APRIL 1 • 2021 | 53

A

ccording to the Italian American 
Historical Society, the pizza is 
of Jewish origin and its true 
ancestor is the matzah ... unleavened 
bread eaten at Passover, this year March 
27-April 4 ... Roman 
soldiers in about 200 B.C. 
decided to chop up the 
matzah with a dab of olive 
oil and some cheese ... Lo 
the pizza was born.
The pizza went into 
decline when Rome fell, but 
the custom of having public 
ovens in the town square kept it alive in 
Naples and Sicily.
Children always hovered about when 
the good wives came to bake their daily 
bread and were rewarded with a slab of 
pizza made from leftover dough.
Two different styles emerged ... The 
Sicilians made a crust several inches thick 
... The Neapolitans likes it wafer thin.
The pizza fad got started in 1936 when 
a saloon owner asked a restaurant supply 
man to develop a small oven capable of 
generating the 600 degrees needed for 
pizza ... The first pizza sold like hot cakes 
in New York’s German neighborhood 

because, he said, “the Italians don’t go 
much for eating out.”
The pizza still jumps ethnic and 
geographic barriers ... New York and 
Chicago are said to lead the field, but 
Boston, Miami and Los Angeles were 
breathing hot mozzarella fumes down 
their necks ... with Philadelphia and 
Detroit close behind.
Jewish neighborhoods were considered 
the best locations for pizza places, Irish 
and German came next, with the Italians 
far in the rear.
WES PIKULA who started as a 
dishwasher 46 years ago when Buddy’s 
Pizza was on 6 Mile, is today its chief 
brand officer ... and also has a small 
interest in Buddy’s Pizza, now owned by 
CapitalSpring.
MAIL DEPT. ... “Do you know what it 
was before becoming the London Chop 
House? My grandfather in California, 
Hiram Ackerman, used to tell me that he 
went to the London Chop House when 
it first opened and had great perch.” ... 
Henry Ackerman.
(It was called Heed’s Chop House that 
Les Gruber bought around 1939 and 
opened as the London Chop House in 

the Murphy Building on Congress ... His 
chef then was Eddie Dobler, the onetime 
“Perch King of America” who used to be 
at Breitmeyer’s Larned Grill.)
NO, THAT wasn’t Orson Welles at the 
Mayfield Chophouse on Griswold ... He 
was Joe Luft, its look-alike owner.
OLDIE BUT GOODIE ... A Jewish man 
took his Passover lunch to eat outside 
in the park ... He sat down on a bench 
and began eating ... Since he did not 
eat leavened bread during the eight-
day holiday, he was eating matzah, flat 
unleavened bread that has dozens of 
perforations.
A little while later, a blind man 
came by and sat next to him ... Feeling 
neighborly, the Jewish man passed a 
sheet of matzah to the blind man... The 
blind man handled the matzah for a few 
minutes, looked puzzled, and finally 
exclaimed, “Who wrote this junk?” 
CONGRATS ... To Dr. Scott Sircus on 
his birthday ... To Sid Neuman on his 
birthday ...To Robert Seffinger on his 
birthday ... To Marilyn and Al Frommer 
on their anniversary. 

Email Danny at: dannyraskin2132@gmail.com.

Danny 
Raskin
Senior Columnist

Perusing Matzah Pizza

RASKIN
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In memory of
Stephen (z” l) Grand

Yad Ezra’s leadership has been honored 

and blessed to have Stephen (z” l) Grand

as one of the organization’s early champions. 

Over the past two dozen years, he and his wife, Nancy, have 

generously provided the funds needed to support Yad Ezra’s food 

insecure families. Their commitment has resulted in the distribution 

of hundreds of thousands of pounds of healthy and desirable groceries. 

With our most sincere condolences to the Grand family,

Yad Ezra’s Board of Directors and Staff

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