Profs & Pints Denver: The History of Pizza

Profs and Pints Denver presents: “The History of Pizza,” on the centuries-long rise of a beloved food and the forces that delivered it from Italy throughout the world, with Carol Helstosky, professor of history at the University of Denver, scholar of the histories of food and of modern Italy, and author of Pizza: A Global History.

[Doors open at 5 pm and the talk begins at 6:30.] 

Pizza in roughly the form we know it today started as an inexpensive and filling meal for sailors and dock workers in eighteenth-century Naples, Italy. Visitors to the city regarded the pizza they encountered there as disgusting, but slowly and steadily pizza rose to become one of the world’s most popular foods, with chefs and consumers alike putting original spins on it. 

How did such a humble food come to be eaten and loved everywhere? Get the answers served up to you one fascinating slice of history at a time by Dr. Carol Helstosky, the editor of The Routledge History of Food and an author whose books include Food Culture in the Mediterranean and Garlic and Oil: Food and Politics in Modern Italy.

We’ll start by looking at pizza’s “origin myths,” debunking many of them. 

From there, Professor Helstosky will take you on a culinary journey through space and time from old Italy to the United States and then on to far corners of the globe. We’ll explore pizza's incredible success in a variety of geographic contexts, and you’ll learn about those individuals and communities who sometimes intentionally and sometimes unwittingly contributed to pizza’s popularity. You’ll get to know figures like Queen Margherita, for whom Pizza Margherita was named. 

We’ll look at how and why pizza surged in popularity in the United States after World War II, and we’ll examine the origin stories of major U.S. pizza chains and the roles those chains played in spreading pizza around the world. 

For pizza and history lovers, it will be a talk with everything. Woodie Fisher Kitchen & Bar has on its menu great pizzas to give you a taste for what you’ll learn. (Advance tickets $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with student ID.)

Image: An 1858 illustration of a pizzaiolo selling his wares (British Library / public domain).

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Host or Publisher peter schmidt