Hi friends! I am your friend Mr Pizza. I am children’s favourite and many kids adore me so much that they don’t spend any weekend without eating me — they either eat me in restaurants; buy me and take me to eat wherever they want or simply order me while sitting in their homes.

You must have eaten me many times and with many delicious toppings such as cheese, mushroom, beef, chicken, vegetables, barbeque sauce, pineapple, etc., but many of you may not be aware of my origin and the process used to prepare me. So, I am here to share with you yummy bits of my history.

My origins are from Italy where I was considered a peasant’s meal for centuries. I really don’t know who invented the very first pizza pie because foods very similar to me in taste and appearance were eaten by many people in the Mediterranean, including Greeks and Egyptians. But my modern form, as you eat today, is the invention of a baker named Raffaele Esposito of Naples, who, in 1889, owned a restaurant named Pizzeria di Pietro and there he baked my modern form for the first time and named it ‘pizza’.

Esposito prepared me especially for the visit of Italian King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. From thereon, my fame spread to the rest of the world and now I have become an international food and have been liked in many countries, including Pakistan, but it’s Italians who have been eating me as their ‘main food’ since, I guess, Stone Age.

It’s rightly said that ‘every dog has his day’ because during my early years, I was considered as a poor man’s meal and was only eaten by labourers and their families, but God changed my fate and now affluent people feel pleasure in eating me. The restaurants that specialise in serving me have been earning huge profits. In short, from being a poor man’s meal, I have become an elite food.

But dear kids it doesn’t mean that you can only eat me at expensive restaurants — preparing me at home is also possible and easy. Of course you can have me in your favourite pizza restaurant but if your parents can’t afford to visit it frequently, you can always ask your mom to prepare me for you at home.

All it takes it to make the dough, put sauce, cheese and your favourite toppings and then bake me. These are the basic steps needed to prepare me. So if you are craving to eat me and can’t order me from a restaurant for some reason, opt for my homemade version. I am sure you will love it because you can add toppings according to your own taste and as much of it as you want.

Hey kids, there is one more thing about myself that I have to tell you — International Pizza Day is celebrated on February 9. Interestingly, it is a day that doesn’t fall within the National Pizza Month, which is celebrated in October in the US. Anyhow, be it February 9 or whole month of October, you can enjoy me any day, any time, and with any topping!