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Chicago-style pizza is
pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, ...
prepared according to several different styles developed in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, widely referred to simply as deep dish pizza due to its cooking style. The pan in which it is baked gives the pizza its characteristically high edge which provides ample space for large amounts of
cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During product ...
and a chunky
tomato sauce Tomato sauce (also known as '' salsa roja'' in Spanish or ''salsa di pomodoro'' in Italian) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish, rather than as a condiment. Tomato sauces are ...
. Chicago-style pizza may be prepared in deep-dish style and as a stuffed pizza.


Deep-dish

According to Tim Samuelson, Chicago's official cultural historian, there is not enough documentation to determine with certainty who invented Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. It is often reported that Chicago-style deep-dish pizza was invented at Pizzeria Uno in Chicago, in 1943,Who Cooked That Up?
by Uno's founder Ike Sewell. However, a 1956 article from the ''
Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...
'' asserts that Uno's original pizza chef Rudy Malnati developed the recipe, and Michele Mohr from the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' reports that the menu at
Rosati's Authentic Chicago Pizza Rosati's Authentic Chicago Pizza, doing business as Rosati's Pizza, is an American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Chicago-style pizza. Its headquarters is in Elgin, Illinois. There are more than 200 locations across the United St ...
has included deep-dish since it opened in 1926, according to the descendants of Saverio Rosati. File:Chicago-style pizza.jpg, A deep-dish pizza from California File:Chicago-style-pizza-03.jpg, Deep-dish pizza from Lou Malnati's


Stuffed pizza

By the mid-1970s, two Chicago chains,
Nancy's Pizza Chicago Franchise Systems, Inc. operates Italian-based Chicago-style restaurants in Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, and Missouri which specialize in Chicago-style cuisine. They have operated since 1990, when they took over the popular Nancy's ...
, founded by Rocco Palese, and Giordano's Pizzeria, operated by brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio, began experimenting with deep-dish pizza and created the stuffed pizza. Palese based his creation on his mother's recipe for ''scarcedda'', an Italian
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
pie from his hometown of
Potenza Potenza (, also , ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania). Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital and o ...
, more commonly known in Italy as pizza rustica Lucana.


Thin-crust pizza

There is also a style of thin-crust pizza found in Chicago and throughout the rest of the
Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. ...
. The crust is thin and firm enough to have a noticeable crunch, unlike a
New York-style pizza New York–style pizza is pizza made with a characteristically large hand-tossed thin crust, often sold in wide slices to go. The crust is thick and crisp only along its edge, yet soft, thin, and pliable enough beneath its toppings to be fol ...
. While in New York bakers who had immigrated from Italy made pizzas using the traditional method of tossing the dough by hand, the tavern owners who first developed Chicago's thin-crust pizza instead rolled their dough or used mechanical sheeters. This led to thinner crusts than those present in hand-tossed pizzas. This pizza is cut into squares, also known as "tavern-style" or "party cut", as opposed to wedges. The name "tavern-style" comes from the pizzas originally being served in taverns, often as an enticement to drink alcohol. This origin in taverns is also linked to the pizza's shape, as the square shape of the slices made it possible for taverns that did not have plates to instead set them on napkins. According to
GrubHub Grubhub Inc. is an American online and mobile prepared food ordering and delivery platform. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 2004, it is a subsidiary of the Dutch company Just Eat Takeaway since 2021. Grubhub has been crit ...
data and Chicago Pizza Tours, thin-crust outsells the more widely known deep-dish style among locals. Technomics food industry researcher Darren Tristano has questioned GrubHub's conclusion on the basis of the delivery service's user demographics, and NPR noted that the data would not include information on several deep-dish chains that are not on GrubHub.


Toppings

The typical toppings commonly found on pizzas in most of North America (i.e. sausage, pepperoni, onions, mushrooms, etc) are also standards in Chicago area pizzerias; however, a survey in 2013 indicated that while the most popular pizza topping in the rest of most of the United States, is pepperoni, in Chicago, the most popular topping is Italian sausage.


See also

* Pan pizza


References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago-Style Pizza Cuisine of Chicago Cuisine of the Midwestern United States Food and drink introduced in 1943 Pizza in the United States Pizza styles Stuffed dishes