Mangiamo! A History of Pizza In-Person
Pizza is such a large part of the food culture in the United States. The pizza industry generated close to 50 billion dollars in the US for 2024. It seems to be only growing. This lecture will talk about how pizza started in Naples, Italy in the late 19th Century and then arrived in the United States in the early 20th Century. Pizza took off in cities such as New York City, Chicago, and even Trenton, New Jersey with the arrival of Italian immigrants. Pizza is now big business today with chain restaurants such as Pizza Hut and Domino's. People still love their local mom and pop pizzerias as well.
The U.S. has so many legendary pizzerias such as Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Brooklyn and Lombardi's in Manhattan which was established in 1905. New Jersey has the oldest, continuously run pizzeria with Papa's Tomato Pies which was established in 1912. For the last two years, I visited more than 200 pizzerias in NYC, NJ, and Philadelphia searching for the perfect slice of pizza. My book "A Pizza Journey with Family and Friends" highlights some of the pizzerias I visited.