Celebrating a Delicious Slice of History With National Pizza Day
Ah, the true love of so many: the pizza pie. As the legendary story goes, there was a chef who belonged to the royal family of the Queen of Italy back in the 1800s. The chef had the hots for the Queen and he wanted to get her attention.
This chef created a round flatbread and adorned it with the Queen's favorite toppings like tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. The chef then named his new recipe in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy, calling his creation the "Pizza Margherita", and thus the pizza was born.
Whether or not this long-ago story is fully accurate, I got curious as to how many different ways there are to make a pizza. First, there's the base or the foundation of where the pizza begins - that incredible crust. Could be thin crust, regular crust, thick crust, Chicago style, or a deep dish.
Then there are all the toppings. The basic toppings that are offered by many pizza places are cheese, pepperoni, beef, Canadian bacon, and sausage.
However, when I checked in with my favorite pizza maker Shane Potter, the owner of Potter's Pizza (and son of Potter's Pizza founder Henry Potter), I discovered there are a lot more pizza toppings than I initially thought.
These are "toppings" you can add to a pizza:
- Pepperoni
- Italian Sausage
- Pork Sausage
- Canadian Bacon
- Beef
- Bacon (breakfast kind)
- Philly Steak
- Texas Brisket
- Chicken
- Mushroom
- Pineapple (highly disputed)
- Cheddar Cheese
- Spinach
- Bell pepper
- Banana pepper
- Green Chili
- Jalapeno
- Onion
- Green or Black Olives
- Broccoli
And let us not forget about my infamous "All-American Hot Dog Pizza" that I created with help from Shane. Truth be known, my wife Donna and Mrs Victoria Potter (Shane's wife) are not hot dog fans at all. However, they both fell in love with my Hot Dog Pizza, as you'll see in the video below.
So go buy or make your favorite pizza and celebrate National Pizza Day (Feb 9) with a slice or two of pie.