How to eat a pizza 'correctly'?
- The Edible Science
- Mar 31, 2021
- 3 min read
Well, that can’t be right. Probably one would be wondering as to whether he/she read that question correctly or not. But yes, there it is. What is really the correct way of eating pizza? Most of the readers here love pizza (probably), including me. Who doesn’t want to relax with a hot slice of cheesy pizza? But, does there exist any other way of eating pizza rather than yes holding it in your hands and gobbling it down? Well, we’ll be finding the answer to that below.
For most of us, the straightforward method works well, holding a slice of pizza in hand and nibbling it down towards the end of the slice. However, it gets difficult to hold it in one hand as the slice becomes thicker and toppings increase in which case you might need a two-hand hold. According to Eataly, the most correct Italian way to eat pizza is by a fork and knife. Once the pizza is served to you, take out a slice of the pre-cut pizza, and get to work with your fork and knife starting with the triangular side of the hot pizza. One might consider it as an insult to the pizzaiolo (pizza maker) if you wait for it to cool down. Start eating bite-sized pieces of the slice until only a small cooled-down portion of the pizza may be left. Once there, one can pick that bite up and eat it with hands.
Photography by www.thenounproject.com
That’s one way of doing that. Otherwise, if you might be from someplace else, you might consider eating the pizza with your hands. ‘It’s not a steak, it’s a piece of pizza’ as quoted by Anthony Bruno, the founder of Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. He claims that the correct way to eat it is to fold it and have it, also known as the folding pizza, that works well with a thin slice of pizza with a lot of toppings. This prevents the burning of your chin by the hot cheese and also keeps your toppings on the ‘top’. But thinking out of the box is the norm now, right? So why can the pizza only be folded in out and not the other way round? So the inside-out folding method lets the toppings on the outside and the crust on the inside. This way of eating gives more flavor as your taste buds would hit the cheesy layer first. However, it is not feasible when the crust has a lot of loose toppings that are likely to fall. This method goes well with a cheesy pizza. One another interesting trend introduced by the Pizza Hut in the 1990s was to eat the crust first, but it never really got caught on. This method would surely make your hands greasy with all of the ‘cheese on your hands’.
Photography by www.sbs.com.au
That’s not all. Stefano Chirene, owner of one of the best pizzerias in Australia, Verace Pizzeria describes a true Neapolitan Pizza as 12-13 inches in diameter, cooked at 400 degrees for 90 seconds, being cooked to a soft, elastic, and easy to fold pizza. He says that the correct way to eat it would be to fold it, then again fold it in half, like a crepe. Then again, some non-traditionalists have pizza by stacking two slices together.
What do you think is the correct way of eating pizza? Which one would you support in the controversy?
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