Culinary heritage: pizza

Making pizza is an art. And recently, this art was finally recognised by UNESCO.

I used to watch open-mouthed as the pizza maker skillfully kept his dough in the air, for as long as it took to create an wafer-thin, round pizza base. A true art. We can tell you that this is still just as impressive a show today, and the UNESCO board thought so too. Recently, Neapolitan pizza was added to the United Nations’ intangible cultural heritage list.

UNESCO states that preparing pizza involves several elements, including tossing the dough in the air. The pizza must also be baked in a wood-fired stone oven at a temperature of 485 degrees Celsius. Finally, baking must not take longer than one and a half minutes.

Pizza pride

Naples is even prouder of its pizza, because pizza Margherita was first made in this city. It was named after the Italian Queen Margherita, who visited Naples and was served this pizza. The three ingredients—tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil—symbolise the colours of the Italian flag (red, white and green).