A modern day dish

Pizza is a popular dish commonly made from a round and flattened dough that is covered with tomato sauce, cheese and a variety of toppings such as ground meat, pepperoni, onion, black olives, bell pepper, mushroom, vegetables and many others. The toppings depend on the type or pizza, which can range from plain cheese and pepperoni to gourmet or seafood.

Traditional pizzas typically use bread as their base, commonly referred to as the crust. The crust can also vary according to the style that is used. These styles include the hand tossed pizza, which is characterized by its thin crust; the pan pizza, which has a thick crust; and the Chicago style pizza, in which the crust tends to be very thick.

Pizza is commonly baked in an oven. In many countries, this dish is baked in a gas canister oven with stone bricks with the heat source coming from above. There is also the brick oven, which uses coal or wood for its fire. Electric and gas convection ovens are also used for baking pizza. Generally, pizza is slid into the oven through the use of a long paddle, called a peel; other methods, however, include the pizza being placed inside a pan as it is being baked.

In Italy, restaurants that served pizza are called Pizzerias. In Canada and the United States, pizza restaurants are called pizza parlors, where the pizza is served fresh. Some restaurants, for example in New York and Chicago, even show the chef creating the pizza through a two way mirror so the customer may see that how their dish is being made. This is especially impressive when the pizza crust is hand tossed.

It has also become a common practice to order pizza over the telephone and have it delivered fresh and hot to your door.