1887 VERONA, ITALY - Two brothers, Mario and Paulo run a popular restaurant, packed with paying guests every night. People travel from as far as Rome and Pisa to Verona to eat their famous Lasagna Belcante and Ciabatta Regatta, which they prepare in their own wood-fired oven.

One October night, after the last guest went home and after a few drinks, Mario and Paulo start goofing around in their kitchen. Mario picks up three tomatoes and starts juggling them. Paulo in turn, shows off his juggling skills with three mushrooms. He makes a face as if to say: "Big deal, I can juggle anything!" So then Mario points at three things on the counter and says: "Oh really...? Then let me see you juggle that!" "Oh, that's easy," Paulo replies an picks up the two artichoke hearts and piece of cheese and performs a reverse cascade.

Mario and Paulo continue to challenge each other by juggling whatever leftover food items they can get their hands on. They laugh and scream, slap-happy as they are. Their juggling escapade ends when a large piece of bread dough falls on the kitchen floor, forming a flat oval. 

While they are down, Mario and Paulo see all the leftover food spread out on the kitchen floor. "What a waste," Mario says. "Let's push it together, put it in the oven and see what cooks up." So they scrape the food off the floor, pile it on top of the flattened dough and put the whole thing in the oven.

After about 20 minutes,  having cleaned their kitchen, Paulo pulls their creation out from the oven. Jokingly he pretends he is delivering a baby through the wood-fire oven's opening.

Paulo: "Eewh, you are an ugly little baby!"
Mario: "Shall we keep him?"
Paulo: "What makes you so sure it's a boy?"
Mario: "Come on Paulo, that's obvious, look at that mushroom!"
Paulo: "But what about thát?" (pointing at the smashed artichoke)

Tears of laughter are rolling over Mario's cheeks when Paulo holds one end of a long string of melted cheese. At this moment their conversation turns historic:

Paulo: "Do you want to cut the umbilical chord Mario?"
Mario (besides himself): "Stoppe, stoppe Paulo, I cannot hold it... I gotte to pizza!"

('I gotte to pizza' = 'I have to pee' in Italian)

Paulo: "PIZZA? That's a great name Mario. Yes, let's call her Pizza!"

Mario: "I love it! Oh, I can't wait to see the look on mama's face when we bring Pizza home. She always wanted to be a grandmama."

The story ends with Paulo having a fit watching Mario try to breastfeed Pizza.
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Please share this story if you didn't know this is how the pizza was born.

Enjoy now,
Miro