Why Is Pizza Round? — Everything About Pizza from Ancient Egypt to Pizza Hut!
Why Is Pizza
Round?
From ancient Egyptian flatbread to tossing dough in the air — everything about pizza!
Pizza's history goes back much further than you'd think! Murals inside the pyramid of Pharaoh Ramesses III of ancient Egypt show scenes of grinding wheat into dough and baking it into bread.
They topped it with cheese, olive oil, and herbs — which is basically the original pizza right there!
The word "pizza" comes from the medieval Greek word "pitta (πίττα)" — meaning "a thick, flat bread."
The modern pizza we know — Neapolitan pizza — was born in 18th-century Naples, Italy. It was originally a cheap street food that poor working-class people could eat quickly and affordably!
Interestingly, the key pizza ingredient — tomatoes — were called "devil's fruit" and avoided by the upper classes. So pizza was entirely a food of the poor.
King Ferdinand I of Italy reportedly disguised himself as a commoner and sneaked into the slums just to eat pizza without his queen finding out! 😄
① Spin it by hand and it naturally becomes a circle!
When you toss pizza dough into the air and spin it, centrifugal force pushes the dough outward in all directions evenly, naturally forming a circle. A circle is simply the easiest shape to make by hand!
② A circle has the biggest area for its size!
Since pizza was food for the poor, bakers needed to stretch each portion as far as possible. Mathematically, a circle has the greatest area of any shape with the same perimeter!
③ Heat spreads evenly in a wood-fired oven!
A round shape has no sharp corners, so heat travels uniformly from all sides — meaning it bakes evenly without burning!
In 1889, Italian Queen Margherita visited Naples, and chef Raffaele Esposito created a special pizza in her honor.
That pizza used tomatoes (red), mozzarella cheese (white), and basil (green) to represent the colors of the Italian flag! The queen loved it so much that it was named "Margherita pizza" after her.
This event lifted pizza out of its humble origins and into the global spotlight!
Pizza's worldwide fame is largely thanks to America! During World War II (1940s), American soldiers stationed in Italy discovered Neapolitan pizza.
When they returned home, demand for pizza exploded and pizzerias spread rapidly. The first pizza restaurant in America was Lombardi's Pizza, opened by an Italian immigrant in Manhattan, New York in 1905.
Then Pizza Hut opened in 1958 and Domino's in 1960, spreading pizza across the globe. Pizza Hut opened its first Korean location in Yongsan in 1985!
🎯 The Answer! 3 Reasons Pizza Is Round!
- Why is the pizza box square? Round boxes are hard to fold and waste cardboard — so a square box just makes more sense!
- That little white plastic piece in the center of your pizza is called a "pizza saver." It stops the lid from squashing the cheese. Invented in 1983!
- In 2001, pizza was delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time ever — by Pizza Hut!
- Neapolitan pizza-making was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2017!
- In the United States, about 13% of the entire population eats pizza on any given day. A true pizza nation!
From ancient Egypt to the International Space Station — all in one pizza slice! 🚀
Stay tuned for the next episode 😄 🏺 → 🇮🇹 → 👑 → 🇺🇸 → 🍕📚 Read other episodes too!
🍬 Ep. 1 · History of Chewing Gum →
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