CUT THE RIBBON, MARGHERITA OF SAVOY

Posted on May 6, 2013 by admin

We know this can sound pretty kinky for a niche CUT THE RIBBON but Queen Margherita of Savoy deserves one! The reason is that she ate the very first, modern pizza! Pizza used to be considered a peasant’s meal in the past. For centuries, food historians agree that pizza like dishes were eaten by many peoples in the Mediterranean including the Greeks and Egyptians. However, the modern pizza has been attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito of Naples. In 1889, Esposito who owned a restaurant called the Pizzeria di Pietro baked what he called “pizza” especially for the visit of Italian King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. Boasting the three colors of the Italian flag, red (tomatoes), white (mozzarella cheese) and green (basil), the pizza was thus invented. The pizza`s birthday was due to a celebration and a parade that local aristocrats had organized for Queen Margherita’s arrival. Escorted in a coach, she had started a tour at the San Carlo opera house and snaked through the narrow streets of the old Spanish Quarter, stopped briefly in Pizza Plebiscito, next to the royal palace, and then ended up in front of the pizzeria, where the `Margherita` was invented. The Queen’s pleasure over the peasant dish was so high that a national delightful italian flavour was born. Since then, billions of people eat pizza. Wasn’t it a pleasent cut the ribbon? Hurray for Queen Margherita!