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Happy Birthday, Dear Pizza

Posted by Adam Kuban, October 10, 2005 at 9:30 AM

As you may be aware, pizza as we know it in the United States is celebrating its centennial this year. The first licensed pizzeria in the country was Lombardi's, whose pizzaiolo-proprietor, Gennaro Lombardi, hung out his slice shingle in 1905 on Spring Street. This factoid did not go unnoticed by CBS News, which brings the noise with a piece on our favorite food's birthday:

Chef Bobby Flay, a contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning, recently took a stroll with his fellow New Yorker, Ed Levine, a food critic and author of Pizza: A Slice of Heaven: The Ultimate Pizza Guide and Companion (available at amazon.com), a new guide to buying and baking pizza — a book, he says, that was more than 1,000 slices in-the-making.

Of course, as they walked, they ate — guess what? — pizza! As Levine says: "It's one of the great walking lunches."

During their pizza tour, Flay and Levine hit Totonno's, where they talked to Lawrence Cimineri:

Flay: "So for 81 years, same store, same oven?"

Cimineri: "Same oven, same store, same equipment, even."

Flay: "Same pizza?"

Cimineri: "And pizza."

Flay: "What's the secret to your pizza? Why is it —

Cimineri: "Well, if it's a secret I can't tell you."

Flay: "It is a secret?"

Cimineri: "It's really not. Just fresh ingredients. Really high-quality ingredients in a coal oven."

Happy 100th Birthday, Pizza! [CBS News]

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