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who made pizza

Pizza doesn’t have a single clear “inventor,” but the modern pizza we think of today was shaped in 18th–19th century Naples, Italy, especially by bakers like Raffaele Esposito, who’s often credited in legend for creating the classic Margherita pizza for Queen Margherita in 1889.

Quick Scoop: Who Made Pizza?

If you’re asking “who made pizza,” you’re stepping into a story that’s more evolution than single eureka moment.

  • Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans ate flatbreads with toppings long before “pizza” existed as a word.
  • The word “pizza” appears in Italian records as early as the 10th century, but those early “pizze” were simple flatbreads.
  • In the 1700s–1800s, poor workers in Naples popularized topped flatbreads that start to look a lot like today’s pizza.
  • Around 1889, Neapolitan baker Raffaele Esposito is said to have baked a pizza with tomato, mozzarella, and basil to honor Queen Margherita of Savoy, inspiring the famous “pizza Margherita.”

So, if you want a short answer:

No single person “made pizza” from scratch, but Neapolitan bakers created modern pizza, and Raffaele Esposito is often named as the inventor of the classic Margherita style.

Mini Timeline of Pizza’s Creation

  1. Ancient flatbreads
    • Civilizations around the Mediterranean baked round flatbreads topped with oils, herbs, and sometimes other ingredients.
  1. Medieval and early Italian “pizza”
    • The term “pizza” appears in documents from southern Italy by the late first millennium, referring to simple, rustic breads.
  1. Naples in the 1700s–1800s
    • Naples becomes crowded and poor, and street vendors sell cheap, hot, topped flatbreads to workers—proto-pizzas.
  1. Esposito and the royal pizza (1889)
    • Raffaele Esposito bakes three pizzas for King Umberto I and Queen Margherita.
    • The queen reportedly loves the one with tomato, mozzarella, and basil, and it gets associated with her name.
  1. From Naples to the world
    • Italian immigrants bring pizza to the United States; by the early 1900s, New York has one of the first licensed pizzerias.

Different Viewpoints on “Who Made Pizza”

Because your question is simple, the answers people give online often split into a few camps.

  • “The inventor is Raffaele Esposito”
    • Many articles and chains say: Esposito + 1889 + Margherita = inventor of pizza.
* This is neat and satisfying, but it ignores the long history of topped flatbreads and earlier pizzas in Naples.
  • “The people of Naples invented it”
    • Some writers argue pizza is a street food evolution , made by many anonymous bakers in Naples during the 1700s–1800s.
* In this view, Esposito just made the most famous early recipe, not the first pizza ever.
  • “It’s even older than Italy”
    • Others zoom out and say pizza’s roots are in ancient Mediterranean flatbreads, so you can’t really credit one person or place.

A nice way to see it:

  • Ancient civilizations invented topped flatbreads.
  • Neapolitans turned them into real pizza.
  • Esposito gave us one iconic version and a good story.

Simple Fact Table: Who Made Pizza?

[1][5] [1] [7][5][1] [3][9][1]
Stage Who What They Contributed
Ancient era Various Mediterranean peoples (Egyptians, Greeks, Romans) Flatbreads with toppings, the basic idea behind pizza.
Early “pizza” in Italy Bakers in southern Italy Use of the term “pizza” for simple bread dishes.
Modern pizza base Neapolitan bakers in the 1700s–1800s Cheap, round, topped flatbreads sold as street food in Naples.
Margherita pizza Raffaele Esposito Popularized a tomato–mozzarella–basil pizza for Queen Margherita in 1889.
**TL;DR:** No one person “made pizza” from nothing; it grew from ancient flatbreads, became pizza in Naples, and was later refined and popularized by Neapolitan bakers like Raffaele Esposito.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.