Buzz
In the 1700s and 1800s, Naples, Italy, though a bustling city, was also a kingdom where poverty was widespread. Many residents lived in cramped, single-room homes and faced constant mobility. For these individuals, flatbread topped with simple ingredients like cheese, tomatoes, oil, anchovies, and garlic became a practical, affordable meal. Immigrants to the U.S. carried this food tradition with them, and in 1905, the first pizzeria in the United States opened in Manhattan, igniting a pizza craze in the country.
Pizza has become a global favorite, though its preparation varies widely depending on location. These ten fascinating facts reveal how the dish is continuously evolving, sparking innovation, research, and creative interpretations. Even animals are drawn to, or sneak, this iconic Neapolitan delicacy.
10. Robotic Pizza Workers
Zume Pizza employs a combination of humans and robots. The human team handles tasks such as food preparation, recipe creation, taste testing, and improving the quality of the product based on customer feedback. Meanwhile, the robotic workers take on key tasks like applying and spreading tomato sauce and placing pizzas in ovens.
Based in Mountain View, California, Zume Pizza is led by CEO Julia Collins and aims to serve the entire San Francisco Bay Area by the end of 2018.
9. The Edible Pizza Box
At Vinnie’s Pizzeria in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, customers can enjoy the boxes their pizzas came in after finishing the meal. Inspired by seeing empty pizza boxes in local trash cans, co-owner Sean Berthiaume decided to create edible pizza boxes. During a quiet period at the pizzeria, Berthiaume experimented with the concept and brought it to life.
For $40, customers can have the pizza-within-a-pizza box delivered right to their homes or businesses. The pizza and its box are wrapped in foil and sent in a pizza bag. (And no, the bag is not made of pizza.)
"I enjoy experimenting," Berthiaume confessed. One of his experiments last year led to a pizza topped with mini pizzas.
8. Mathematical Pies And Slices
Mathematician Eugenia Cheng is well-versed in pizza. In 2013, she developed a formula to determine the ideal pizza size. According to Cheng, the key factor is the crust. Her formula assumes that smaller slices have more toppings, making them taste better than larger slices with fewer toppings. The center of the pizza also has thicker toppings than the edges. When it comes to taste, thinner crusts are preferred over thicker ones, as thick crusts reduce the bread-to-topping ratio and could become soggy.
PizzaExpress, a UK chain, hired Cheng to investigate why customers preferred 36-centimeter (14 in) pizzas to 28-centimeter (11 in) pizzas. Cheng's findings, which aligned with customers' preference for crispier crusts and well-balanced toppings, led PizzaExpress to add 15 grams of dough to its recipe.
In another study exploring the pattern of identical tiles, Joel Haddley and Stephen Worsley from the University of Liverpool discovered a method to slice curved shapes with nearly an infinite number of sides, provided the number of sides is odd. They enhanced this technique by further subdividing each slice into more intricate forms by introducing wedges along the sides.
7. Autonomous Pizza Delivery Vehicle
Pizzerias are also embracing technological advancements in other ways. Domino's Pizza, in collaboration with Ford Motor Company, aims to deliver pizzas using “a simulated autonomous vehicle experience” with a Ford Fusion hybrid. Ann Arbor City Council member Sumi Kailasapathy witnessed the driverless delivery vehicle during a test and inquired whether the vehicle could detect pedestrians waiting to cross the street at a crosswalk without signals or other pedestrians already crossing.
The engineers explained that the vehicle is capable of recognizing Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons, which are activated by pedestrians at crosswalks equipped with these signals, and will stop to let them cross. However, they were unfamiliar with the type of crosswalk Kailasapathy mentioned. In a follow-up email, Alan Hale, a spokesperson for Ford, reassured the city council that the vehicles can indeed detect pedestrians waiting to cross a street, even when the crosswalk is not equipped with a signal, and will stop to let them cross. "When a vehicle nears a crosswalk, it recognizes the crosswalk and follows specific protocols to identify people in the area," Hale confirmed to Kailasapathy and the other council members.
The driverless delivery vehicles would also come equipped with various detection features, including algorithms capable of predicting pedestrian behavior, radar and laser sensors, cameras offering a 360-degree view, and depth perception spanning 200 meters (660 feet). These vehicles would operate based on 3-D models of their surroundings, which would map out roads, sidewalks, and buildings, while also incorporating additional data such as laws, traffic regulations, crosswalks, signals, signs, and other road markings.
Ford envisions having driverless vehicles on the road by 2021, transporting people to their destinations and handling deliveries of groceries, packages, and, naturally, pizza.
6. The Subconscious Menu
Pizza Hut may have found the solution for customers who struggle with choosing pizza toppings. The 'subconscious menu,' developed with Tobii Technology, a Swedish company, tracks customers' eye movements as they browse different pizza topping options on a screen and then suggests a pizza from the 4,896 possible combinations. The software, which took six months to develop, was found to be accurate 98 percent of the time in trials conducted in the United Kingdom.
If the subconscious menu proves successful with UK customers, Pizza Hut might roll it out to its American clientele as well.
5. Floating Pizzeria
Pizza Pi serves as more than just a home for Sasha and Tara Bouis. Their 11-meter (37 ft) boat, constructed from quarter-inch-thick aluminum plates, doubles as a floating pizzeria delivering pizzas across the Virgin Islands. Sasha, who previously worked on Wall Street, and his wife Tara, who taught special education in Indiana and SCUBA lessons during summers in the Caribbean, left their former careers behind to navigate the tropical waters, serving gluten-free, “made-from-scratch” pizzas with a “slow-fermentation New York style crust” to both locals and tourists.
Tara was responsible for designing, renovating, and constructing the boat on her own. In addition to utilizing wind power, the boat is also equipped with a Perkins 4.236 engine. A menu is displayed on the side of the boat, featuring options like Plain Jane, Mad Shroom, and Sweet Home pizzas, along with other offerings and prices. Custom pizzas are also available. While the boat doesn’t dock, there’s a window through which customers can place orders and make transactions with Pizza Pi, and the couple makes deliveries within the boundaries of Christmas Cove.
The idea for their unique business came from hunger. “We were sitting on a boat right here in Christmas Cove,” Sasha recalled, “watching the sunset, and I got hungry.” The abundance of tourists made Tara think a “pizza boat” could thrive, prompting her to begin renovating an old boat according to her vision, while Sasha focused on fixing the engine. The boat's termites contributed by devouring its “entire interior,” which left Tara with a “perfect blank slate.” To figure out how to build the boat and operate a restaurant, they turned to “tons of YouTubes,” Tara explained.
On a busy day, the couple manages to sell as many as 70 pizzas, along with alcoholic drinks and desserts. Tara has to kneel in the cramped galley just to toss the pizza dough. Their 22-month-old daughter, Fiona, plays the role of their public relations representative, interacting with customers who affectionately call her “Pizza Baby” while enjoying the family’s pizza.
4. Pizza-Loving Animals
Among pizza enthusiasts, there are some surprisingly furry fans. One such creature, known as “Pizza Rat” by New Yorkers, scavenges the subway stations of the city, picking up discarded slices of pizza. However, just having the pizza doesn’t guarantee it’s yours, as Pizza Rat often finds himself fending off other rats who want a bite. A memorable showdown, captured by a subway rider, shows Pizza Rat dragging a slice of pizza down the stairs into a restricted area, where two rival rats ambush him. A tug-of-war ensues, and it seems this time, Pizza Rat loses his slice.
Another pizza-loving animal took a different approach. This crafty fox, spotting an unattended van with its passenger-side door open, jumped into the vehicle, grabbed a slice of pizza, and quickly ran off with his prize, earning him the nickname “Pizza Fox.”
3. Enormous Pizza
The Dirt Road Cookers, a group of eight caterers located in San Antonio, Texas, joined forces to create the world’s largest pizza. The result was a 4.3-square-meter (46.6 ft), 45-kilogram (100 lb) pie with a 235-centimeter (92.5 in) diameter. Head chef Kurt Oefinger said that baking the pie was truly a team effort. He supervised. Another team member tended the fire. Two others prepared the toppings. Another pair worked on the pizza’s base. Two more supplied water to the other thirsty workers. “It gets hot,” Oefinger said.
It took the group an hour and 45 minutes to complete the task. It also took a year to build the necessary equipment to cook the pizza. Despite their efforts and some claims that the pizza was the largest ever made, Guinness World Records recognizes a much larger, 1,261.7-square-meter (13,580.3 ft) pizza made in Rome in 2012 as the record holder. The Dirt Road Cookers’ pizza would still be a daunting sight for even the most hardened eating contest veteran, however.
2. Pizza Art Exhibit
Oto Gillen crafted his pizza (shown above) using UV glass, mahogany, and screws, presenting it on a mat board. Meanwhile, John Freeman and Justin Lowe chose a single ingredient for their creation: papier-mâché, which, fittingly in French, translates to “chewed paper.”
Gillen, Freeman, and Lowe are among the artists who contributed to PIZZA TIME!, the inaugural exhibition at Manhattan’s Marlborough Broome Street Gallery, which showcased over 25 pizza-inspired artworks. Curator Vera Neykov described pizza as a “metaphor for community.” A food that’s “not too fussy,” it brings people together, she explained.
John Riepenhoff’s conceptual piece, Physical Pizza Networking Theory, was a 97-centimeter (38 in) pizza topped with smaller pizzas. This interactive exhibit, prepared by a local pizzeria, was devoured by visitors on the opening night. Riepenhoff referred to the piece as a “collage [that] address[es] the ontology of the social as material in art.” Other works on display included Michelle Devereux’s Caveman on Pizza and Dude on Pizza #6; Andrew Kuo’s Slice 8/23/13 and Piece/Peace, which depicted slices in “geometric shards and colorful smears”; and Will Boone’s Brothers Pizza, which captured the eerie effect of photocopying a pizza.
1. Pizza Farm
When Naomi Paley and Rachel Kraynick, a regional farm business management specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture in Yorkton, decided to create their pizza farm, they collaborated with several industry organizations, according to Kraynick. The farm is designed in a circular layout, divided into ten wedges, each dedicated to growing a specific pizza topping ingredient. These include onions, basil and oregano, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and other key components. Paley added that cheese, produced from cows' milk, is symbolized by a “slice” of pasture, while ham, sourced from pigs, occupies another “slice” of the farm’s pie.
Third- and fourth-grade students, already familiar with soils and plants, visit the farm for hands-on lessons about “the importance of technology in production,” plant nutrients, chemical use in agriculture, and environmental consciousness. Though concerns about herbicides, chemicals, and fertilizers exist, Paley explained, the farm’s “side-by-side slices” illustrate how these elements can enhance crop health and yield. The pizza farm also offers employment for Whitespruce residents serving sentences that include community service. During the summer, they help with tasks like watering and weeding the farm’s various “slices.”
