Pizza and burritos were invented in the USA. Can anybody dispute this with credible sources?

Question

Everybody thinks Pizza is from Italy and Burritos are from Mexico. I keep hearing people say there is no truly american food, but they were made here first. What does everbody got to say about that?

Only answers with sources will be considered for best answer

Answer 1

I don't know but I've read somewhere that pizza was already known in the Italian town of Gaeta during 997 AD. Please read the URL that I've given below:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/pizza.html

As for burittos, I guess you're right because this was believed to have originated "in the dusty borderlands between Tucson and Los Angeles". Here's the URL where I got this information.

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmexican.html#burritos

Answer 2

The theory that pizza was invented in the US is one of those urban myths that never dies. It is absolutely false. Italy, like other Mediterranean countries, has many types of flatbreads, of which pizza is just one. Pizza is a Neapolitan dish (i.e., from the city of Naples). The word "pizza" is etymologically related to "pita", which is not surprising, considering that Naples was once a Greek settlement. To the best of my knowledge, the first use of the word is from the 1700's, but that is not surprising since pizza is a dialect word (rather than mainstream Italian) and dialects were primarily spoken, not written. The fact that the word is derived from Greek (and not a recent scholarly Greek borrowing) suggests that it is quite old. There is also ample archaeological evidence that flatbreads were eaten in ancient times throughout Italy. (The tomato, of course, is a relatively recent introduction into Italian cuisine. It was brought in Italy in the early 16th century, but was not widely adopted until the 18th century.)

What may have happened is this: Italian immigrants, who were overwhelmingly from southern Italy (which includes Naples) brought pizza to the US. (Most Italian American food is actually southern Italian food.) Eventually, someone opened a pizzeria and popularized it in the US. When Italian Americans became more affluent and returned to Italy as tourists, they naturally asked for foods that they had grown up with and considered Italian, so they asked for pizza. Until fairly recently (the past 50 years), most Italians ate only their own local specialties and were unfamiliar with foods from other parts of Italy, so when Italian Americans asked for pizza in Rome, Florence, Venice, or other cities, Italians didn't know what they were talking about, and the myth that pizza was an American invention was born. Now, of course, you can find pizza everywhere in Italy, and throughout much of the rest of the world for that matter.

Burritos seem to have followed a similar pattern. They appear to be an evolution of a local dish common in northern Mexico that was brought to the US by migrants and became popular here. Mexican-American burritos may be different from the ones found in Mexico, but they derive from the Mexican ones and are not a new invention.

Answer 3

The pizza could have been invented by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, Romans, or anyone who learned the secret of mixing flour with water and heating it on a hot stone.
In one of its many forms, pizza has been a basic part of the Italian diet since the Stone Age. This earliest form of pizza was a crude bread that was baked beneath the stones of the fire. After cooking, it was seasoned with a variety of different toppings and used instead of plates and utensils to sop up broth or gravies. It is said that the idea of using bread as a plate came from the Greeks who ate flat round bread (plankuntos) baked with an assortment of toppings. It was eaten by the working man and his family because it was a thrifty and convenient food.

A burrito is a Mexican dish that comes from Juarez, Mexico. The name "burrito" comes from the Spanish diminutive of burro.
The most commonly served style of the burrito in the United States is thought to be indigenous and is not as common in Mexico. One very common enhancement is the Wet Burrito (known as an Enchirito when served at a Taco Bell restaurant), which is a burrito smothered in a red chile sauce similar to an enchilada sauce, with shredded cheese added on top so that the cheese melts. In Mexican-American cuisine, crispy fried burritos are called chimichangas

Answer 4

The fact is that Pizza as Americans know it is Neopolitan style. It came over from Naples, Italy in the late 1800s by the Lombardo family who settled in New York. They ran Lombardo's bakery on Mulberry Street and sold bread, pasteries, and pizza much like they do in southern Italy. In about 1905 they had built a coal oven and just starting selling pizza pies, because word got around it was do damn good. The main pie maker there was Patsy Grimaldi. They changed the bakery to Lombardi's and it is still there today, including the original oven.

Patsy eventually left in the 1930s and started Grimaldi's in Brooklyn. They've been competing for bragging rights in NYC ever since.

Answer 5

Pizza as we know and enjoy it was invented in New England of all places! In 1931, Frank Pepe immigrated to New Haven, Conn., where he created the first American pizza by baking tomato sauce and cheese on the top of flat round bread. His creation was so successful that he opened his own Pizzaria. By 1938, business was booming, the whole family was involved, and Pepe's nephew Sal Consiglio split off and opened his own pizzeria, called Sally's.

Burrito, meaning little burro or donkey, originated in America in 1934. It was sold at Los Angeles's famed El Cholo Spanish Cafe during the 1930s. Burritos entered Mexican-American cuisine throughout other parts of the Southwest U.S. around the 1950s and went nationwide a decade later.

So.. yeah! The good ol' U.S. made up, perfected and developed these staples we find so awesome today!!

Answer 6

Yes... Naples is the pizza capitol of the world!! Kevin D earlier came up with a great link... http://whatscookingamerica.net/history/p...
(which unfortunately was quoted by someone else as though it were their own... but there will always be plagerists!) The way that I heard it from my Italian born grandfather (from Capua, near Caserta, near Naples) and grandmother was very close to what anak sendu said 3 hours ago, "the term 'pizza' came from the late 19th century. sorry to say, but it originated in Italy! It means "pie" in Italian. the Italian immigrants brought pizza from their country to the states."


Unfortunately, what Melissa B said "actually pizza came from China and Marco Polo brought it back to Italy" was wrong also! That was another lie that was told about "pasta" for many years until someone discovered a recipe in an ancient trunk that included something about "maccheroni"... dated before good old Marco's trip to China. Another attempt to discredit the Italian culture!

Answer 7

Well, I'm not sure how long pizza has been in the states but we have a wonderful family friend who is about 85 and from Italy. She had pizza over there growing up I know because she says she was shocked to see Americans eat it with their hands once she moved here at 19. Over there it is eaten with a fork and knive as are candy bars and such.

Answer 8

Everybody is right or maybe wrong, Either Burritos or Pizza was made in Mexico and Italy respectively. american people just improved flavours and varieties. read and Learn, Did you know Bill Clinton was born in a oil field called Caripito in Venezuela? But he was your president.

Answer 9

Pizza was invented by the Greeks when they were on the run from the Romans and ran low on supplies. Rather than throw any scraps of food away, they cooked it on flat bread.. The Latins, being who they are, stole the Pizza along with the rest of Greek culture, took it back to Rome and claimed to have invented it.

Burrito is digger indian food. It was invented in, what is now America, but who gives a sh!t.

Answer 10

sorry pizza pie was created in Italy. as for burritos I would say Mexico because they always used burrito shells and they wrap them up so MEXICO IT IS.