1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:05,599 There is nothing quite like pizza. The variety is endless, the experience is 2 00:00:05,639 --> 00:00:09,359 magical, the taste is delicious, and they can be found in almost every 3 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:13,679 single country on Earth, with any number of local variations. Now, we 4 00:00:13,759 --> 00:00:17,480 all know the controversy that surrounds certain toppings, and quite frankly, I am 5 00:00:17,559 --> 00:00:21,519 squarely on the side of those who believe that pineapple does not belong on a 6 00:00:21,559 --> 00:00:24,839 pizza. I mean, you don't see me going around adding chicken wings to 7 00:00:24,839 --> 00:00:28,839 a fruit salad. But I digress. I mean, you're welcome to come 8 00:00:28,839 --> 00:00:31,800 and tell me that I'm wrong over on Twitter at Nick Charlie Key or at 9 00:00:31,839 --> 00:00:35,359 Food History Pod. I'll happily debate this with you, but it would take 10 00:00:35,359 --> 00:00:38,719 something special to get me to change my mind. Anyway, back to the 11 00:00:38,759 --> 00:00:42,799 matter at hand, pizza's. Now, I've been lucky enough to have tried 12 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:47,240 authentic Italian pizza in almost every Italian city that I visited, and they really 13 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:51,600 do live up to the hype, which makes today's story all the sadder when 14 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:55,600 we find out that, from their humble Italian origins, fifty thousand of these 15 00:00:55,640 --> 00:01:00,679 delicious delicacies were once condemned to a mass burial in Michigan and even US pineapple 16 00:01:00,719 --> 00:01:04,760 haters can put aside our differences in the face of this culinary tragedy. But 17 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:10,280 for now, let's see what possibly could have led to this most awful of 18 00:01:10,359 --> 00:01:19,719 outcomes. Welcome to the fantastic history of food. Strange but true stories from 19 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:25,640 history that in some way involve food. I'm your host, Nick Charlie Key. 20 00:01:36,519 --> 00:01:38,239 When you start digging into the history of pizza, it can take you 21 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:44,480 way back in time, almost seven thousand years in fact, some French and 22 00:01:44,519 --> 00:01:49,400 Italian archaeologists have discovered flatbreads similar in function to pizzas from that time period on 23 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:55,000 the Italian island of Sardinia. But this island is not the only place in 24 00:01:55,040 --> 00:02:00,280 which history records foods similar to pizza having been made. People have been topping 25 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,840 flatbreads with herbs, spices, and other toppings all throughout ancient history, and 26 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:08,520 possibly one of the coolest and definitely the most badass ancient recipe for pizza comes 27 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:13,439 to us from Persia. Now, I know you may be picturing someone in 28 00:02:13,439 --> 00:02:16,199 a little tavern kneading the dough and prepping it for cooking in a big fireplace, 29 00:02:16,639 --> 00:02:21,800 but I'm afraid to tell you you couldn't be more wrong. This Persian 30 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:25,719 pizza was cooked by none other than the Persian soldiers fighting for Emperor Darius the 31 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:30,400 Great on the front lines of his European and Asian conquests. And to make 32 00:02:30,439 --> 00:02:36,000 it even more hardcore, these soldiers would cook these flatbreads right on top of 33 00:02:36,039 --> 00:02:39,120 their metal shields. They would prepare the dough, top it with cheese and 34 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:44,280 dates, two ingredients readily in supply in a soldier's rations, and once it 35 00:02:44,319 --> 00:02:46,280 was ready for cooking, they would light a fire. When the coals were 36 00:02:46,319 --> 00:02:51,599 hot enough, spread them out evenly across the ground, placed the uncooked flatbread 37 00:02:51,599 --> 00:02:53,719 on top of their metal shield, and then lay it down across the coals 38 00:02:53,759 --> 00:02:59,479 to cook like some sort of rock and roll frying pan. The Greeks would 39 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:02,560 also go on to create their own version of this topped flatbread, called placus, 40 00:03:02,599 --> 00:03:07,199 by adding herbs, onions, cheese and garlic, and what is probably 41 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:09,800 the closest iteration we have to what we know today. As for Katia, 42 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:15,759 there even mentions of a pizza like food in Virgil's poem that Enid, written 43 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:20,719 around nineteen BC. If you look hard enough, there are basic examples of 44 00:03:20,759 --> 00:03:24,879 precursor dishes in almost every ancient society, from Roman soldiers adding cheese and olive 45 00:03:24,879 --> 00:03:30,520 oil to matsa two thousand years ago to a Chinese wheat flower street food flattened 46 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:35,280 into a disc and known as bing. India had the perata, Southeast Asia 47 00:03:35,319 --> 00:03:38,719 had the narn and the roti, pitta bread and grease, and lapincha in 48 00:03:38,759 --> 00:03:43,319 the Balkans, flumcucan in the French Alsas regions, and even earlier forms of 49 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:46,919 the modern day kiche. But the first food to actually be called the pizza 50 00:03:47,159 --> 00:03:53,000 was in sixteenth century Naples. The city had originally been founded around six hundred 51 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:57,280 BC as a Greek settlement, but along the way would change hands between them 52 00:03:57,439 --> 00:04:00,919 the Spanish and the Italians at varying times throughout the ages. By the seventeen 53 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:05,680 hundreds it had developed into a bustling waterfront city with a thriving trade sector. 54 00:04:06,199 --> 00:04:11,719 But as with all major cities, there will unfortunately always be a large number 55 00:04:11,719 --> 00:04:15,360 of poor workers doing the menial day to day jobs that are needed in a 56 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:18,439 city of that size, and Naples was no different. And the closer you 57 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:23,519 got to the bay itself, the more crowded the population became. So much 58 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:27,560 so that many people spent most of their time outside in the streets and only 59 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:30,800 went into their homes to find a place to sleep for the night. This 60 00:04:30,879 --> 00:04:33,839 meant that street food stalls became the de facto way to consume your meals, 61 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:39,720 and these meals also needed to be inexpensive, able to be eaten quickly and 62 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:44,079 on the move, and most importantly, without the luxury of cutlery. This 63 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:48,199 also just happens to be the perfect description of a pizza. It was originally 64 00:04:48,199 --> 00:04:53,079 a flatbread with a texture more closely aligned to a flaky pie crust than the 65 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:57,319 modern version of pizza we know, and while it was mainly only consumed by 66 00:04:57,319 --> 00:05:00,800 the lower and working classes, it began to grow into more mainstream popularity when 67 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:05,560 the Spanish brought back the tomato from the Americas. Naples and Sicily were at 68 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:09,680 this point a part of the Spanish Empire, and so they were one of 69 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:13,519 the first to take hold of these new world treasures as they arrived back into 70 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:28,920 Europe. Fast forward a few hundred years and we see an account from famed 71 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:31,920 author Alexander Dumar, who tells the origin story of one of the world's most 72 00:05:31,959 --> 00:05:36,560 famous pizzas on the eleventh of June eighteen eighty nine, a pizza maker from 73 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:42,360 the city of Naples known as Raffaeli Esposito created a pizza in honor of the 74 00:05:42,439 --> 00:05:46,360 Queen of Italy. Now he wanted it to be somewhat patriotic, and so 75 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:49,680 he decided to recreate the colors of the Italian flag in the toppings of his 76 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:55,920 pizza. This was simple enough, the tomato base for the red, balls 77 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:59,639 of mozzarella for the white, and a liberal array of basil leaves for the 78 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,079 green. The only thing left to do was to name the pizza, and 79 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:06,279 seeing as it was in honor of the Queen, it made sense to name 80 00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:12,680 it after her, Queen Margherita. Even with the Queen's blessing, it still 81 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,040 took almost another fifty years before pizza began to spread out from its southern Italian 82 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:21,040 roots. Much of this outward expansion was thanks to a large proportion of Neapolitan 83 00:06:21,079 --> 00:06:26,879 Italians moving to America for factory work and taking their pizza making traditions along with 84 00:06:26,959 --> 00:06:31,519 them. The traditions and evolution of pizza have grown to almost mythical proportions since 85 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:36,519 then. A council was founded in Naples designating a particular method and a strict 86 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:41,439 set of rules for pizza making. For it to be called an authentic Neapolitan 87 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:45,879 style pizza, it must be needed by hand only, no rolling pins or 88 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,160 mechanical intervention. It must be no wider than thirty five centimeters in diameter, 89 00:06:49,439 --> 00:06:53,680 and it must not be thicker than one third of a centimeter in the middle. 90 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:58,720 It must only be cooked in a special domed brick oven and heated only 91 00:06:58,759 --> 00:07:01,720 by a wood fire. There are even some pizzerias in Naples that have an 92 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:05,879 even stricter standard by which they are allowed to make their pizzas. For them 93 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:11,000 only the use of San Marzano tomatoes grown on the slopes of Mount Forsuvius is 94 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:14,839 allowed for their tomato base, and when drizzling the olive oil on top, 95 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:18,720 it must be done in a clockwise direction only. As its popularity continued to 96 00:07:18,759 --> 00:07:24,279 grow into other countries around the world, pizza reas began experimenting with different toppings, 97 00:07:24,639 --> 00:07:28,319 and it was in nineteen sixty two that the most fateful of all pizza 98 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:33,519 related innovations was first experimented with a restaurateur by the name of sam Panopolis from 99 00:07:33,519 --> 00:07:39,600 the satellite restaurant in chattam Ontario is credited as being the first person to put 100 00:07:39,639 --> 00:07:44,040 pineapple chunks on a pizza. And you know, from a Canadian usually such 101 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:47,079 a peace loving people, this really does come across as an unprecedented act of 102 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:51,279 aggression. But the damage has been done and all we can do is move 103 00:07:51,319 --> 00:07:57,000 on. In all seriousness, even this travesty is not the darkest day in 104 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:01,199 pizza history. No, that unfortunate time belongs to the state of Michigan in 105 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:11,519 the year nineteen seventy three. One of today's sponsors is Athletic Greens. So 106 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:16,319 what is Athletic Greens. Well, with one delicious scoop of Athletic Greens, 107 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:20,839 you're absorbing seventy five high quality vitamins, minerals, whole food sourced superfoods, 108 00:08:22,079 --> 00:08:26,839 probiotics and adaptogens to help you start your day right. This special blend of 109 00:08:26,959 --> 00:08:31,039 ingredients supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your 110 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:35,879 energy, your recovery, your focus and aging. And best of all, 111 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:41,639 it's lifestyle friendly. So whether you follow aquito, paleo, vegan, dairy 112 00:08:41,639 --> 00:08:46,720 free or gluten free diet, Athletic Greens fits into all of them. 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To 120 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,720 make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one year 121 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:26,960 supply of immune supporting Vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. 122 00:09:28,279 --> 00:09:33,399 All you have to do is visit Athletic Greens dot com slash emerging again 123 00:09:33,639 --> 00:09:37,639 that's Athletic Greens dot com slash E M E R G I n G to 124 00:09:37,759 --> 00:09:46,159 take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional Insurance. Yes 125 00:09:46,639 --> 00:10:01,879 present, Yes hi there, I'm your host fand are you ready for a 126 00:10:01,919 --> 00:10:05,919 second season of Just Cheesy The Podcast? Do you want to learn a little 127 00:10:05,919 --> 00:10:09,320 bit about cheese history? Do you want to find out about the latest cheese 128 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:13,519 holidays. Yeah, do you want to hear about some cheese news? Why 129 00:10:13,639 --> 00:10:18,919 is cheddar the most dangerous of all the cheeses? Wow? Because it's very 130 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:37,919 sure. Join us for just cheesing the podcast. It was January of that 131 00:10:37,039 --> 00:10:41,440 year and over in Ohio, employees at the United Canning Company we're doing a 132 00:10:41,559 --> 00:10:46,559 routine inspection of their stock when they began to notice that a large number of 133 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:50,519 their canned mushrooms had begun to swell. Now, I'm sure all of us 134 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:54,120 know through our own experiences that swollen cans of anything is never a good sign, 135 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:58,080 and once these particular ones were sent for testing, it soon revealed that 136 00:10:58,159 --> 00:11:05,120 these mushrooms were full of a particularly nasty bacteria known as Clostridium bochulinum, which, 137 00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:09,000 if ingested, causes all your muscles to seize up, stop working, 138 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:13,480 low blood pressure, and in extreme cases, even death. The Food and 139 00:11:13,559 --> 00:11:16,960 Drug Administration was alerted and there immediately pulled any of the remaining cans off the 140 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:20,360 shelves in the stores, but then had the hard task of trying to follow 141 00:11:20,399 --> 00:11:24,879 the supply chain for the rest of these products. A vast number of pre 142 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:28,799 prepared food companies used the mushrooms from United Canning, including most notably for this 143 00:11:28,919 --> 00:11:35,279 story, a man named Mario Fabrini, the owner of Papa Fabrini's Frozen Pizzas 144 00:11:35,519 --> 00:11:37,960 now. Fabrini himself was an immigrant to the United States and was one of 145 00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:41,279 the people I mentioned earlier who had brought pizza culture with him to his new 146 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:46,000 home. He and his family had fled Italy during World War Two to escape 147 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:50,080 fascism and for the promise of a better life. Once he arrived in the 148 00:11:50,159 --> 00:11:54,320 US, he decided to take his family's pizza recipe and adapt it for American 149 00:11:54,360 --> 00:12:00,279 palettes. Part of this decision was the inclusion of mushrooms onto his pizza. 150 00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:03,440 When he got a call from the FDA about the problem with United Canning's mushrooms, 151 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:07,879 he feared the worst. He immediately stopped his shipments and he sent samples 152 00:12:07,919 --> 00:12:11,919 of his mushroom pizzas for testing. Slices of his pizza were given to some 153 00:12:13,039 --> 00:12:16,679 mice in the FDA lab who ate the pizza with gusto and impromptly fell down 154 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:22,639 dead. Fabrini immediately recalled his pizzas from local restaurants and grocery stores, even 155 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:28,000 driving to some himself to collect them, but it seems a few may have 156 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:31,440 slipped through the net, as seventeen individuals reported falling ill after eating his pizzas. 157 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:37,320 There is some speculation, however, that those seventeen cases were all fabricated 158 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:41,240 by his biggest competitor as a method to discredit him. But Fabrini was a 159 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:45,039 much loved member of his community, and they rallied around him in his biggest 160 00:12:45,039 --> 00:12:48,799 time of need. His neighbors offered to put up cash for him as bankruptcy 161 00:12:48,879 --> 00:12:52,600 loomed, and the local priest led prayers for him at the Sunday church meeting. 162 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:56,000 For Fabrini, there was only one option left to him. He would 163 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:09,600 hold a funeral for all fifty thousand of his Belo pizzas. So on the 164 00:13:09,639 --> 00:13:13,480 fifth of March nineteen seventy three, dozens of people headed out to a farm 165 00:13:13,519 --> 00:13:16,840 in Ossenique, Michigan, to witness the burial of tens of thousands of frozen, 166 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:22,120 family sized mushroom pizzas. Even the Governor of Michigan was in attendance and 167 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:28,399 gave a short speech about having courage in the face of tragedy. Now there's 168 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:31,919 no record of this whatsoever, but I like to imagine that as he stopped 169 00:13:31,919 --> 00:13:35,519 speaking, a bagpipe began playing, as soldiers raised their rifles and fired off 170 00:13:35,519 --> 00:13:41,480 at twenty one gun salute. As the bulldozers closed in an enormous eighteen foot 171 00:13:41,559 --> 00:13:46,679 deep hole had been dug the day before, and the bulldozers made light work 172 00:13:46,799 --> 00:13:50,919 of pushing the towering mountains of pizza into the hole. The owner of the 173 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:56,120 farm, clearly oblivious to the long term hazards of plastic, said, from 174 00:13:56,159 --> 00:14:01,399 next fall onwards there will be nothing left but cellophane. And as the bulldozers 175 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:05,080 finished their job filling in the hole with dirt, Mario Fabrini walked up solemnly 176 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:09,360 to the mound to pay his last respects. He had two flowers in his 177 00:14:09,399 --> 00:14:15,080 hands, which he laid atop the dirt, a red cladioli flower to represent 178 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:18,679 the red of his tomato bases, and a white carnation to represent the white 179 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:24,799 of his mozzarella cheese. Then he turned to the crowd and announced that he 180 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:28,559 had catered pizzas for all of them right there and then, and these ones, 181 00:14:28,639 --> 00:14:33,120 presumably free of any deadly bacteria. In an even more tragic twist in 182 00:14:33,159 --> 00:14:35,559 this tale, just a few weeks later it was discovered that, unknown to 183 00:14:35,679 --> 00:14:39,879 him, his pizzas had actually been safe to eat all along. He had 184 00:14:39,879 --> 00:14:43,960 not received any of the tainted batch of mushrooms to begin with, and the 185 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:48,080 mice that had died in the FDA lab had apparently died of some other different 186 00:14:48,159 --> 00:14:52,200 mouse related illness. According to their autopsies. Fabrini would take a massive hit 187 00:14:52,279 --> 00:14:56,360 financially and would then lose even more money in the years following as he would 188 00:14:56,360 --> 00:15:01,679 have to change his production line as people last faith in ushrooms. But in 189 00:15:01,759 --> 00:15:05,679 the end his business would grow back to its former glory, partly thanks to 190 00:15:05,679 --> 00:15:09,440 a court victory that Fbrini one after suing the United Canning Company for damages to 191 00:15:09,519 --> 00:15:15,600 the tune of a million dollars. Maybe those strict Neapolitan pizzerias are right, 192 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:18,720 because, if anything, this tale speaks to the benefits of only using fresh 193 00:15:18,879 --> 00:15:26,440 ingredients where possible in all of our cooking. Oh and of course no pineapples. 194 00:15:35,799 --> 00:15:39,159 Thank you for listening to this episode of the Fantastic History of Food. 195 00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:43,159 If you'd like to get in touch, you can find us on Twitter at 196 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:48,279 Food History Pod. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd really appreciate you taking 197 00:15:48,279 --> 00:15:52,080 a moment to rate the show on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you listen on, 198 00:15:52,399 --> 00:15:56,080 and if you can leave a review as well. I also have a 199 00:15:56,120 --> 00:16:00,480 Patreon account where you can support the show and get access to exclusive content, 200 00:16:00,799 --> 00:16:04,080 bonus episodes, and even the chance to choose the topic for an upcoming episode. 201 00:16:04,559 --> 00:16:10,240 But all of this is only for our Patreon subscribers. Everyone who donates 202 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:14,720 or subscribes will also get a personal shout out from me on an upcoming episode. 203 00:16:15,399 --> 00:16:18,600 Check in our website where you can find transcripts, show notes, and 204 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:32,360 references for each and every episode at food History podcast dot com.