Interesting Pizza Facts

Pizza, one of America's favorite dishes that come from overseas after the war and had continued to grow into the multi-billion dollar industry that it is today. From pepperoni and sausage to green peppers and mushrooms, there are as many varieties as there are people.

According to Tony Roni's Pizza, during the sixteenth century, the Queen of Naples convinced her husband, the king, to allow a peasant pizza to be cooked in the royal ovens and in 1889 Pizza Chef (Pizzaiolo) Raffaele Esposito created a pizza for Queen Margherita which consisted of tomatoes, basil and cheese in honor of the Italian flag. This pizza is still on of the most popular pizzas today.

Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's across the country to little places, pizza has ingrained itself into our culture and we have made one of our own. This article gives ten little known bites of information for the pizza lover to ponder over their next slice, be it thin crust, hand tossed, pan or deep.

1. October is National Pizza Month in the United States. It was first started in 1987 and continued to be the traditional time for celebration of one of America's most important and popular food industries (Source: Pizza.net).

2. Americans eat about one hundred acres of pizza each day. That averages out to be three hundred and fifty slices per second (Source: Pizza.net).

3. Pizzerias represent seventeen percent of all restaurants in the United States (Source: Food Industry News).

4. Ninety-three percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month (Source: Bolla Wines).

5. 251,770,000 pounds of pepperoni are consumed each year on pizza alone, making it everyone's favorite topping. Extra cheese, sausage, green peppers and onions run a close second as favorite topping (Source: Pizza.net).

6. Sixty-two percent of pizza eaters prefer meat on their pizza while only thirty-eight percent prefer vegetarian (Source: Bolla Wines).

7. Barbecue pizza is the most pizza variation (Source: National Restaurant Association).

8. Most pizza is ordered during the evening news. And during the news, the weather segment is the most popular time and delivery drivers say that women give the larger tips (Source: Hungry Monster).

9. The first pizzeria was opened in 1905 in New York City on 53 ½ Spring Street, where it still can be found (Source: Hungry Monster).

10. On average, a person be them man, woman or child will consume 46 slices of pizza a year. That is almost twenty-three pounds per year per person (Source: Pizzaware.com).