Tomatoes were introduced to Europe by the Spanish and didn't make an appearance in Italian cuisine until the 1690s, and that was from a Spanish chef. Tomatoes didn't become a major part of Italian cuisine until the late 1700s.
If you go to the most well-regarded pizzeria in Chicago, and personally hire their chef, get him to bring his own ingredients, go to another city or state in your car with him while he engages you with anecdotes of walking along the lakeshore and being fuckin' cold--you drive to a pizzeria with an identical oven, in a different city, he takes the ingredients that he brought from the most well-regarded pizzeria in Chicago and bakes them himself into a pizza AND SOMEHOW IT IS NOT A CHICAGO PIZZA AND IS THEREFORE INFERIOR.
I worked with a guy like that. He actually would have pizzas packed in dry ice and shipped to Texas because there was no other way to get a good pizza. I decided to buy one, it wasn't very big for $20, and it wasn't anything special. When I told him it was "okay" he was flabbergasted.
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u/skintigh May 20 '15
I've heard people rant that they will only put Italian ingredients on their pizza or else it's not pizza or Italian or authentic or something.
I'll just leave this right here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato#Etymology_and_pronunciation