Originally published at: Birthplace of pizza puts the kibosh on Domino's | Boing Boing
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If only there had been some method of remotely ordering pizzas and then delivering them to people’s homes!
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Indeed! I was already giving that the side eye! Pizza is one of the traditional even pre-internet delivery foods! (or maybe only pre-home internet? I know the internet existed in the 1980s, but “nobody” had it at home, and pizza delivery…oh…started in the 1880s, ok, pizza deliver was pre-phone not pre-smartphone – wow).
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Yes, but this isn’t pizza, it’s Domino’s
ETA:
I originally said this facetiously, but I’m not so sure it isn’t true in this case. Doesn’t Italy have some legal restrictions on what you can call pizza?
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Around here, during the pandemic, Papa Johns was smart and had car-top signs for their delivery drivers. People at home during lockdown were watching those signs and taking down the number, I’ll bet.
I was never in the mood for mediocre pizza and I knew who the founder was. Nope.
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As an Italian, I’m of course an indisputable authority on the matter, and cannot deprive you all of my invaluable and definitive opinion.
/s, of course but…here it is anyhow!
<asbestos suit on>
While many compatriot will want to burn me at the stake, we Italians have only U.S.A. to thank for today’s (good) pizza ubiquity in Italy.
Pizza was just a street food in Naples until after WWII, when pizzerie were already a reality in the USA - of course manned by Italian immigrants.
There are letters of soldiers crossing from south to north Italy and lamenting that no one was selling pizza, later tourism pressure created a market opportunity.
So this “long, centuries” tradition is actually fairly recent in Italy - as, in fact, are many other Italian culinary cults traditions. My father (~85 yo) confirms that as a teen he just remember a single osteria selling pizza where he lived (large town in the north).
That said, Pizza Hut’s or Domino’s stuff is absolutely not to my taste, as I like the Roman variety of pizza, with extremely thin crust, no cornicione, a reasonable amount and content of topping - even this might cost me the ire of some self appointed purist.
<asbestos suit off>
Also, pineapple on pizza remains an abomination as the taste is totally discordant.
It’s not the sweetness in itself (one common and appreciated thing is slightly salty white pizza with Nutella…), but the bad contrast it brings to the already clashing acidities of pineapple and tomato and then you get cheese and and ham to complete the dadaist picture…
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But, isn’t pizza “kind of” like the chop suey (“miscellaneous leftovers”) of the western world? Generally, the same toppings, but if you veer off course nobody’s going to mind much? 
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Agreed on pineapple, it can work on a white pizza potentially though.
And despite the wording of the OP, there’s no such thing as “American” Pizza, (except that most people I know consider both Domino’s and Pizza Hut as a completely separate category from actual pizza). There’s at least a dozen regional styles within the US that are as different from each other as they are from Neopolitan pizza.
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As today I would say there’s no such thing as “Italian” pizza, given the wide regional variations, but if confronted with “American” and an “Italian” one I suspect everybody would be able to tell the difference (and if you prefer the American one, I’m not going to judge - OK, maybe a little bit).
As a matter of fact, one of the best pizza I had was in Sesto Pusteria (Sexten, in Südtirol - almost as far from Napoli as one can get, geographically, anthropologically and in cooking), with the usual mozzarella, tomatoes and a generous dose of fresh finferli.
Hmm, not that I know of, though I’m not an expert, I’m just pretending (and veering from the orthodox doctrine).
As said, yes, it existed, but as street food in Sicily and Naples, probably not even something you prepared at home.
EtA: probably, without tomato sauce!
The renaissance of pizza in Italy is mostly due to immigrants coming back from the USA - a big push given by tourism when the 50’s economic boom started losing impetus.
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Fair enough. I grew up on Long Island near NY and my dad and grandfather were wholesalers that supplied pizzerias and Italian restaurants, and my dad used to own a pizzeria before that. I have my opinions for sure. I have not yet been to Italy, so I can’t comment on that specifically, but just based on visual comparisons I can’t imagine disagreeing with you. I do have some clear preferences among some of the different American regional styles, as well as among the American takes on Italian regional styles I’ve seen.
Still, with such a high level of variation I don’t know that there can be so much a preference ordering as a what-I-want-depending-on-my-mood. With exceptions and limits, of course. There are some “pizza” chains so bad I can’t even be in the same room as because I hate the way they smell.
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Domino’s and Pizza Hut are Almost Pizza.
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[Puts on a teal wool scarf, approaches a table-sculpted basil plant in rubber planters and flips it. Five water drops spill before it rights itself.] I don’t even have to ask if you put the basil on before baking, forget it!
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I just noticed that the pattern detail on the toga says LC LC LC LC for Little Caesars
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Yeah, napolitan pizza is only recently become something you find everywhere, but the types of pizza you find around italy (al taglio, foccaccia, etc) do seem to have a bit more history, and are often the origin for a lot of the US styles of pizza…
Just checked, there are still Domino’s in Munich, so the Germans still are buying their stuff.
Me, I get my pizza from the sort of pizzeria that exists on the edge of the city, the kind with a name like Roma, Mamma Mia or Il Colosseo.
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I sometimes top my pizza with slices of banana, which I sprinkle with curry powder.
I’ll see myself out.
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