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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