Cheesecake is believed to have originated in ancient Greece. History has the first recorded mention of cheesecake, as being served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 B.C. However, cheese making can be traced back as far as 2,000 B.C., anthropologists have found cheese molds dating back to that period. The Romans spread cheesecake from Greece to across Europe. Centuries later cheesecake appeared in America, the recipes brought over by immigrants. In 1872, cream cheese was invented by American dairymen, who were trying to recreate the French cheese, Neufchâtel. James L. Kraft invented pasteurized cheese in 1912, and that lead to the development of pasteurized Philadelphia cream cheese, the most popular cheese used for making cheesecake today.

New York cheesecake is the pure, undulated cheesecake with no fancy ingredients added either to the cheesecake or placed on top of it. It is made with pure cream cheese, cream, eggs, and sugar. Everybody has a certain image of New York Style Cheesecake. According to New Yorkers, only the great cheesecake makers are located in New York, and the great cheesecake connoisseurs are also in New York. In the 1900s, cheesecakes were very popular in New York. Every restaurant had their version. I believe the name New York Cheesecake came from the fact that New Yorkers referred to the cheesecakes made in New York as New York Cheesecake. New Yorkers say that cheesecake wasn't really cheesecake until it was cheesecake in New York.