In the

cuisine of the United States American cuisine consists of the cooking style and traditional dishes prepared in the United States. It has been significantly influenced by Europeans, indigenous Native Americans, Africans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and many other cultures an ...

, Greek pizza is a style of

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, on ...

crust and preparation where the pizza is proofed and cooked in a metal pan rather than stretched to order and baked on the floor of the pizza oven. A shallow pan is used, unlike the deep pans used in Sicilian,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, or

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

-styled pizzas. Its crust is typically spongy, airy, and light, like

focaccia Focaccia ( , , ; lij, fugassa ; nap, label= Barese, fecazze ) is a flat leavened oven-baked Italian bread, similar in style and texture to pizza; in some places, it is called ("white pizza"). Focaccia can be served as a side dish or as san ...

but not as thick. The crust is also rather oily, due to the coating of oil applied to the pan during preparation. In the United States, Greek-style pizza is common in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

and parts of eastern New York State.

History

Greek pizza was invented by Costas Kitsatis, aka Constantinos Kombouzis, aka "Charlie", a Greek from Albania, at his restaurant Pizza House that was located at 86 Truman St.

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

in 1955. His system consisted of preparing a full day's supply of crusts in 10-inch pans in the morning rather than tossing and stretching the dough to order. In Connecticut, by the 1980s, 40% of pizzerias were operated by Greeks. Donna R. Gabaccia, ''We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans'', 1998, , p. 197-199

References

{{Pizza in the United States Albanian-American culture Greek-American culture Pizza styles Pizza in the United States New England cuisine

History

See also

References