By Karen Sternheimer

Do you remember your first taste of pizza? I don’t because I’ve been eating it all my life, as you probably have been too. Pizza is practically universal food; it’s one of those words that remains the same in multiple languages, although pronunciations might vary a bit.

Why is pizza something you can find nearly anywhere in the (industrialized) world? Yes, it tastes good, it can be portable, and sold by the slice. It’s a food with just a few ingredients that is relatively cheap and easy to produce. But it also teaches us about globalization and the way in which commerce and culture cross borders.

We might think about pizza as Italian food, as its origins are thought to be from Naples, towards the southern end of the Italian peninsula. But as I wrote about last year, pizza’s international popularity has more to do with Italian immigration to the United States, and the mass exportation of American culture to points around the world. Pizza Hut was not the first American pizza franchise, but it has nearly 20,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, according to its website. Pizza Hut is just one brand and style of pizza; others like Domino’s and Little Caesars have also franchised restaurants globally.

The large number of of U.S. military bases is one reason American pizza chains’ global reach (here’s a quick video of a food court at one base). If you look at the food choices, you can see that they are mostly fast-food options that we might think of as comfort food. It is a relatively easy way to provide military personnel with a sense of home while overseas. Global fast-food franchises are also geared towards setting up shop in places around the world, so it’s relatively easy as well.

The exact number of countries containing U.S. military bases is unclear, but estimates range from 49 countries to 95 countries. This contributes to the global reach of both pizza and Americans, which began just after World War II as the Cold War began.

The expanded military presence is a large factor, but not the only reason that pizza has spread around the world. American culture—movies, music, television, and sports—has been one of our top exports since the mid-twentieth century. In the years following World War II, the American economy boomed and consumption became a way of life, while much of the world took longer to recover economically from the war. Exported American movies, often featuring American prosperity—and occasionally pizza—led to American cultural dominance.

Concerns about American cultural imperialism, or the erasure of local cultures in favor of food, fashion, language, and other aspects of American culture that now dominate some markets, can be reflected in the widespread availability of pizza, for instance. While people might not complain that there is too much pizza, tourists especially might miss other local foods in favor of the familiar pizza and pasta. This might create markets in heavily touristed cities for pizza, for instance, and push other types of restaurants out of business. Locals might have trouble finding traditional foods in areas that heavily cater to tourists.

That’s why wherever I have traveled around the world pizza is never far and always a possible meal option. It may take on different forms depending on where you are: New York, Chicago, and Detroit have their own styles in the U.S. Napoli-style pizza, with its super-thin crust and sparse ingredients might disappoint some people expecting other styles. Since many Italian-American immigrants came from Sicily, we in the U.S. are much more familiar with Sicilian-style pizza, with its thicker crust. Having traveled to northern Italy multiple times, but never southern Italy, my expectations about pizza have been tempered since it is not a local specialty, but just like around the world, some pizzerias are great, and others are just okay (one of the best pieces of pizza I had in Italy was at a grocery store counter in Venice). As I wrote about last year, northern Italian cuisine is very different from the Italian-American food we come to think of as Italian, and shares more connections with its Alpine neighbors (Switzerland and Austria) to the north.

What other foods have been shaped by globalization?