Everybody loves a pizza whether it’s paper-thin and chargrilled or thick and crusty. As this infographic shows, pizzas are as different as the people who eat them. From Asia to the US, Australia to Europe each area has added its own favorite toppings. The one ingredient that is common to every pizza around the world is cheese. Perhaps with one exception, the desert pizza, commonly eaten in Brazil.
Pizza started as a humble meal enjoyed by the poorer people in sixteenth-century Naples. Poor parents placed slices of tomato upon dough and covered it with cheese to make a quick, cheap meal for the family. Today it’s enjoyed by rich and poor from across the globe.
Pizza didn’t become popular in the United States until after World War II. Returning soldiers had learned to appreciate the meal while stationed in Italy and so the idea was exported home. Today there are more than 9,000 pizzerias in New York state alone and 70,000 across the United States. This is likely the reason that the United States has a broad range of localized pizza. Still, if you’re looking for something more exotic like smoked reindeer, kangaroo, emu, or crocodile on your pizza, you may have to look further afield.