1.  Assumption & Dish

Growing up in Saigon, where the cost of a large-sized pizza is significantly higher than that of four typical Vietnamese meals for a four-member family, I thought pizza is a dish which only upper middle class can afford since it is expensive, and merely consumed on special or important occasions. Before learning the materials from this cluster course, I knew pizza was originated in Italy and later became popular in the United States, but I did not know it characterized the diet of the poor and working class in Naples or even New York City. I even assumed that every type of pizza was originally from Italy. After taking Eatalians with Daniela, I was so shocked when I found out ordering a pepperoni pizza in Italy will not yield the same results it will in America (it is actually spelled peperoni in Italian, which is known as bell peppers).

There are many varieties of pizza nowadays; from seafood in Japan, cream and bacon in France to pineapples in Hawaii, every region of the world has created a signature pizza flavor. However, the official variant is Neapolitan pizza, which is widely known as Pizza Margherita featuring red tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil, and extra-virgin olive oil.

Image: This Pizza Margherita is topped with tomato sauce (red), fresh mozzarella cheese (white), fresh basil (green), and extra-virgin olive oil. The colors of the toppings portray the colors of the Italian flag.

2.  Chemical Analysis

Pizza is a yeasted flatbread with its base components of whole-wheat flour, warm water, salt, and yeast. These ingredients are mixed together to form a dough, which is spread with a savory mixture including tomatoes, and cheese, and then baked in an oven. Unlike buckwheat or corn flour, whole-wheat flour contains two types of proteins: glutenin and gliadin. When the flour is mixed with water, and mechanically kneaded, these two proteins absorb water, and combine to form a tough, rubbery, and elastic substance known as gluten. The process of kneading the dough activates the protein, and create stronger gluten network, which give the dough a pleasantly chewy texture. In addition, yeast is also added in order to puff up the dough. Yeast enzymes break down the sugar found in wheat flour, and release carbon dioxide. Thanks to the gluten formation, these gases are trapped, which ultimately makes the pizza dough rise. This clarifies why people prefer to use whole-wheat instead of corn flour to make pizza as it has the highest protein content (meaning rich in gluten), which allows the dough to rise, and gives it its chewy, springy nature, or else it would just be a flat, dense, and hard pizza dough.

3.  Cultural analysis

It was surprising that pizza did not originate in the country for which it now becomes famous. Born in Italy yet evolved in the US, pizza was known as food for the lazzaroni (the poorest Neapolitan people) in the 16th century. Although it is one of the world’s popular foods, pizza is oddly difficult to define. In Pizza: The Global History, it is written by Dumas, a French author that “the poor and the working classes ate flatbread with various toppings for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.” [Helstosky, 7]. It was first started with the most inexpensive “white pizza – flatbread topped with garlic, lard and salt” [Helstosky, 21]. This implies pizza is not simply “a food of necessity”, but it also tells us about the Neapolitan society at that time. It depends on what ingredients were topped on the pizza, which can measure the social status of the people living in a specific area, “the health of the local economy”, and historical changes. Pizza is considered to be “the gastronomic thermometer of the market and therefore of Neapolitan society”. [Helstosky, 8].

After World War II, pizza’s popularity swept across the States since American soldiers returned from their deployment in Italy. The dish was gradually changed to fit American tastes. This is one of the reasons why Chicago deep dish or New York thin crust style pizza was born, which also means that “pizza lost some of its ethnic character” [Helstosky, 11]. From a cultural standpoint, pizza is an iconic food in Italy. However, evolved in the United States, pizza might even be considered as an iconic food even more so than in the land of its birth.

4.  Integration

From my observation, I see the connection between the rising dough due to gluten formation and the “rise” of pizza in the late 18th century. This American-style Italian dish plays a remarkable role in authentic Italian diet as well as American diet. Travelling from Italy to America, and now the rest of the world, appearing in different shapes and sizes, the chewy and thick or thin and crispy dough is still strong enough to support different kinds of sauce and lots of toppings, and powerful enough to make the world go round, and keep the poorest people alive. Pizza used to be food for the poor, a way for the working class to survive; however, the dish is still packed with necessary nutrients such as protein from anchovies, carbohydrates from the dough, and fat and calcium from the melted cheese. Maybe this explains why the pizza is truly appreciated and became so well-known all over the world due to the quality and cheapness of its ingredients, and essential vitamins and minerals for people’s bodies.