Thomas Alva Edison invented the pizza in Menlo Park NJ, in 1880. After creating the incandescent light bulb, Edison became hungry and...

 

Okay, that's not it.

 

The real history of pizza starts in Italy. Or Greece. Perhaps Egypt? There are good arguments for each, depending on how we define pizza. Starting with the loose yet scientific definition of "some kind of flatbread with stuff on it," we know that pizza dates back to at least the 1st Century B.C. when the Roman poet Virgil wrote:

Ascanius this observ’d, and smiling said:

Even earlier (circa 500 B.C.), Persian soldiers baked a flatbread on their shields which they then covered with cheese and dates. I think, however, that if I went with this theory and walked around saying "pizza was invented in Iran," I'd be starting arguments that I'd rather not have.

But does it count as a kind of pizza if it's cooked out in the field and not in an oven? Let's call it flatbread and move on...

 

So, you want to know the real pizza origin? Let's see: the Egyptians made a flatbread, the Indians baked naan in hot Tandoori ovens... but neither of these had toppings. The Persians had toppings, but was it pizza?

The ancient Greeks had a flatbread called plakountos, on which they placed various toppings, and we know also that Naples was founded (as Neopolis) by the Greeks. And Naples is the home of the modern pizza (more about this on our Italian Pizza History page).

 

Of course, in the ancient world, Naples was part of Rome -- as was its neighbor, Pompeii. And pizza ovens were all over Italy, even then. Like this ancient Roman pizza oven:

 

I think we can agree now that ancient pizza is a toss-up, 'middle' pizza was Greek, and modern pizza (pre-American) was definitely Italian -- Neapolitan, even! And American pizza -- well, you can read about that on our American Pizza History page.

 

We recently found a fairly new and excellent book on pizza history, Pizza: A Global History by Carol Helstosky. It's short but very thorough and engaging. There are a few parts of the book that feel like you're reading someone's term paper, but then Helstosky comes up with a bit of information or a brilliant insight into pizza's effect on society and international relations that is delightful to read. She knows her stuff, and Lil and I put her book fourth in the list of must-read pizza books.