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In this economics activity, students will explain the difference in price for two similar products.

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Where Does the Price of Pizza Come From?

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Where Does the Price of Pizza Come From?

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EconEdLink - Where Does the Price of Pizza Come From?

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In this economics lesson, students will examine data for buyers and sellers to learn how prices emerge in a market.

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GDP and Pizza: Economics for Life Online Module for Non-educators

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This module is designed to help consumers grasp challenging economic content, such as real vs. nominal GDP, and explains why these topics are important to understand.

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Episode 3 of the Continuing Feducation Video Series, The Amazing $2,000 Pizza, emphasizes the importance of using credit cards responsibly.

To provide students with online questions following each video, register your class through the Instructor Management Panel.
More about the Q&A Resources for Teachers and Students "

Transcript

Below is a full transcript of this video presentation. It has not been edited or reviewed for accuracy or readability.

Male: Great Pizza!

Male Credit Card: Is it worth $2,000?

Male: Huh?

Female: I didn't say anything.

Male Credit Card: I DID!

Male: Who are you?

Male Credit Card: I'm the credit card you just used to pay for that $2,000 pizza.

Male: What are you talking about? It only cost $9.95!

Male Credit Card: Yeah, IF you paid it off within the grace period... but you only pay the minimum due.

Male Credit Card: AND you've almost MAXED OUT your $500 credit limit... Mostly on Pizza and other impulse purchases!

Male Credit Card: So if you just keep paying the minimum, it will take you 267 months to pay me off! And all those little charges will wind up costing you $2,129! *based on an 18.9% APR

Female: Ha! We'd better enjoy this pizza! You'll be paying for it for 22 years!

Female Credit Card: I wouldn't talk if I were you.

Male: Who's that?

Female: Uh, Oh! That's my credit card!

Female Credit Card: That's right! And you owe about $3,000 on me!

Female: That's not so bad, is it?

Female Credit Card: No, except you only make minimum payments too!

Female Credit Card: That means you'll be paying for that smart watch about two decades after it has gone out of style. By then that $3,000 balance will have cost you $12,774! *based on an 18.9% APR

Male: So you're saying we shouldn't use credit?

Male Credit Card: Not at All! Credit cards are a powerful tool when you let them work for you!

Female Credit Card: Credit cards are handy and safe for on-line purchases, and we can be a lifesaver in an emergency. We help you establish the good credit that will help you purchase important things, like a car or home.

Male Credit Card: Use credit within your budget and try to stay away from impulse purchases!

Male: Like food?

Female: And clothes?

Male Credit Card: It's fine to use us for a special celebration...

Female Credit Card: or to buy a suit for important interviews!

Male Credit Card: But remember to think before you spend and stay within your budget! Here are some simple guidelines for managing your credit.

1. Have credit cards, but manage them responsibly.
2. Pay your bills on time.
3. Keep balances low on credit cards and other "revolving credit."
4. Pay off debt rather than moving it around to other credit cards.
5. Don't open a lot of new accounts too rapidly.
6. Check your credit report often.

Male Credit Card: Remember keep your credit working for you...

Female Credit Card: And not the other way around!

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If you have difficulty accessing this content due to a disability, please contact us at 314-444-4662 or economiceducation@stls.frb.org.

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The Amazing $2,000 Pizza | Education Resources | St. Louis Fed

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Episode 3 of the Continuing Feducation Video Series, The Amazing $2,000 Pizza, emphasizes the importance of using credit cards responsibly. To provide students with online questions following each video, register your class through the Instructor Management Panel. More about the Q&A Resources for Teachers and Students " Transcript Below is a full transcript of this video presentation.

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It’s National Pizza Day! To celebrate we went and talked to chef Scott McGehee about the market pizza at ZAZA Fine Salad + Wood-Oven Pizza Co, which incorporates farm-fresh produce acquired at a local farmers market in a seasonal pizza.

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Pizza! A Slice of History by Greg Pizzoli

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The Secret History of Pizza | Epicurious

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About Pizza Cafe Game

Pizza Cafe is a timed 12-stage pizzeria restaurant game where you make fresh pizza which matches customer orders. Serve customers quickly before they leave angry, speed orders along the conveyer belt, collect their payments, and use the phone to purchase more ingredients whenever you run low. This is a JavaScript web application which uses cross-platform mobile-friendly HTML. All modern web browsers like Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera should support it. This game works on just about any type of computing device including Microsoft Windows desktop computers, Apple OSX Mac computers, iOS powered tablets and phones like the iPad and iPhone, laptops like the Google Chromebook, and the many types of mobile phones from manufacturers like Samsung which are powered by Google Android.

This game is part of the food games for kids collection brought to you by CulinarySchools.org, a web portal dedicated to the culinary arts.

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Play Pizza Cafe Game: Free Online Pizza Restaurant Sim Video Game for Kids With No App Download Required

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Pizza Cafe is a timed 12-stage pizzeria restaurant game where you make fresh pizza which matches customer orders. Serve customers quickly before they leave angry, speed orders along the conveyer belt, collect their payments, and use the phone to purchase more ingredients whenever you run low.

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Can you become the master ovenist?

Ever wanted to know what it feels like to run your own Pizza shop? Now you can with TapBlaze's newest game, Good Pizza, Great Pizza! Do your best to fulfill pizza orders from customers while making enough money to keep your shop open. Upgrade your shop with new toppings and equipment to compete against your pizza rival, Alicante!

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Ever wanted to know what it feels like to run your own Pizza shop? Now you can with TapBlaze's newest game, Good Pizza, Great Pizza! Do your best to fulfill pizza orders from customers while making enough money to keep your shop open.

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Peg + Cat The Pizza Problem by Jennifer Oxley | Read Aloud by Mr. Andre

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Read Rose Totino: Pizza Entrepreneur on Epic

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Epic reaches 75 million kids in class and after school.

Built on a collection of 40,000+ popular, high-quality books from 250+ of the world's best publishers, Epic safely fuels curiosity and reading confidence for kids 12 and under.

Get Started

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online access fun thousands children great kids ebooks books

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Read Rose Totino: Pizza Entrepreneur on Epic

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Rose Totino: Pizza Entrepreneur kids' book from the leading digital reading platform with a collection of 40,000+ books from 250+ of the world's best publishers. Read now on Epic.

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Learn How Pizza is Made! | Ever Wonder? | Highlights Kids

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Read So You Want To Grow A Pizza? on Epic

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Read So You Want To Grow A Pizza? on Epic

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Instantly access So You Want To Grow A Pizza? plus over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids.

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In this economics lesson, students will explain how prices are set for goods and services.

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Relating to the environment, prices and innovation, a pizza box illustrates that in economics the invisible can be more important than what we see.

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Where There's A. Williams, There's A Way

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Pizza!: A Slice of History 🍕by Greg Pizzoli| READ ALOUD | CHILDREN'S BOOK

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🐾Pete The Cat The Perfect Pizza Party 🍕(Read Aloud books for children) | Kids Books Miss Jill

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Dishcrawl - Everything You Want To Know About Pizza

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From your classic cheese and tomato pizza to pizzas with mashed potatoes, squid ink, fermented soybeans and crocodile meat, there is something for everyone on this list. We will learn how some pizzas do not even need any pizza dough at all, and how cultures play a huge role in what is considered desirable. This pizza tour around the world will make you hungry- or leave you shocked. Read it to believe it.

American Pizza

If when you think about pizza you imagine biting into loads of cheese and sauce, look no further than Chicago deep dish pizza. Each bite is so satisfying with its buttery-crunchy crust, chunky tomato sauce and copious amounts of cheese. Due to the high edges, you do not need to skimp on the filling and other toppings such as vegetables and meats. The layering is a bit different from more traditional pizzas as the order of the ingredients goes like this: cheese on the bottom, toppings on the cheese and finally the sauce, usually with a nice amount of grated parmesan cheese to top it all off.

Outside of Italian pizza, New York-style pizza might be the most popular style in the world. It started when Neapolitan immigrants moved to New York and brought their pizza recipe there, which was changed into its own "US" style over the years. For example, Neapolitan sauce is made with just tomatoes and salt, whereas NY pizza adds garlic, oregano, sugar, and crushed red pepper to the tomatoes; Neapolitan pizza dough only has yeast, salt, and flour but NY pizza adds sugar and olive oil to the mix; finally, low moisture shredded cheese is used instead of fresh mozzarella. NY pizza is generally quite large and is sold in triangular slices. It can come with all kinds of toppings and is usually "dressed" at the end with extra oregano, crushed red pepper, and parmesan cheese.

Not all pizzas are a circle, and the Detroit-style pizza is an example of thick, rectangular pan pizza that will leave you wanting for more (although -interesting tidbit- they call it a square). What is the advantage of a rectangular shape? Delicious crispy corners! This pizza is inspired by Sicilian pizza, with a light, airy and crispy texture. The cheese used is usually Wisconsin brick cheese, similar to cheddar, and it is placed on the bottom, topped with meats or other ingredients, and finally by the sauce (similar to the Chicago deep-dish pizza). When the cheese spreads to the corners of the pan it caramelizes into a crispy crust- it is no surprise that everyone fights over that corner slice!

California

When you think about California, if you think about trendsetting vegan food, organic products, a healthy lifestyle, and sustainable practices, you will not be surprised that these are what make up a California-style pizza! Whereas the crust is similar to that of a New York Pizza, the toppings are very, well, California style. Think avocados, goat cheese, seasonal veggies like beets and kale, and other locally sourced and farmed ingredients. These pizzas are usually baked in a wood-fired oven similar to Gozney's Dome. The vast array of original and sometimes exotic ingredients will never leave you bored.

Bienvenido a Miami! With a large slice of its population being from Cuba, it is no wonder that Miami developed its own style of pizza- Cuban pizza. The dough is thick, as it is left to rise longer than usual. The toppings are actually pressed into the dough and held together by a generous layer of whole milk low- moisture mozzarella and gouda cheeses. The toppings range from your usual ham and pepperoni to picadillo beef and even plantains.

Italian Pizza

Maybe the least known among typical Italian pizza styles, the Milan-style pizza is a "newer" version created in the 1950s. It is thick and fluffy, like focaccia, even though it only needs to rise for one hour. The toppings include peeled crushed tomatoes and a mountain of mozzarella cheese, sliced into thin strips that must cover the WHOLE surface of the pizza. This is then topped with oregano and sardines.

Roman pizza is similar to what in other places people would call flatbread: a thin, crispy and slightly charred pizza crust with a variety of light toppings. It is opposite in many ways to the Neapolitan pizza which is soft, wet and with a fluffy crust, so people usually hate one and love the other. To make everyone happy, Romans developed another kind of pizza named "pinsa", which is really a hybrid between the two styles- a little thicker and fluffy crust with a crunchy base. Pinsa is made with easy to digest ingredients- sourdough starter (it rises for 48 to 72 hours) and rice, wheat and soy flours. The toppings are genuine and typical of any Italian pizza.

But Rome is a big metropolis, with people and millions of tourists always on the go, so a third style of pizza was naturally created there: pizza a taglio ("cut pizza"). Walking around Rome you will see thousands of these little to-go pizza joints, which carry giant rectangular pizzas with a great variety of toppings. The beauty of pizza a taglio is that you can try as many flavors as you like- and you should! A typical order would be :" Can I have an inch of the salmon pizza, two inches of the pesto and 2 inches of the margherita?". You choose how little or how big you want your slice to be, and the server will cut with scissors the portion requested and sell it by weight.

The most popular kind of pizza on this beautiful island is the Sfincione. It originates in Palermo and it is a fluffy and spongy rectangular pizza topped with tomatoes, sardines, lots of onions, oregano and caciocavallo, a Sicilian cheese. It is extremely tasty and cheap, as it is often sold by the slice by street vendors. Another typical Sicilian pizza is the Scacciata, from the Catania side, a stuffed pizza- pizza dough base, toppings and another pizza on top! The filling is usually broccoli, cauliflower, sausages and potatoes. Sicily is a happy place.

The pizza by excellence, the mother of all pizzas. It is no surprise that pizza became so popular all over the world and every country has made its own version after seeing what the original looks and tastes like. Neapolitan pizza has a long history, but the main characteristics involve a simple dough that is left to rise for a long time, topped with homemade tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and some other wholesome toppings, all cooked at incredibly high temperatures for just 60-90 seconds for a soft, thin and yet fluffy texture. It is easy to digest and does not cause the bloated feeling many other pizzas give.

Neapolitan pizzas come in a personal size. But Napoli has not stopped at their classic pizza: another specialty in Naples is fried pizza. The dough is the same as regular Neapolitan pizza dough, but it is then folded like a calzone, stuffed with various ingredients- the most common being buffalo ricotta cheese and pork rinds- and then deep-fried. It sounds heavy, but it is incredibly light and airy. When well done it should not be greasy at all and it is still easy to digest. Amazing, right?

This controversial pizza was created, not in Hawaii, as many would think, but in Canada, by a man who enjoyed the contrast of sweet and savory flavors in the Chinese cuisine and tried making a pizza with pineapples and ham toppings. Hawaiian pizza is now served in many countries (interestingly enough, it is hard to find in Hawaii). Do you like pineapples on pizza?

True Mexican pizza is called "tlayuda" and is made with giant flour tortillas topped with lard, mashed beans, fresh queso, chile sauce and sometimes meats and avocado. A dream come true if you love both tacos and pizza! The recipe is from Oaxaca and the tortillas are made by hand and griddled on large stones. Not surprisingly, it is one of Mexico's best street foods.

Aside from the Hawaiian pizza, Canadians can be credited with other topping combinations. Although the dough is not made in a specific manner, what sets Canadian pizzas apart are the toppings. The most common is the Quebecois pizza which is topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, bacon, pepperoni, and mushrooms. Poutine pizza is topped with the popular Canadian dish- french fries, cheese curds and gravy. The most peculiar Canadian pizza is probably the Pizza-ghetti, from Quebec. You guessed it: a combination of pizza and spaghetti, where the spaghetti are hidden beneath the melted cheese. Interesting eh?

Not actually from Thailand, but a Thai-ispired US creation, Thai pizza features ingredients such as a peanut-based sauce, tofu, bean sprouts, scallions and chicken. Again, the Thai-style is more about the toppings than about the way the actual pizza dough is made- although this one works very well with flatbreads.

Pizza was introduced in Brazil by Italian immigrants (like in most other other countries) around the 1930s. Brazilian pizza has a thin crust (closer to Italian than American pizza) and sometimes a crust filled with a Brazilian cheese called Requeijao. The amount of sauce used is sparse, but the toppings are extremely varied, from corn to cream cheese, curried chicken with coconut milk and mashed potatoes. They even make sweet pizzas topped with Nutella, strawberries, bananas and other sugary treats. Surely a cuisine as colorful as the country is!

Fugazza is the name of a remarkable Argentinian-style pizza. This pizza dough contains olive oil and it is not rolled out but just pressed into the pan- so as it bakes it becomes airy and soft, perfectly absorbing the toppings' flavors. It is topped with sweet onions sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with oregano and parmesan cheese.Other toppings may include olives and ham. Another version called Fugazzeta is loaded with mozzarella cheese and comes with a thicker crust.

If you love seafood, you will love this pizza. The Russian pizza named Mockba (meaning Moscow) after the country's capital, is a specialty topped with sardines, tuna, mackerel, salmon and raw onions and it is served cold. Instead of a four cheese pizza, we can say it is a four fish pizza! Russians are not afraid of strong flavors, and are known to also have pizzas with ketchup instead of tomato sauce, sour cream, mayo and hard boiled eggs.

Polish pizza is named Zapiekanka and it is a popular street food in Poland. It is made with a baguette sliced in half and served open-face, topped with mushrooms and melted cheeses such as Gouda or Emmental. The peculiarity is hot ketchup squeezed all over the cheese! Other than the classic version, this pizza can also be made Diablo-style (with spicy sauce), Hawaiian-style (with pineapples) or Greek-style (with olives and feta cheese) among others.

Even though pizza is not a recognized typical Greek dish, Greek immigrants who moved to the States decades ago started making pizza with their own flair- a style that is now known as Greek pizza. Greek pizza is baked into an oiled pan (rather than straight onto a pizza stone or oven) , and has plenty of olive oil and oregano in the dough. The result is a thin focaccia with a strong olive oil aroma. Tomato paste is added to the sauce along with other fresh, typical Greek ingredients such as olives, feta cheese and peppers.

Pizza in India is an up-and- coming street food. Indian cuisine is wonderful at spicing things up, and this is true for their pizza flavors. Generally speaking, pizzas in India come with more vegetables and spices rather than meats and cheeses like in other parts of the world. They use some unique toppings such as pickled ginger, tandoori chicken, and paneer. Other countries have made their own version of Indian pizzas by baking these ingredients on naan and roti breads.

Iranian or Persian pizza boasts a thick and crunchy crust. The crust has to be sturdy as it needs to hold an exorbitant amount of toppings including a generous amount of cheese, ground beef, sausages, lamb, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions and spices like turmeric, mint, rosemary, thyme and paprika- all topped off with some mustard and ketchup. Make sure to start off very hungry.

The Danes are heavily inspired by Italian pizzaiolos. The typical copenhagen-style pizza is a sourdough version of Neapolitan pizza, but with unique toppings. You will find goat cheese, guanciale, kiwis, potatoes, smoked mozzarella and whatnot.

In a cold place like Norway, comfort food is desired- and what food provides more comfort than pizza? Especially when topped with ground beef, tomato sauce and lots of cheese, you cannot go wrong. Fun fact: Nowegians are said to consume the most pizza per capita in the world.

Finland has come up with an unusual pizza flavor combination after former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi insulted Finnish food saying it only consists of "marinated reindeer". The Finnish were not disheartened, and decided to create a pizza (typical Italian food) topped with reindeer, naming it after the above- mentioned Italian prime minister. So far this is just a funny story. Incredibly enough, this pizza won an international pizza festival in New York and it is now quite popular in Finland as it is served at the biggest Finnish pizza chain- Kotipizza. The Berlusconi pizza features smoked reindeer, chanterelle mushrooms, cheese and red onion.

Lebanese pizza is called Manoushe and it is most often eaten for breakfast (not a bad idea to start your day off with some pizza!). This traditional recipe has a dough that is crispy on the outside and a bit chewy on the inside, with beautiful strong aromas and spices. They can be topped with just cheese, just thyme or a blend of cheese and thyme along with other spices, or with meat and pine nuts. Usual condiments include parsley, all spice, lemon juice and sumac. A Mediterrenean treasure.

Let's move to another country full of spices and aromas, Turkey. Their traditional "pizza" is called Lahmacun and it is made with semolina flour, spread very thinly and quickly cooked in a wood-fired oven. The toppings include ground lamb or beef, paprika, cumin, cinnamon, onions, tomatoes, parsley and spicy chili peppers. It is believed to have ancient origins from Syria, thousands of years ago. We can confidently say it has stood the test of time.

Another cheeseless pizza, Pissaladière is a French dish that is not afraid of strong flavors: loads of caramelized onions with marinated olives and anchovies atop a thick pizza crust. After baking, a few more anchovies and onions are added. The pizza is usually cut into small squares and served as an appetizer rather than as the main course. Bon appetit!

One thing we have learned from this list is that the concept of pizza does not always involve what many of us may think of - namely, a slice of dough with tomato sauce and cheese. A delicious Spanish pizza named Catalan Coca is an example of this. Sold all over Catalonia, the Catalan Coca is made with an oiled dough topped with bell peppers, eggplant, onions and sausages. No tomato and cheese, but surely packed with flavor. "Coca" actually means cake, and a sweet version of this dish is just as popular, with the addition of eggs and sugar in the dough, and cream and pine nuts as toppings.

Japan has a phenomenal food culture, and this translates into pizzas that are one of a kind. A Japanese specialty and a mix between a pizza and a pancake, Okonomiyaki is an Asian inspired pizza made with a flour, cabbage, egg and water "dough"- or more exactly, batter- although shrimp, bacon or other protein can all be cooked into it as well. This pizza-pancake is grilled and topped with seaweed, mayo, okonomiyaki sauce and other local flavors. You can still find traditional looking wheat flour pizzas in Japan, although the toppings may not be as familiar: from squid ink to teriyaki chicken mayo, fermented soybeans and honey cheese, there is something for all adventurous palates.

Great Britain

Britain does not have a national or traditional pizza, though most of the pizzas in this list could probably be found in London's melting pot of cuisines. However, British have added some interesting flavors to their pizzas like Chicken Tikka Masala and other curry toppings. Going North to Scotland, we can find a unique kind of fried pizza- not quite like the one seen in Naples. It is called pizza crunch and it involves literally dipping a whole slice of cooked pizza into a batter and then deep frying it in fish-and-chips oil. Might not be diet-friendly, but it sounds like a good snack for post-pub munchies.

The Swedes like their pizza like they like anything else, moderate. They inherited the American Pan Pizza in the 90s and have ridden the Pan Pizza train until the immigration surged. The immigrants, more specifically, the turks and the kurds, introduced a pizza that Swedes would fall in love with - the kebab pizza (döner pizza). This pizza is served with a specific sauce, made from yoghurt, mayo, sour milk and spices. And while Italians would turn in their graves over a pizza that's breaking all the rules of what pizza really is, it actually tastes amazing.

Korea might be the most outrageous pizza-maker on this list yet. Basically anything goes, and toppings on pizza range from kimchi to snails, potatoes, t-bone steak and calamari and there often are pickled vegetable sides to accompany the meal. Some pizzas even have stuffed crust, not with something you would expect - like cheese- but with sweet potatoes. Koreans are conservative with their own traditional recipes, but are happy to experiment when it comes to foreign-introduced foods.

A kind of Chinese "pizza" found only in China is called Xiang Bing, and it is an oily dough made with flour and soy milk topped with ground spicy pork, ginger and scallions. It is a street food served in brown paper bags and is eaten with chopsticks. Outside of China, "Chinese" pizzas have been created by adding Asian flavors to regular pizzas, such as soy sauce, water chestnuts and flavored meats.

Germans have come up with a quick flatbread pizza recipe that needs no leavening time but still satisfies your pizza cravings. It is called Flammkuchen ("flame cake") and it is a traditional crispy flatbread topped with creme fraiche, caramelized onions, a pinch of nutmeg, and bacon- a winning combination. Being thin as a cracker it can be served as a delicious appetizer.

Let's end Down Under, all the way in Australia. The traditional Aussie pizza is topped with barbeque sauce, cheese, red onions, bacon, and fried eggs, some true Outback flavors.

While Aussie bbq pizza is common, some restaurants have gone more eccentric and used local yet unusual meats as their toppings: pizzas with kangaroo meat, emu, and crocodile. A hotel in Australia serves all these, and the flavor combinations are interesting: half kangaroo and half emu meat pizza with myrtle mayo, bush tomato, and capsicum peppers; saltwater crocodile, mushrooms, buffalo mozzarella, eggplant, and olives.

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34 Best Pizzas From Around The World - Dishcrawl

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From your classic cheese and tomato pizza to pizzas with mashed potatoes, squid ink, fermented soybeans and crocodile meat, there is something for everyone on

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74,476 Reasons You Should Always Get the Bigger Pizza

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74,476 Reasons You Should Always Get the Bigger Pizza

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One day last year, an engineer and I went to a pizza place for lunch. The engineer told me he wasn't very hungry, but he said he was going to get the 12-inch medium instead of the 8-inch small - because the medium was more than twice as big as the small, and it cost only a little bit more. This sort of blew my mind.

So I went big on the pizza-value question. The graph below is based on 74,476 prices from 3,678 pizza places around the country. To see how the price of pizzas changes with size - and how much more pizza you get when you get a large - drag the slider at the bottom the graph.

The math of why bigger pizzas are such a good deal is simple: A pizza is a circle, and the area of a circle increases with the square of the radius.

So, for example, a 16-inch pizza is actually four times as big as an 8-inch pizza.

And when you look at thousands of pizza prices from around the U.S., you see that you almost always get a much, much better deal when you buy a bigger pizza.

The data in the graph were provided by Grubhub Seamless.

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74,476 Reasons You Should Always Get The Bigger Pizza

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We crunched prices from thousands of pizza places around the country. The results convinced us we should never buy a small pizza again.

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Dannette JustUs and Books #JustUsAndBooks

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Nobody Knows How To Make A Pizza 🍕 by Julie Borowski❤️🍕

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Reading Nobody Knows How to Make a Pizza | Are you homeschooling for the first time? 

My children's book, Nobody Knows How to Make a Pizza, teaches kids about economics in a fun way.

Watch me... | By Julie Borowski | Facebook

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Are you homeschooling for the first time? 

My children's book, Nobody Knows How to Make a Pizza, teaches kids about economics in a fun way.

Watch me...

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Pizza For the Queen Online Story Time and Activity | It's pizza time! While we love biting into a delicious slice of pizza, we love learning about it even more! Did you know it takes several farms and... | By AZFB AITC | Facebook

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It's pizza time! While we love biting into a delicious slice of pizza, we love learning about it even more! Did you know it takes several farms and...

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The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza read aloud

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Students learn about consumers and producers and give examples from the book The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza. They become producers by making bookmarks. The students draw pictures on their bookmarks of something that happened at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the story. They become consumers when they use their bookmarks to mark a page in a book they are reading.

This lesson plan is designed for teaching grades 1, 2, and 3.

Book written by Philemon Sturges / ISBN: 0-525-45953-7. This book is in print and available.

Braille and Talking Book versions are available via the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. Library of Congress catalogue numbers are provided for accessible versions. The books can be accessed through BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download). The book is available in Braille LCCN 991123.

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If you have difficulty accessing this content due to a disability, please contact us at 314-444-4662 or economiceducation@stls.frb.org.

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The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza Lesson for Grades 1-3

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In this free lesson, students learn about consumers and producers.

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36 Amazing Facts You Didn't Know about Pizza

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36 Amazing Facts You Didn't Know about Pizza

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1. The First Pizza

When you think pizza you think Italiano, but the origin of pizza goes back to ancient times. Greeks and Egyptians were cooking a pizza like flatbread and topping it with olive oil and spices. The "modern pizza" as we know it evolved in Naples Italy, when tomato was added to in the late 18th century.
2. The United States eats 350 slices of pizza every second
Americans love pizza in fact so much so that we eat about 100 acres of pizza everyday according to the National Association of Pizza operators. That's a whopping 350 slices every second!

3. 93% of Americans that eat pizza, do once a month

According to a recent survey completed by Mintel, it is estimated that 93% of Americans that eat pizza eat it at least once a month.

4. The most expensive pizza in the world costs $12,000
Luis XIII in Salerno, Italy has the world's most expensive pizza with a price tag of $12,000! This is no ordinary pizza, first the dough is aged perfectly before the chief arrives at your home. Yes, they will create this masterpiece in your home kitchen. Some of the ingredients include, three types of caviar, lobster from Norway, Cilento, bufala mozzarella cheese and grains of pink Australian sea-salt from the Murray River.

5. Breakfast Pizza, 36% of Americans believe that pizza is a breakfast meal
Pizza in the morning? 36% of Americans eat pizza as a breakfast meal. Now, I don't know if that is leftovers from the night before. I always think pizza tastes better the next day.

6. The most popular pizza topping is pepperoni
It's not to hard to figure this one out, but now we have the numbers to prove it! In a HarrisPoll® taken in January of 2016, pepperoni was found to be the most popular topping followed by Sausage at number two.

7. World's Biggest Pizza
The biggest pizza in recorded history was prepared by Dovilio Nardi, Andrea Mannocchi, Marco Nardi, Matteo Nardi and Matteo Giannotte in Rome, Italy, on 13 December 2012. It had a total surface area of 13,580.28 ft². Guinness was on hand to document the massive pie!

8. A Pizza was Delivered in Space
In 2001, the Russian Space Agency was paid more than a million bucks to deliver a six-inch pizza to the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut,Yuri Usachov had the honor of being the first person to receive a pizza delivery while in orbit.

9. Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for pizza delivery in the U.S
Americans love football and they love pizza, so it fit together perfectly like two slices from the same pie. There are four other days that are full of pizza Halloween, the day before Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

10. Nobody Knows How the Word Pizza Originated
The word "Pizza" was first documented around 997 AD in Gaeta, Italy. After that the name started to spread to different parts of central and southern Italy.

11. The Outer Edge Is Called the Cornicione
Did you know that there is technical term for "crust"? Well there is, it's called cornicione or the "end crust". No matter what you call it, your kids will not eat it!

12. World War II helped Bring Pizza to the Masses
Before World War II pizza was mostly enjoyed by Italian immigrants in their home communities. During the occupation of Italy, Allied troops began eating local foods to supplement sometimes dwindling rations. The local bakers could hardly keep up with the US soldiers demand for pizza, and when they came home after the war they brought their love for pizza back with them.

13. October Is National Pizza Month
It was created by the publisher of Pizza Today magazine, Gerry Durnell in October of 1984. It is now an annually celebrated event, maybe the fact that Halloween is one of the busiest days of the pizza year helped Gerry decide to make October National pizza month?

14. Papa's Tomato Pies is America's Oldest Continuously Operating Pizzeria
founded by Giuseppe Papa in 1912 on South Clinton Avenue in Trenton, New Jersey, this family owned pizzeria has operated continuously since opening day and still remains operated by the Papa family.

15. Pizza is a 37 billion dollar industry
Wow that's a lot of money! It looks like pizza is great for the American economy. According to the American Pizza Community, US Pizzeria's employ over a million people in 73,000 stores across the country.

16. Cristian Dumitru of Romania ate 200 pounds of pizza in a week
This is one of those records that makes you do a double take! It's true, in 2006 Cristian Dumitru set a new world record surpassing Takeru Kobayashi by eating 200 pounds of pizza in a week.

17. There's a annual Pizza expo in Las Vegas
The international pizza expo is the world's largest pizza industry show. Among the attendees will be pizzeria owners and operators, distributors and food brokers. Don't book a flight to Vegas trying to find some great pizza, the expo is closed to the general public.

18. There is a mathematical theorem named after pizza
It's called the Pizza theorem, it states the equality of two areas that arise when one partitions a disk in a certain way. Who thought that pizza would contribute to basic geometry.

19. The Japanese put mayonnaise on their pizza
When you think of delicious pizza toppings Mayo does not quickly come to mind, but in Japan Mayo on pizza is normal. The type of mayonnaise that is produced in Japan has a sweeter taste the what we use here in the states, though it still doesn't sound any better.

20. Anchovies are the least favorite pizza topping in america
Earlier on this list we discovered that peperoni was the most popular pizza topping in a survey conducted by Harris Poll®. We probably could have just guessed at that one, and you could also easily guess anchovies are the least favorite topping. They stink! Literally.

21. The first North Korean pizzeria opened in 2009
Apparently Kim Jong-il was very fond of pizza, so much so that he had Italian pizza chefs flown into Pyongyang to teach the craft. Disappointed with the retention of new skills learned he later had representatives flown to Naples and Rome to continue their education before the grand opening.

22. The first American cities to start selling pizza where
New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Trenton all had a large population of Southern Italian immigrants around the turn of the century. When they arrived they brought their love of pizza with them. I would not be until after World War II that the pizza would be widely known outside of those small communities.

23. The first frozen pizza hit the market in 1962
Tontino's, which started as Totino's Italian Kitchen is said to be the first company to offer frozen pizza in 1962. Apparently the y did pretty good, Pillsbury bought the company in 1975.

24. The Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada
In 1962 by Sam Panopoulos, a native of Greece who was running a pizzeria in Ontario Canada. Bored with only having three toppings available mushroom, bacon, or pepperoni he took down a can of pineapples from the top shelf and decided to throw it on pizza. The rest is history.

25. These two Famous people who got their start making and delivering pizzas.
Bill Murray and Jean Claude Van Damme both worked at pizza restaurants, Van Damme used to be a delivery driver before he became famous.

26. Dough-spinning has its own professional-level sporting event
At the World Pizza Championships you would be competing against the best in five competitive events Freestyle Acrobatic Dough Tossing, Fastest Dough, Largest Dough Stretch, Fastest Pizza Box Folding and the Pizza Triathlon. There's also the masters division of Freestyle Acrobatic Dough Tossing.

27. The U.S. Military Lab recently invented a ready-to-eat pizza
This handy pizza can last for up to three years. Intended for soldiers abroad who just have to have a slice. Making its grand entrance in 2017 solders can open MRE #37 and enjoy their treat!

28. There's a pizza museum in Philadelphia
Pizza Brain is home to the world's largest collection of pizza memorabilia. That's just not my opinion, back in 2011 Guinness certified the collection as "the world's largest collection of pizza-related items".

29. For children, 44% of pizza consumption occurred at lunch
A USDA food survey concluded that of consumed pizza amongst children 44% was at lunchtime, and 42% was consumed at dinner. The same study also found that adults consume a majority of their pizza at dinner.

30. 251,770,000 lbs of pepperoni are consumed every year
Being America's most popular topping 689,780 pounds of pepperonis are eaten everyday! That's over 344 tons a day, think of this. Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth they weigh about 200 tons each.

31. In India, the most preferred pizza topping is tofu
Minced mutton and pickled ginger are among other horrible toppings that rank high on the list as most preferred, what is minced mutton you ask? typically minced mutton is lamb or goat with peas or potatoes.
32. The risk of some cancers are reduced if pizza is consumed once a week
Italian researchers have claimed eating pizza regularly reduced the risk of developing oesophageal cancer by 59%, colon cancer also fell by 26% & mouth cancer by 34%.

33. An average American consumes 46 pizza slices in a single year
According to the leading publisher of market research Packaged Facts the average American will eat 46 slices of pizza a year, or about almost six full pizza's.

34. One of the first documented Internet purchases was a pizza
Pepperoni with mushrooms and extra cheese. This was one of the first recorded purchases made online around 1994. Now more purchases are made online over any other method.

35. The first American pizza shop was Lombardi's in New York City
Lombardi's was the first pizza shop opened in the United States back in 1905. It is still located in Little Italy section of Manhattan today. Even though Lombardi's was the first, they did close their doors for a short time making Papa's Tomato Pies America's Oldest Continuously Operating Pizzeria.

36. 220-370 kilocalories is contained in a slice of cheese pizza
I know what you're thinking, what is a Kilocalorie? Well, here you go "The word "calorie" is used by dietitians to mean kilocalorie when measuring the calorific, heating or metabolizing value of foods".

Bonus fact! There are 26,484 books on Amazon about pizza
If you go to Amazon and search for "Pizza Books" you will be bombarded will 26,484 results. Wow, a lot of people must really like to read about pizza!

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36 Amazing Facts You Didn't Know About Pizza

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The "modern pizza" as we know it evolved in Naples Italy, when tomato was added to in the late 18th century.

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The Most Popular Pizza Chain in Every State

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The Most Popular Pizza Chain in Every State

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It's no secret that delivery pizza hit it big during the pandemic. Besides being just about everyone's go-to comfort food, pizza was better positioned than other types of fast food to meet growing consumer demand for off-premise dining. When restaurants started shutting down en masse, it was delivery pizza's time to shine.

And shine, it did. The big names of delivery pizza all saw massive sales increases in 2020 : in May, had its best week of delivery and carryout sales in eight years; Domino's maintained double-digit same-store sales growth from the second quarter straight through to the fourth; and Papa John's closed out the year with an incredible $1 million in average unit volume.

While that growth has slowed somewhat in 2021, all three companies still managed at least single-digit increases in same-store sales this past quarter. saw 5.2% growth, 10%, and 3.5%. (At both Pizza Hut and Domino's, international same-store sales growth greatly outstripped domestic growth-Pizza Hut's global operations saw increases of 16%, and Domino's, 13.9%.)

Now, a recent report published by confirms that not only is pizza still trending in the U.S.-pizza-lovers are making more in-person visits to the most popular pizza chains. Top Data's report looks at foot traffic over a two-year period for the twelve largest U.S. pizza chains. Using offline GPS data collected from millions of pizza customers, the study found that visits to chains (including in-store dining and carryout) increased in 2021 by 32%.

The study also determined the top five most popular pizza chains in each state for 2021. The results may surprise you.

Have a look at the results below. And for more, don't miss the Most Expensive Cheese Pizzas in America.

Number of states in which the pizza chain ranks first: 2

"Victory" states: Louisiana, South Dakota

Related: Sign up for our newsletter for the latest restaurant news!

Number of states in which the pizza chain ranks first: 1

"Victory" state: Washington

Number of states in which the pizza chain ranks first: 2

"Victory" states: Indiana, South Carolina

Related: Marco's Pizza Is Opening 200 New Locations This Year

Number of states in which the pizza chain ranks first: 2

Related: 50 Classic Fast-Food Menu Items-Ranked!

Number of states in which the pizza chain ranks first: 7

"Victory" states: Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon

Related: 8 Secrets Domino's Doesn't Want You to Know

Number of states in which the pizza chain ranks first: 10

"Victory" states: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Related: Papa John's Just Made This Big Announcement About Its Menu

Little Caesars (yes, Little Caesars) claimed first place in half of the states studied!

Number of states in which the pizza chain ranks first: 24

"Victory" states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont

For more, check out these stories next:

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The Most Popular Pizza Chain in Every State, New Data Shows

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A report published by Top Data confirms that pizza-lovers can't get enough of these slices. Which is the most popular pizza chain in your state?

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Pizza has a long history. Flatbreads with toppings were consumed by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. (The latter ate a version with herbs and oil, similar to today's focaccia.) But the modern birthplace of pizza is southwestern Italy's Campania region, home to the city of Naples.

Founded around 600 B.C. as a Greek settlement, Naples in the 1700s and early 1800s was a thriving waterfront city. Technically an independent kingdom, it was notorious for its throngs of working poor, or lazzaroni. "The closer you got to the bay, the denser their population and much of their living was done outdoors, sometimes in homes that were little more than a room," says Carol Helstosky, author of Pizza: A Global History and associate professor of history at the University of Denver.

These Neapolitans required inexpensive food that could be consumed quickly. Pizza-flatbreads with various toppings, eaten for any meal and sold by street vendors or informal restaurants-met this need. "Judgmental Italian authors often called their eating habits 'disgusting,'" Helstosky notes. These early pizzas consumed by Naples' poor featured the tasty garnishes beloved today, such as tomatoes, cheese, oil, anchovies and garlic.

Italy unified in 1861, and King Umberto I and Queen Margherita visited Naples in 1889. Legend has it that the traveling pair became bored with their steady diet of French haute cuisine and asked for an assortment of pizzas from the city's Pizzeria Brandi, the successor to Da Pietro pizzeria, founded in 1760. The variety the queen enjoyed most was called pizza mozzarella, a pie topped with soft white cheese, red tomatoes and green basil. (Perhaps it was no coincidence that her favorite pie featured the colors of the Italian flag.) From then on, the story goes, that particular topping combination was dubbed pizza Margherita.

Queen Margherita's blessing could have been the start of an Italy-wide pizza craze. But pizza would remain little known in Italy beyond Naples' borders until the 1940s.

An ocean away, though, immigrants to the United States from Naples were replicating their trusty, crusty pizzas in New York and other American cities, including Trenton, New Haven, Boston, Chicago and St. Louis. The Neapolitans were coming for factory jobs, as did millions of Europeans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; they weren't seeking to make a culinary statement. But relatively quickly, the flavors and aromas of pizza began to intrigue non-Neapolitans and non-Italians.

One of the first documented United States pizzerias was G. (for Gennaro) Lombardi's on Spring Street in Manhattan, licensed to sell pizza in 1905. (Prior to that, the dish was homemade or purveyed by unlicensed vendors.) Lombardi's, still in operation today though no longer at its 1905 location, "has the same oven as it did originally," notes food critic John Mariani, author of How Italian Food Conquered the World.

Debates over the finest slice in town can be heated, as any pizza fan knows. But Mariani credited three East Coast pizzerias with continuing to churn out pies in the century-old tradition: Totonno's (Coney Island, Brooklyn, opened 1924); Mario's (Arthur Avenue, the Bronx, opened 1919); and Pepe's (New Haven, opened 1925).

As Italian Americans, and their food, migrated from city to suburb, east to west, especially after World War II, pizza's popularity in the United States boomed. No longer seen as an "ethnic" treat, it was increasingly identified as fast, fun food. Regional, decidedly non-Neapolitan variations emerged, eventually including California-gourmet pizzas topped with anything from barbecued chicken to smoked salmon.

Postwar pizza finally reached Italy and beyond. "Like blue jeans and rock and roll, the rest of the world, including the Italians, picked up on pizza just because it was American," explains Mariani.

Today international outposts of American chains like Domino's and Pizza Hut thrive in about 60 different countries. Reflecting local tastes, global pizza toppings can run the gamut from Gouda cheese in Curaçao to hardboiled eggs in Brazil.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Did you know pizza took the United States by storm before it became popular in its native Italy?

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Every Night is Pizza Night | Read Aloud Books for Kids

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The Princess and the Pizza Literature Unit

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The Princess and the Pizza Literature Unit

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The Princess and the Pizza - Literature Unit

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The Princess and the Pizza - Literature Unit

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Before you place an order, check out our pick for the best pizza chain.

ORBON ALIJA/GETTY IMAGES

Searching for the Best Pizza Chain

Everyone loves pizza night! Sometimes that means making a homemade pizza, or popping a frozen pizza in the oven. Other times, the best solution is to order delivery. There are plenty of fast-food pizza options, but it's hard to know which one will hit all the marks. That means a taste test is in order!

We considered many factors when ranking the best pizza chain. We had to bear in mind the crust, the sauce and the toppings. And delivery or takeout options as well as price and value! For this experiment we ordered a medium (or equivalent) pizza with the standard crust option and pepperoni as the topping.

We also limited this test to takeout and delivery pizza standards. (Sorry, California Pizza Kitchen lovers.)

We looked for the most satisfying pizza with delicious toppings (and plenty of them) as well as gooey, melty cheese, perfect crust and flavorful sauce. Most importantly, though, we looked for a pizza that made us want to go back for another slice. Read on to see how your favorite pizza chain ranked.

Kristina Vänni For Taste of Home

10. Chuck E. Cheese

We all remember trips to Chuck E. Cheese, but did you know that you can order the pizza for takeout or delivery? You can! This pizza had an unusual crust, almost like a thin cornbread, and unfortunately it didn't travel well. The sauce was a bit unremarkable too. While there are definitely fond memories of games and music at Chuck E. Cheese growing up, the pizza seems to be less of a priority at this chain. That being said, there is some satisfaction in taking that first bite. It tastes like elementary school birthday party nostalgia.

9. Jet's

Jet's offers a huge assortment of pizzas on the menu. You can go for thin crust, deep dish, hand-tossed or New York-style crust-or opt for one of their specialties: the four (or eight) corner pizza. And Jet's has plenty of specialty topping combos, too. Picky about pizza? See what the pizza delivery person won't tell you.

For the sake of this test, though, we went with the hand-tossed option for the pepperoni pizza. It arrived with plenty of toppings-always a plus, but seemed pretty greasy to us (yes, even by delivery pizza standards) and the crust was chewier than we'd like. Since the four-corner pizzas and Jet's Bread are go-to favorites for many diners, it seems if you're going to Jet's, you might want to go beyond standard and level up to their other pizza options.

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We Ordered (and Ate) 10 Pizzas to Find the Best Pizza Chain

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To find the best pizza chain for delivery or takeout, we ordered (and taste tested) 10 different cheese pizzas. Here's what we found out!

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Just how much pizza do Americans eat? Here are 23 tasty pizza statistics and fun facts that prove just how much we love this cheesy pie.

No matter how you slice it, pizza is hands-down one of the most popular foods in America. While versions of this tempting treat can be traced back to ancient Greece, it's the Italians who are credited with its perfection. Although you may get some arguments over whether Chicago deep dish is better than New York style thin-crust, pizza continues to be a perennial favorite among people of all ages.

Whether you prefer plain cheese or you like to mix things up with vegetables, meats or toppings that are a little more exotic, there's no right or wrong way to eat pizza. To give you an idea of how other people like to enjoy theirs, CreditDonkey has come up with 23 tasty statistics and fun facts on the pizza-munching habits of Americans.

PIZZA CONSUMPTION IN THE U.S.

To start, we decided to get the lowdown on just how much pizza Americans are eating. Below, we've highlighted what we think are the most significant numbers that demonstrate the full extent of pizza's popularity.

1. How many pizzas are consumed annually?
On average, Americans down about 3 billion pizzas each and every year. Overall, the U.S. accounts for about one-third of global pizza consumption.

2. What's the average number of slices we eat annually?
While some folks eat more and some eat less, the typical person takes in 46 slices of pizza per year. That adds up to about 23 pounds of pizza eaten annually.

3. How many slices do Americans eat per second?
Estimates put the number of pizza slices sold each second at 350, which comes out to about 21,000 per minute. That's about 1.26 million per hour and 30 million each day.

4. Who eats the most pizza?
Men are more likely to eat pizza, accounting for 15% of total consumption, versus 11% for women. Kids between the ages of 2 and 19 prove to be the biggest pizza eaters, with 20% grabbing a slice compared to 11% of adults.

5. How much pizza is consumed at home?
While there are thousands of pizza restaurants to choose from in the U.S., 59% of Americans opt to have theirs at home instead.

6. How does income affect pizza consumption?
Households with an income between $75,000 and $99,000 tend to spend the most on pizza annually.

PIZZA INDUSTRY BY THE NUMBERS

Pizza is a huge moneymaker; we were surprised at just how much revenue pizzeria owners, retail chains and grocery stores rake in each year. We looked at the industry in general to get a feel for which brands come out on top and how much variety consumers really have.

7. How much revenue does the pizza industry generate?
As of 2013, the pizza industry reported sales of nearly $38 billion in the U.S., which represents a 1.2% increase over 2012 figures. Worldwide pizza revenue topped $130 billion over the same period.

8. What's the most popular pizza chain?
When it comes to the big brand pizza joints, Pizza Hut reigns supreme with close to 15,000 stores and nearly $13 billion in annual sales. Domino's, Papa Johns, Little Caesars and Papa Murphy's round out the top 5.

9. How much frozen pizza is sold each year?
While there's nothing like going out for a slice or getting delivery, Americans love pulling a hot pizza fresh from their own oven too. Consumers in the U.S. spend roughly $4.4 billion on frozen pizza each year, with DiGiorno generating close to $1.2 billion alone. Approximately 2 out of every 3 households consume frozen pizza regularly.

10. What's the average pizza cost?
Frozen pizzas sell for an average of $6.37, which is less expensive than what you'd pay at a restaurant. Nationwide, the average price per pie ranges from $8.90 in Kentucky to $16 in the Big Apple.

11. How many pizzerias are there in the U.S.?
Altogether, there were just over 71,000 pizzerias operating nationwide in 2013. Independent eateries represent more than 53% of the market, while major brands like Pizza Hut and Domino's account for a quarter of all sales.

12. Which states have the most and least pizzerias?
While New York gives the Golden State a run for its money, California has the highest number of pizzerias, totaling more than 6,600 as of 2013. On the other hand, Arkansas residents don't seem to love pizza as much as the rest of America, with only 139 pizzerias in all. Wyoming isn't too far behind with just 141.

13. What is the highest grossing independent pizzeria?
Believe it or not, the highest grossing single unit independent pizzeria in the nation is Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria located in Anchorage, Alaska. It generates an annual revenue of about $6 million - very impressive for a standalone eatery.

PIZZA EATING TRENDS

Three billion pizzas is a staggering amount of food, and we were curious about who's eating it all. We used some of the data we collected to come up with a profile of the typical pizza aficionado, including what kind of pizza they enjoy most and when they like to eat it.

14. How many people eat pizza every day?
Around 1 in 8 Americans are eating pizza on any given day. Guys between the age of 6 and 19 are twice as likely to chow down on pizza daily compared to other consumers.

15. What's the most popular time of day to eat pizza?
Around 59% of adults prefer to have pizza for dinner, while 44% of kids choose it as a lunch option. Eleven percent of adults like to snack on pizza while 2% sometimes have it for breakfast.

16. What's the number one pizza topping?
Pepperoni is overwhelmingly the most popular choice among 36% of Americans, followed by sausage at 14%. Only 8% prefer their pizza with just cheese only.

17. What is the biggest day for pizza sales?
Super Bowl Sunday is the most popular day to eat pizza, with pizzerias seeing an average increase of 35% in sales. New Year's Eve, Halloween, Thanksgiving's Eve, and New Year's Day round out the top 5 pizza sales days of the year.

PIZZA ODDS AND ENDS

We decided to finish our study by including a rundown of some of the more offbeat pizza statistics out there. If you've ever wondered how far pizza makers are willing to go to deliver the goods or which pizza outweighs all others, take a look at what we found.

18. What's the most expensive pizza delivery on record?
In 2001, Pizza Hut made history when it paid the Russian government $1 million to deliver space-consumable pizza to the cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station.

19. What's the longest pizza delivery?
In 2001, Butler's Pizza in Cape Town, South Africa broke a record when they personally delivered a pizza all the way to Sydney, Australia 6861 miles away. We wonder if the pizza was still hot when it got there!

20. How big was the largest pizza ever made?
In 2012, a group of Italian pizza makers concocted the largest pie on record, weighing in at more than 51,000 pounds and measuring 131 feet across. It took more than two days to bake the dough, which required nearly 10 tons of flour to make.

21. What's the largest commercially available pizza?
If you've got to feed a big group, Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria in Los Angeles has just what you're looking for. For around $200, you can get a 54-inch by 54-inch custom-made pie, but you'll need to call 24 hours in advance to order.

22. How much does the world's most expensive pizza cost?
While you can typically satisfy your pizza craving for just a few bucks, diners at Nino's Bellissima Pizza in Manhattan spend just a little more. A luxury pizza featuring two different types of caviar and thinly shaved lobster comes with a $1,000 price tag.

23. What are the most popular pizza toppings in other countries?
While Americans prefer the classic pepperoni, the rest of the world has very different ideas of what makes the perfect pizza topping. The French likes theirs with a fried egg, while the Russians like theirs with sardines, tuna, herring, and mackerel (can you say fish overload?!). In Japan, the mayo jaga (mayo, corn, bacon, potatoes, and onion) is so popular that you can find it in Dominos, while coconut is the favored topping of choice in Costa Rica.

FINAL WORD

If reading these statistics got your stomach growling, a slice of pizza may be just the thing to hit the spot. Just make sure you take a walk around the block afterwards to work off all that ooey gooey deliciousness.

Sources and References:
Rebecca Lake is a journalist at CreditDonkey, a credit card comparison and reviews website. Write to Rebecca Lake at rebecca@creditdonkey.com. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for our latest posts.
Note: This website is made possible through financial relationships with some of the products and services mentioned on this site. We may receive compensation if you shop through links in our content. You do not have to use our links, but you help support CreditDonkey if you do.
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Pizza Statistics: 23 Mouthwatering Fun Facts

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Just how much pizza do Americans eat? Here are 23 tasty pizza statistics and fun facts that prove just how much we love this cheesy pie.

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10 Largest Pizza Chains In The US - Zippia

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Largest Pizza Chains Research Summary The largest Pizza chain in the U.S. is Domino's Pizza Inc. with a revenue of $4.53 billion in 2022. As of 2023, the U.S. pizza chain industry has a market size of $65 billion. There are 35,309 chain and 39,808 independent pizza restaurants in the U.S.

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Whether you love it, or only sorta love it, pizza is big business. Over any two-week period, nearly two-thirds of Americans will eat some form of pizza, either frozen or at a restaurant, according to consumer-marketing research firm the NPD Group. Overall, pizza is the sixth-most popular dinner entree in the U.S. That's a lotta dough. From pizza trainers to eco-friendly pizzerias and big franchises, we serve up some of the most innovative entrepreneurs who have taken a bite of the giant pizza market over the years.

Pizza a Casa

Founder: Mark Bello
Year opened: 2010
Number of locations: 1
Signature pie: Mozzarella and basil pizza

Mark Bello (above) opened Pizza a Casa on New York City's Lower East Side, he says, after spending nearly five years as a "nomadic pizza-teacher-for-hire," sharing his pizza skills at various locations around the Big Apple. At Pizza a Casa, the customers don't buy pizzas. Instead, they make their own, and they each pay Bello $150 to teach them how. Since opening about a year ago, Bello says he's taught more than 2,000 students how to work their dough.

Naked Pizza

Founders (left to right) Randy Crochet, Robbie Vitrano, Brock Fillinger and Jeff Leach
Year opened: 2006
Number of locations: 14
Signature pie: The Superbiotic -- "prebiotic" fiber crust, mozzarella, herbed tomato sauce, mixed vegetables
Franchise startup costs: $275,000-$350,000

For the founders of Naked Pizza, the goal was to demonstrate that food can help fight obesity and chronic disease. To that end, they set out to create their version of the world's healthiest pizza. The crust is made of a blend of 10 grains and seeds, as well as prebiotics -- fiber that some claim improves digestion. The pies are topped with sauce made without transfats, butter, added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup; skim-milk mozzarella; and meats from animals raised without growth hormones or antibiotics. Also setting the business apart is its aggressive social media strategy which taps outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate its vision to its customers.

Si's Pizzeria

Founder: Siler Chapman
Year opened: 2002
Known for: Award-winning dough tosser

One year after opening the first Si's Pizzeria in Fort Mill, S.C., Siler Chapman (above) was persuaded by a friend to compete in a dough-tossing contest. As Chapman found out, making pizzas is a lot different than competitive tossing. He was booed off the stage. He spent the next six months practicing and went on to win the freestyle acrobatic title at the U.S. Pizza Championships in Los Angeles. He also helped form the World Pizza Champions dough-tossing team, which took home three gold awards at the Pizza Olympics in Italy. In 2007, Chapman converted his three Si's Pizzerias to Donatos franchise restaurants. He's currently the franchisee of 18 Donatos units.

Pizza Fusion

Founders: Michael Gordon (left) and Vaughan Lazar (right)
Year opened: 2006
Number of locations: 10
Signature pie: Founder's Pie -- free-range chicken, kalamata olives, roasted red onion, tomato sauce, gorgonzola, mozzarella, provolone and parmesan cheese
Franchise startup cost: $360,000-$595,000

The concept behind Pizza Fusion is to combine pizza with environmentalism. That explains some of the unusual details found in Pizza Fusion restaurants, including containers made from corn starch, utensils made from potatoes and recycled blue jeans used as insulation. Then there's the pizza, made with organic, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan toppings. "Being good to the environment and community is in our DNA," says co-founder and CEO Vaughan Lazar. "It's who we are."

Uno Chicago Grill

Founders: Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo
Year opened: 1943
Number of locations: 155
Signature pie: The Numero Uno -- sausage, pepperoni, onions, peppers, mushrooms, chunky tomato sauce, and mozzarella and grated Romano cheeses
Franchise startup cost: $2 million

What people know today as Chicago deep-dish pizza is said to be the invention of Ike Sewell (above) and Ric Riccardo, who wanted a pizza that was more like a meal rather than just a snack. The men cooked up a recipe and opened the first Pizzeria Uno restaurant at the corner of Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue in Chicago. The concept gained in popularity. Their first restaurant outside of Chicago opened in Boston in 1979. Their first franchise opened the following year in Washington, D.C. While deep-dish pizza is still the standby, the brand now is Uno Chicago Grill. More than 100 items are on the menu.

Domino's

Founder: Tom Monaghan
Year opened: 1960
Number of locations: 9,300
Signature pie: Pepperoni
Franchise startup cost: $250,000-$375,000

Big dreams can sometimes be built on only a few hundred dollars. In 1960, Tom Monaghan (above) and his brother, James, took out a loan for $500 and bought "DomiNicks," a pizzeria in Ypsilanti, Mich. James left the business the following year, and Tom Monaghan renamed it Domino's Pizza Inc. in 1965. Buoyed by its "30 Minutes, or It's Free" delivery campaign of the 1980s and 1990s, Domino's opened franchise locations around the world. Monaghan retired in 1998 and sold Domino's to private investment firm Bain Capital for a reported $1 billion. In late 2009, Domino's reinvented its core pizza recipe to include a garlic-seasoned crust, a sweeter tomato sauce and flavored cheeses.

Toppers Pizza

Founder: Scott Gittrich
Year opened: 1991
Number of locations: 28
Signature food item: Topperstix -- cheese bread sticks
Franchisee startup cost: $286,628-$529,968

Former Domino's operations manager Scott Gittrich (above) says he turned down an opportunity in 1991 to acquire two failing Domino's franchise restaurants for $1 each. Instead, he opted to create his own pizza concept and opened the first Toppers Pizza in Champaign, Ill. Its quirky and edgy brand resonates with its target demographic of customers aged 18 to 34. It pizzas include the Mac 'N Cheese and the Hangover Helper -- a pie topped with Canadian bacon, onions, green peppers, potatoes, bacon bits, mozzarella and cheddar cheese.

Mystic Pizza

Founders: Stefanos and Fofi Zelepos
Year opened: 1973
Number of locations: 2
Signature pie: House Special -- the works

How many pizzerias have been featured in a Hollywood film? We can think of at least one: Mystic Pizza. First opened by the Zelepos family on Main Street in Mystic, Conn., this seaside establishment serves as the backdrop to the 1988 film of the same name, starring Julia Roberts. The film revolves around two sisters and their friend who -- you guessed it -- work at a pizza parlor in the town of Mystic. Experiencing the pizzeria-made-famous may be only one reason customers keep coming back. The sign out front says: "Mystic Pizza: A Slice of Heaven."

Ray's Pizza

Founder: Ralph Cuomo
Year opened: 1959
Number of Manhattan pizzerias with "Ray" in the name: 17

Original Ray's. Famous Ray's. Famous Original Ray's. Original Famous Ray's. Imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery, right? The first Ray's Pizza was opened on Prince Street in New York City by alleged mobster Ralph Cuomo. Five years later, Rosolino Mangano opened Original Ray's Pizza, and went on to start at least eight more. As the years wore on, it seemed as though a Ray's pizzeria had popped up on every corner in the city -- with variations on the name and numerous owners. But it's the Ray's on Prince Street that local pizza connoisseurs call "quintessentially New York."

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Nine Notable Pizza Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur

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Here's proof that not all pizza is created equal.

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EconEdLink - Where Does the Price of Pizza Come From?

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In this economics lesson, students will examine data for buyers and sellers to learn how prices emerge in a market.

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Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix

Lesson Plan

Pizza Time!

Purpose

Students use pizza as a basis for exploring agriculture, geography, and mathematics. Grades 3-5

Materials Needed
Activity 1: Fabulous Fractions and Pizza Probability Activity 2: Pizza in Real Time Activity 3: Pizza Math Activity 4: Cracker Pizzas

Crackers

Pizza sauce

Cheese, pepperoni, and pizza toppings of your choice

Vocabulary

farm: an area of land used for growing crops or rearing animals

Background Agricultural Connections

Farming and agriculture are a part of everyone's life in one way or another. From the job you might have someday to the lunch you eat today-many things in our lives are related to agriculture.

Take a look at a typical school cafeteria lunch of ham, corn, tater tots, chocolate pudding, and a bread roll. Each part of the meal is related directly to agriculture. Milk comes from cows on a dairy farm and is pasteurized at a dairy plant. Ham is a pork product that comes from pigs, and bread is made from flour, a product of wheat. Wheat is grown and harvested on a farm, then ground to make flour at a mill. Corn is also grown on a farm, as are the potatoes that were shredded for the tater tots. The corn was probably canned in a factory, while the potatoes were peeled, shredded, cooked, frozen and packaged at a different factory before being shipped to the school. Even the chocolate pudding is made of milk, soybeans, and corn from farms.

As you go through this lesson, remind students that all food begins on the farm. Now it's pizza time!

Engage

1. Ask students to identify their favorite pizza toppings. List them on the board.

2. Ask your students if they know where the pizza toppings came from.

3. Inform your students that they will do the following:

Identify where pizza ingredients were produced;

Calculate how long it takes to produce pizza ingredients beginning with production on the farm;

Practice skills in division and graphing using the pizza; and

Locate the states where pizza ingredients were produced.

Explore and Explain
Activity 1: Fabulous Fractions and Pizza Probability

Have students complete the Pizza Starts on the Farm activity sheet.
Activity 2: Pizza in Real Time

Share the information from the attached Ingredients-Where Do They Come From? handout with students, and have them consider the time it actually takes to produce a pizza. Then have them complete the In Real Time activity sheet.

Optional: Use the Pizza Time Bulletin Board to have your students use the skill of "telling time" with the time it takes to grow, process, and produce the ingredients of a pizza. The bulletin board can easily be used to teach concepts of time, community involvement, raw to finished products, careers, and much more.
Activity 3: Pizza Math

1. Have students interview their classmates about what their favorite pizza toppings and/or pizza restaurants are and graph the results. You may use the My Favorite Pizza activity sheets included with this lesson, or you may simply use them as a guideline for other interview questions and charts that your students may enjoy.

2. This is also an opportunity to introduce or review with your students how to read and create different types of graphs for different kinds of data.

Activity 4: Cracker Pizzas

1. To conclude the lesson, provide ingredients for students to build their own cracker pizza. As each ingredient is distributed, review with students where the ingredient originated or how it was produced or processed.

2. Display a map of the United States and have students locate the state that is the top producer of that pizza ingredient. As each state is identified, point out it's characteristics such as climate and open space. Explain to students that pizza ingredients, with the exception of pineapple, can be produced in any state. However, some states, due to their climate or other available resources can produce certain food products more efficiently. For example, California is the highest producing state for milk, peppers, and tomatoes. California's warm and temperate climate makes farming very easy and efficient. Tomatoes and peppers can grow in any state, but the natural growing season may be too short, requiring the added expense of using a greenhouse. Cattle require open land and pastures to graze. Texas is a large state that can provide the open space for cattle to grow.

Pizza Crust (cracker): The primary ingredient of a pizza crust is wheat. Kansas is the highest wheat producing state in the United States.

Pizza Sauce: The primary ingredient of pizza sauce is tomatoes. California produces the most tomatoes for commercial sale.

Pepperoni: Pepperoni is seasoned beef and pork meat. Texas produces the most beef cattle of any state. Iowa is the highest producing state for market pigs.

Peppers: California is the leading producer of peppers.

Cheese: California is the leading producer of milk. Cheese is one of many dairy products produced from milk.

Mushrooms: Pennsylvania is the leading producer of mushrooms.

Pineapple: Hawaii is the leading producer of pineapple in the United States. Pineapples require a tropical climate to grow.

3. When all toppings have been distributed, allow students to eat their cracker pizzas.

Elaborate

Have the class interview their friends and families or ask another class in a different town (or even another state) to conduct the same survey and compare the results. Another option would be to survey local pizza restaurants and compare their responses.

Use the Pizza Reader or Pizza Ag Mag for reading time.

Evaluate

After conducting these activities, review and summarize the following key concepts:

All food products (including pizza) begin on the farm, are processed, and then sold to consumers.

The ingredients to make a pizza take months and even years to grow on the farm before the pizza can be assembled.

Acknowledgements

Activity 4 was contributed by Mary Jo Baitinger, Marshall County Iowa Agriculture in the Classroom.

Statistics in Activity 4 were reported by Crop Production 2014 Summary (January 2015) 5 USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service

Recommended Companion Resources

Organization

Utah Agriculture in the Classroom

We welcome your feedback! If you have a question about this lesson or would like to report a broken link, please send us an email. If you have used this lesson and are willing to share your experience, we will provide you with a coupon code for 10% off your next purchase at AgClassroomStore.

Agricultural Literacy

Education Content Standards

Common Core Connections

Education Content Standards

Social Studies - Geography (GEOGRAPHY)

Geography Standard 11 (Grades 3-4): The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface.

Objective 2 Some locations are better suited than others to provide certain goods and services.

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Debra Spielmaker, Administrator and Yasuko Mitsuoka Grow, Designer

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The National Agriculture in the Classroom website provides K-12 educators with engaging resources to increase agricultural literacy among their students.