors in Detroit in 1960. The store was bought by a 23 year old investor named Thomas Monaghan, who borrowed $500 to buy the store. In 1994, total pizza sales in the United States exceeded $20 billion.¹ The 1995 Guiness Book of World Records lists the largest baked pizza on record was 37.4 meters in diameter (12,159 sq.ft.), in Norwood, South Africa December 8th 1990. Another notable pizza by size was a 10,000 sq.ft. pizza cooked by Lorenzo Amato, owner of Cafe di Lorenzo in Tallahassee Florida in 1991.¹ The first known pizza shop, Port 'Alba in Naples, opened in 1830 and is still open today.² The first pizzeria in North America was opened in 1905 by Gennaro Lombardi at 53 1/3 Spring Street in New York City.³ The first pizza delivery was in 1889, by Raffaele Esposito owner of the famous pizzeria Pietro il Pizzaiolo (Naples). The recipients were visiting King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. Refusing to go to the likes of a pizzeria, the queen ordered in, being anxious to try this food she heard so much about.² The first commercial pizza-pie mix was "Roman Pizza Mix", produced in 1948 in Worcester, Massachusetts by Frank A. Fiorello.¹ The mozzarella originally used in Italy for pizza, was made from the milk of the water buffalo.² The tomato arrived in Naples, Italy around 1522 originating from seeds first arriving in Spain from Peru. Initially grown only as an ornamental plant, the 'golden apple', so called because they were small and yellow, were thought to be poisonous until around 1750, when it began to be used in cooking.³ The origins of focaccia, one of the oldest styles of pizza (without the tomato) can be traced back to about 1000 B.C.E., when the Etruscans arrived in northern and central parts of Italy from Asia Minor.³ Pizza is the number 2 entree in foodservice, outpacing the growth rate of all other food items. It represents more than 10% of all food sales and is expected to exceed the hamburger 1996.4 Tuna is one of the most popular toppings in Europe.4 North Americans eat more pizza than anyone else in the world, yet most are acquainted with little beyond the basic tomato and cheese style.³ There are three major regional styles of pizza in the US. In the East, pizza is the traditional Neapolitan type with a light, thin crust, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and a vegetable or meat topping. It is more commonly known as New York-style. On the West Coast, pizza takes on a sophisticated look. Individual pizzettes with light, chewy crusts and toppings ranging from sundried tomatoes to asparagus to boccocini cheese are the norm. The Midwestern states prefer the deep-dish Chicago style, a thick creation heaped with toppings requiring up to 45 minutes to bake.³ Cookbooks specializing in Italian recipes have no reference to pizza prior to the 1950's.¹ In non-Italian communities in the eastern states, pizza can be heard to be referred to as "tomato pie".¹ 1 — Mariani, John - The Dictionary of American Food & Drink. Hearst Books 1994. 2 — Bruno, Pasquale Jr. - The Ultimate Pizza. Contemporary Books. 1995. 3 — Slomon, Evelyne - The Pizza Book. Random House. 1984. 4 — Pizza Today - Monthly publication of the National Association of Pizza Operators. If they Made Pizza ovens... If IBM made pizza ovens... They would want one big pizza oven where people bring dough to be submitted for overnight cooking. IBM would claim a worldwide market for five, maybe six pizza ovens. If Microsoft made pizza ovens ... Every time you bought dough, you would have to buy a pizza oven. You wouldn't have to take the pizza oven, but you'd have to pay for it anyway. Pizza Oven '97 would weigh 15,000 pounds (hence requiring a reinforced steel countertop), draw enough electricity to power a small city, take up 95% of the space in your kitchen, would claim to be the first pizza oven that lets you customize your pizza toppings, and would secretly interrogate your other appliances to find out who made them. Everyone would hate Microsoft pizza ovens, but nonetheless would buy them since most of the good ingredients only works with their pizza ovens. Pizza Oven '97 would also work on the web, allowing you to check it's progress from Internet Explorer (but not Netscape). It will also cook pizza's made by other ingredient makers. If Apple made pizza ovens... It would do everything the Microsoft pizza oven does, but 5 years earlier. If Fisher-Price made pizza ovens ... "Baby's First Pizza Oven" would have a 100-watt light bulb and a hand- crank that you turn to cook the dough. The pizza would pop up like a Jack-in-the-box when it was done. The toppings could be bought separately and would be in a powder form. Making the toppings would require mixing the powder in water and string until it was a thick pasty substance. If The Rand Corporation made pizza ovens ... It would be a large, perfectly smooth and seamless black cube. Every morning there would be a piece of dough on top of it. Their service department would have an unlisted phone number, and the blueprints for the box would be highly classified government documents. The X- Files would have an episode about it. If the NSA made pizza ovens ... Your pizza oven would have a secret trapdoor that only the NSA could access in case they needed to get at your pizza for reasons of national security. Does Digital (formerly DEC) still make pizza ovens ... They made good pizza ovens in the '70s, didn't they? They are currently designing the world's first truly portable pizza oven. It has the smallest footprint of any pizza oven on the market and will be called the Ultra III HiPizza. If Hewlett-Packard made pizza ovens ... They would market the Reverse Polish pizza oven, which takes in pizza and gives you regular dough. No one knows where the toppings go. If Sony made pizza ovens ... Their "PizzaMan", which would be barely larger than the dough it is meant to cook, can be conveniently attached to your belt. If The Franklin Mint made pizza ovens ... Every month you would receive another lovely hand-crafted piece of your authentic Civil War pewter pizza oven. If Cray made pizza ovens ... They would cost $16 million but would be faster than any other pizza oven in the world. If Thinking Machines made pizza ovens ... You would be able to cook 64,000,000 pizza's at the same time. If Timex made pizza ovens ... They would be cheap and small quartz-crystal wrist pizza ovens that take a licking and keep on cooking. If Radio Shack made pizza ovens ... The staff would sell you a pizza oven, but not know anything about it. Or you could by all the parts to build your own pizza oven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lllucas 0 Report Share Posted September 27, 2004 :-D Hi, Gina! Mama Mia! Thank God for Pizza! :pint: And thank you for all of this information. My residents will love it. I like all kinds of stuff on my pizza. Bob, my husband, only likes pepperoni. Talk to you later, Linda Lucas, AD :-) http://www.theactivitydirectorsoffice.com http://www.newsletter-express.com http://shopcjo.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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