Margherita Pizza Was Named After A Queen — Or Was It?

The Margherita is more than just a plain cheese pizza. It's strictly crust, San Marzano tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil. The concept of the modern pizza has been around for centuries, but one history dictates that it wasn't until the 19th century that the Margherita pizza was born, when Italian royals passed by a restaurant in Naples. After all, pizza tastes best in its home country.

According to legend, a Neapolitan chef named Raffaele Esposito was invited to the royal palace to prepare a dish for Italy's King Umberto I and his wife, Queen Margherita. Esposito prepared three different kinds of pizza, but the one consisting of basil, tomato, and mozzarella won the queen's heart — naturally, Esposito named the pizza after her. This story of the Margherita pizza makes for great local folklore, but there's no concrete evidence that the Margherita pizza was invented for and named after the queen. One theory is that the chef's nephews spun the myth for business. Another theory suggests the name comes from the floral shape of the pizza because "margherita" is the Italian word for daisy.

The reason so many people flocked to the royal myth is that, well, it sounds exciting. Italy was recognized as a unified, independent nation in 1861, so a story of a queen trying peasant food in the colors of the Italian flag boosted a sense of national pride. It's more likely that chef Raffaele Esposito's Pizzeria Brandi popularized the name "Margherita" for business without actually cooking for the queen. Pizza was a peasant food at the time, and it was just a simple dough cooked with a couple of toppings. Recipes for basil, tomato, and mozzarella pizza have been documented since 1866, before the timeline of the royal story, which took place in the 1880s.

Regardless of the truth, Margherita is the official name of the pizza we're discussing. Italians are so dedicated to preserving the recipe and ingredients that the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (True Neapolitan Pizza Association) was born to apply strict rules as to how a Margherita should be prepared. If you really want to pay homage, you can order a pizza directly from Naples or search the AVPN's database to find which restaurants in your city have the Neapolitan seal of approval. Thanks to dedication of chefs — and historians — we can always enjoy an authentic slice of Italian folklore.