Cookie Crumbles - Kids Corner | Did you know?
The Cookie Crumbles team not only loves to teach how to cook, we also love to tell you some interesting facts about some of our favourite foods.
FOOD
FACT
Pizza
The ancient Greeks were eating a type of dough pie thousands of years
ago.
They topped their pie with herbs, onions, garlic, and dates.
There weren't any tomatoes in ancient Greece. Tomatoes are native to Central, South, and southern North America, and were first brought to Europe in the early 16th century by Spanish explorers of the "New World." The earliest written reference of tomatoes in Europe was in 1544; the Italians called them pomi d'oro, or golden apples (since yellow tomatoes were the first variety).
It was many years before people would even eat a tomato because they thought tomatoes were poisonous.
By the late 1800s, Italians (especially in the city of Naples) started adding tomato on top of their yeast flat breads, and the pizza as we know it was born.
Gennaro Lombardo, back in 1905, is credited with opening the first pizzeria in New York City, but the popularity of pizza with Americans grew after World War II. American soldiers stationed in Italy during the war got a taste for pizza, and wanted to continue eating it when they returned home.