Pizza is a popular dish in America that consists of a baked crust, typically between twelve and twenty inches in diameter, topped with a combination of tomato sauce, vegetables, meats, and melted cheese.

Originally an open-face tomato pie, pizza had long been a simple, cheap, and popular "workingman's food" in Italy. Although the dish had been baked since ancient times, the term "pizza" (meaning, "to pluck") started appearing in Italian dictionaries in the 1850s. The quintessential pizza is said to have been created by a baker, Raffaele Esposito of Naples, for the 1889 visit of the reigning king and queen of Italy. Inspired by patriotism, Esposito incorporated Italy's national colors into his creation—tomatoes for red, mozzarella cheese for white, and basil for green—establishing what would become the basic ingredients for the pizza. At the turn of the century Italian immigrants brought pizza to the United States, and...