News about Peter Boizot

For anyone wanting Italian food in London today, there are hundreds of venues to choose from. From what was Little Italy in Clerkenwell to the hub of Italian venues in Soho, the capital is awash with outlets serving pasta, pizza and other dishes. The history of Italian food and culture in the capital stretches back to the 19th century, when immigrant ice cream sellers (bottom right, an ice cream seller in 1877) flogged their wares on poverty-stricken streets. London's oldest delicatessen, Terroni of Clerkenwell (top right), which opened during the reign of Queen Victoria, is still trading today. As is the iconic Soho establishment Bar Italia (left, and inset recently), which was set up in 1949 to serve good coffee and act as a social hub for the capital's Italian community.

This week, the discovery of a fresco on the wall of a house in Pompeii's Roman city gave a new twist to culinary history. According to scientists, the painting in the city that was destroyed by a Mount Vesuvius eruption just over 2,000 years ago depicts "an ancestor of the Italian pizza." But pizza as we know it appeared in Naples just 14 miles away in the 18th century as the poor of the city's poor discovered a way to eat cheaply and quickly while on the go (left, an Italian pizza vendor depicted in 1825). Flatbreads with various toppings that could be enjoyed for any meal were sold on the street, a tradition that modern Italian authors described as 'disgusting.' In 1889, when Italy's Queen Margherita (inset), visiting Naples with her husband King Umberto I enjoyed one topped simply with soft white cheese, tomatoes, and basil, which had been named in her honor. However, it was in America that pizza's ascension to world dominance began, when immigrant Neapolitans took their culinary skills with them in the early 20th century. The Lombardi's (top right), the New York pizza restaurant that opened in 1905, has long claimed to be America's first pizzeria, although the deep-dish version (bottom right, at Pizzeria Uno, Chicago) first appeared in Chicago in the 1940s.