As far back as the year 1000, the Roman soldiers tasted PICEA and thought it lacked FOCUS (the Latin word for hearth). On a hearth, along with oil, herbs and cheese ... pizza was born.

The root word in Latin is PICEA, which describes the blackening of the crust caused by the fire underneath.

The modern precursor to what we call pizza occurred in pre-Renaissance Naples. Poor housewives had only flour, olive oil, lard, cheese and herbs with which to feed their families, so combining them in a tasty and delicious manner became the goal. All of Italy proclaimed the Neapolitan pies to be the best.

The most famous experiment of all was by a pizza maker named Raffaele Esposito, who received a royal summons to prepare a special pizza for Queen Margherita. You don't want to disappoint a Queen, you know what I'm saying? He decided to salute the colors of the Italian flag by adding white mozzarella to red tomato and green basil. It became so popular that it's still sold today. If you're a good and popular Queen like Margherita was, you can probably even get it free.