Pizza, the people’s choice
Pizza is the perfect by-the-people-for-the-people food. But, to me, it is also a state of mind. I like to hear stories about foods that are not pricey but are made well and made with passion. Who makes them and why? How have they evolved? What can we learn from the food cultures of other places (and vice versa)? What makes for a good food choice? The answers to these questions, it turns out, seem to often hinge on love. Love of ingredients, flavours, textures and aromas. Maybe that childhood memory you had of someone baking/cooking? Like many foods imported from far away, pizza has retained its simplicity. But it has also changed and adapted to the times and to the diversity of people who make it and eat it. Some changes have been slight (but important): credit an Italian immigrant with growing the size of a pizza from individual to sharable pizza. It’s the perfect by-the-people-for-the-people food. Street vendors in Naples sold early pizza to the poor; Italians who immigrated, many of whom were factory workers, cooked their own pies at home, granny/nonna style, or purchased them from bakeries or street vendors; and today, despite skyrocketing prices of nearly everything (including many of our pizza choices), the pizza still remains a great food option in these lean times.
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