Pizza arrived in the United States in the early 20th century along with waves of Italian immigrants who settled primarily in the larger cities of the Northeast, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore. After American soldiers stationed in Italy returned from World War II, pizza and pizzerias rapidly grew in popularity. During the latter half of the 20th century, pizza became an iconic food with considerable acceptance in the United States. Numerous regional variations have evolved, with many bearing only a casual resemblance to the Italian original. Pizza is a popular item produced by many small restaurants as well as several large pizza restaurant chains. The United States pizza restaurant industry was worth $37 billion in 2015.

History

The first pizzeria in the U.S., Lombardi's, opened in New York City's Little Italy in 1905, producing a Neapolitan-style pizza. The word "pizza" was borrowed into English in the 1930s; before it became well known, pizza was generally called "tomato pie" by English speakers. Some regional pizza variations still use the name tomato pie. Distinct regional types developed in the 20th century, including Buffalo, California, Chicago, Detroit, Greek, New Haven, New York, and St. Louis styles. These regional variations include deep-dish, stuffed, pockets, turnovers, rolls, and pizza-on-a-stick, each with several combinations of sauce and toppings. Thirteen percent of the United States population consumes pizza on any given day. Tens of thousands of pizzerias, food stands, chains such as Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Little Caesars, pies from take and bake shops, and chilled or frozen pizzas from supermarkets make pizza readily available both to diners and at-home consumers nationwide.

Ingredients

Common toppings for pizza in the United States include pepperoni, sausage, salami, ground beef, ham, bacon, olives, mushrooms, onions, peppers, anchovies, chicken, tomatoes, spinach, and pineapple. American pizza (particularly thin-crust) is made with a very high-gluten flour (often 13–14% protein content) of the type also used to make bagels; this allows the dough to be stretched thinly and thrown vigorously without tearing. Unlike Italian pizza, American pizza often has vegetable oil or shortening mixed into the dough. This can range from a small amount in relatively lean doughs, such as New York–style, to a very large amount in some recipes for Chicago-style deep-dish dough. While tomato sauce is virtually ubiquitous, variations such as white pizza omit it while others replace it with garlic and olive oil or sauces made from other vegetables such as pesto. The most common cheese used on US pizzas is mozzarella. Other popular cheeses include:

Variations