100 Cheesey Facts About Pizza

1. The term ‘pizza’ was first recorded in the 10th century in a Latin text from the Italian town of Gaeta.
2. Pizza Margherita is named after Queen Margherita of Italy. It’s topped with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil to represent the colors of the Italian flag.
3. In Italy, pizza is often eaten with a knife and fork.
4. The largest pizza ever made measured 131 feet in diameter, achieved by Dovilio Nardi, Andrea Mannocchi, Marco Nardi, Matteo Nardi, and Matteo Giannotte (all Italy) from NIPfood at Fiera Roma, in Rome, Italy, on 13 December 2012.
5. The first pizza delivery was in 1889 to Queen Margherita by Raffaele Esposito, the owner of the famed pizzeria Brandi.
6. October is the U.S. national pizza month.
7. Americans consume 350 slices of pizza per second.
8. Saturday night is the most popular night to eat pizza in the U.S.
9. The world’s fastest pizza maker can make 14 pizza pies in 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
10. In 2018, Pizza Hut became the official pizza of the NFL.
11. Originally, pizzas were only baked in wood-burning brick ovens.
12. According to a Gallup Poll, children between the ages of 3 to 11 prefer pizza over all other food groups for lunch and dinner.
13. There’s a pizza museum in Philadelphia called “Pizza Brain” which is home to the world’s largest collection of pizza memorabilia.
14. The most expensive pizza in the world costs $12,000 and takes 72 hours to make.
15. Some of the strangest pizza toppings include kangaroo, reindeer, and hardboiled eggs.
16. Hawaiian pizza, a pizza topped with pineapple and ham, was actually invented in Canada.
17. In Japan, squid is a very popular pizza topping.
18. Most pizza is consumed during TV programs.
19. In 2001, the Russian space agency was paid over a million dollars to deliver a pizza to the International Space Station.
20. According to Domino’s, some of the most popular international toppings are pickled ginger, minced mutton, and tofu in India, squid and Mayo Jaga (mayonnaise, potato, and bacon) in Japan, and green peas in Brazil.
21. Ancient Greeks had a flatbread similar to pizza that they topped with olive oil and local spices.
22. The first pizzeria in North America was opened in 1905 by Gennaro Lombardi at 53 1/3 Spring Street in New York City.
23. Over 5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year.
24. In 2012, the U.S. alone produced over 4.24 billion fresh-frozen pizzas.
25. The most pizzas are delivered (and eaten) on New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Halloween, Thanksgiving Eve, and Super Bowl Sunday.
26. The first pizza chain in the United States was Pizza Hut, which opened in Wichita, Kansas in 1958.
27. The longest pizza delivery was from Cape Town, South Africa to Sydney, Australia.
28. According to a survey, the most popular pizza size in the U.S. is 14 inches in diameter.
29. The idea of ready-to-bake pizza was patented by Celentano Brothers in 1957.
30. There are over 9,000 pizzerias in New York City alone.
31. The average American consumes 23 pounds of pizza each year.
32. The popular pizza topping in America, pepperoni, is actually an American invention.
33. “Pizza rat” was a viral Internet sensation that began in 2015 when a rat was filmed carrying a slice of pizza down a subway staircase in New York City.
34. The world record for most pizza boxes folded in a minute is 14.
35. Some pizzerias offer gluten-free pizza, using dough made from ingredients like rice, corn, and potato flours.
36. Pizzas were originally sold exclusively by the pie. But in 1933, Patsy’s Pizzeria in New York City began selling by the slice—a trend that was quickly picked up by other pizzerias.
37. Many people believe that the use of bread, sauce, and cheese to create a meal was invented by the Italians. In reality, this type of meal has been enjoyed by ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks.
38. The longest pizza delivery was carried out by Domino’s from Madrid, Spain to Wellington, New Zealand – a journey of over 12,000 miles.
39. In 2014, food scientists studied the baking properties of different cheeses and found that mozzarella makes the best pizza cheese due to its unique stretchiness, moisture, and oil content.
40. According to the USDA, about 1 in 8 Americans consume pizza on any given day.
41. The average pizzeria uses roughly 55 pizza boxes per day.
42. There are pizza competitions where pizza chefs, or “pizzaiolos,” showcase their skills and creativity, such as the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas.
43. Many believe the trend of putting pineapple on a pizza started with the creation of the Hawaiian Pizza in the 1960s by Sam Panopoulos at his restaurant in Ontario, Canada.
44. While pizza is an Italian creation, different regions of the world have put their own local twist on the dish. For example, a pizza in India might be topped with pickled ginger, minced mutton, and paneer.
45. In 2016, a pizza featuring 111 types of cheese broke the Guinness World Record for the “Greatest Variety of Cheese on a Pizza.”
46. Some of the most expensive pizzas in the world include toppings such as caviar, truffles, gold leaf, and even diamonds.
47. There is a mathematical theorem named after pizza called the ‘Pizza Theorem,’ which involves the equality of two areas that arise when one partitions a disk in a certain way.
48. Some of the most popular pizza toppings in the U.S. include pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, sausage, bacon, extra cheese, black olives, green peppers, pineapple, and spinach.
49. In the U.S., thin crust pizza is the most popular crust, preferred by 61 percent of the population. Thick crust and deep-dish follow, with only 14 percent of the population preferring extra thick crust.
50. Gennaro Lombardi, the owner of the first U.S. pizzeria, is credited with developing the New York style pizza. The New York style pizza is known for its large, foldable slices and crispy outer crust.
51. The most popular day in America to eat pizza is Super Bowl Sunday.
52. The three dots in the Domino’s Pizza logo represent the first three Domino’s Pizza stores.
53. Uno’s Pizzeria in Chicago is believed to have created the first deep-dish pizza in 1943.
54. The world’s largest pizza chain is Domino’s, with more than 17,000 locations in more than 90 countries.
55. Approximately 13% of the U.S. population consumes pizza on any given day.
56. Modern pizza evolved from similar flatbread dishes in Naples, Italy, in the 18th or early 19th century.
57. Domino’s dropped its “30 minutes or less” guarantee in 1993 after a series of lawsuits accused the company of promoting unsafe driving.
58. There’s a pizza inspired by every U.S. state, made by a pizza champion Tony Gemignani. The Californian pizza includes peaches, chicken, and brie.
59. Domino’s had a series of bizarre marketing campaigns in the 1980s, including the Noid—a strange, pizza-ruining creature that was supposed to represent Domino’s competitors.
60. Pizza Hut had a promotion in 1999 that gave away free pizzas to anyone who could correctly guess the year that the “baked dough disc,” or pizza, was invented.
61. Pizza Hut was the first company to deliver a pizza to space. Delivered to the International Space Station in 2001, the pizza was topped with salami and traveled over 1.5 million miles to get there.
62. “Pizza cake” became popular in 2014 as part of a marketing campaign by Canadian pizza chain Boston Pizza. The concoction is essentially a giant stack of pizzas baked into a cake-like shape.
63. In Brazil, it’s common to have green peas as a pizza topping.
64. There are dessert pizzas that swap tomato sauce and cheese for sweet toppings like Nutella, fruit, and powdered sugar.
65. Many pizzerias in Naples are so traditional that they refuse to put more than one topping on their pizzas.
66. Detroit-style pizza is a rectangular pizza that has a thick deep-dish crisp crust and toppings such as mushrooms and olives, and is served with the marinara sauce on top.
67. According to a recent poll, 36% of all pizza orders want their pizza topping to be pepperoni.
68. Over 3 billion pizzas are sold in the USA each year. Add another 1 billion on frozen pizzas.
69. In America, 17% of all restaurants are pizzerias.
70. Some pizzerias offer cheese-less pizzas or pizzas made with vegan cheese for customers who are vegan or lactose intolerant.
71. The record for the most people tossing pizza dough is 278 and was achieved by the pizza company Domino’s in Australia in 2014.
72. The most popular day to buy a pizza in the United States is Super Bowl Sunday. The second most popular day is Halloween.
73. The average slice of pizza contains approximately 272 calories.
74. The first known pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy, in 1738.
75. Every year, the city of Naples in Italy hosts a “Pizza Village” event, which is a 10-day celebration of pizzas from around the world.
76. The most popular pizza in Sweden, called the “Pizza Africana,” includes peanuts, bananas, chicken, pineapple, and curry powder.
77. There are over 200,000 pizzerias in the United States alone.
78. A “pizza al taglio,” commonly sold in Italy, is pizza that is sold by the weight.
79. A pizza that has radius “z” and height “a” has volume Pizz*a.
80. The world’s largest round pizza was over 131 feet in diameter and was gluten-free.
81. There’s an annual event called the “Pizza Expo” that takes place in Las Vegas. It’s the largest pizza show in the world.
82. 36% of people consider pizza the perfect breakfast.
83. Over 100 acres of pizza are eaten in the U.S. every day.
84. In Cambodia, pizzas topped with marijuana (known as “happy pizzas”) are very popular among tourists.
85. The first known pizza shop was Port ‘Alba in Naples and it opened in 1830.
86. The first frozen pizza was marketed by Pizza Celeste in 1950, but it was Totino’s, appearing in the early 1960s, that came to dominate the market.
87. Most expensive pizza commercially available is sold at Renato Viola for €8,300 ($12,000), which includes toppings like three types of caviar, lobster, and salt hand-picked from the Murray River.
88. An alfredo pizza is a pizza that uses alfredo sauce instead of tomato sauce.
89. According to Guinness World Records, the record for eating a 12-inch pizza is a swift 23.62 seconds, held by Kelvin Medina from the Philippines.
90. “Pictou County Pizza” is a unique style of pizza found in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada, which uses a brown sauce and Halifax-style “donair” meat.
91. Bar pizza, also known as tavern or Chicago-style pizza, is distinguished by a thin crust, almost cracker-like, and is cooked, or at least partly cooked, in a shallow pan for an oily crust.
92. A grandiosa is a style of pizza made in Norway that includes ingredients like Jarlsberg cheese, tomatoes, and paprika. It is the most popular pizza in Norway.
93. Pizzas bake quickly and efficiently in a high-heat brick oven, which is a common method for pizza baking in professional settings.
94. In 2009, a space shuttle crew had vacuum-sealed pizza kits included in their cargo so they could make pizza in space.
95. The largest collection of pizza boxes belongs to Scott Wiener of the U.S. who has collected over 1,500 different boxes from 50 countries.
96. In 2008, the first pizza-making vending machine, “Let’s Pizza,” was invented in Italy.
97. Some popular pizza toppings in India include pickled ginger, minced mutton, and paneer, a form of unsalted white cheese.
98. A 2015 study found that when pizza is the second meal of the day, it can help adults absorb more lycopene (an antioxidant found in tomatoes) than eating pizza for the first meal of the day.
99. The three most popular pizza toppings in the U.S. are pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms.
100. “Pizza saver” is the official name for the small plastic tripod that comes with many delivered pizzas to prevent the box from collapsing onto the toppings.

Originally posted 2023-09-21 19:37:27.

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