Basic pizza most likely began in prehistoric times, with bread cooked on flat, hot stones.

Roughly 1,000 years ago herb and spice covered circles of baked dough grew exceptionally popular in Naples, Italy. Known as flocci, these rounds were served as an appetizer or a snack. (Source: Smithsonian)

Pizza developed in Italy in pre-refrigerator times. After focaccia, its most direct ancestor was “Casa de nanza,” which means, “take out before.” Housewives would pound out dough into a thin crust and place leftovers on to bake. Pizza was a peasant food designed to be eaten without utensils and, like the French crepe and the Mexican taco, was a way to make use of fresh produce available locally and to get rid of leftovers.

In 1830 pizza truly began with the opening of the world’s first pizzeria. Named Port’ Alba, the pizzas were cooked in an oven lined with lava from Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located on the Bay of Naples. (Source: Smithsonian)

Modern pizza was born in 1889 when Queen Margherita Teresa Giovanni, the consort of Umberto I, king of Italy, visited Naples. Don Raffaele Esposito, who owned a tavern-like place called Pietro Il Pizzaiolo, was asked to prepare a special dish in honor of the Queen’s visit. Esposito developed a pizza featuring tomatoes, mozzarella cheese (a never before used ingredient made from the milk of water buffalo) and basil – ingredients bearing the colors red, white and green for the Italian flag. He named it the Margherita Pizza, after the guest of honor. Thus, the modern-day tomato-and-cheese pizza was born. (Source: Smithsonian and PIZZA TODAY)

The popularity of pizza exploded throughout the country when World War II servicemen returning from Italy began opening pizzerias and raving about that “great Italian dish.”

In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened the first licensed American pizzeria, on Spring Street in New York City. Lombardi’s is still in business today and owned by the original family.