Introducing: Eating History Season 1, Pizza
5/18/20262 min
Every bite has a backstory. Welcome to Eating History, the podcast that serves up the wild, scandalous, and mouth-watering tales behind the foods that changed the world. Join Michelin-starred chef and Top Chef runner-up Adrienne Cheatham and her husband, history buff Stephen Bailey, as they pair elite culinary expertise with epic historical deep-dives. For Season 1, we’re slicing into the ultimate global obsession: Pizza. Discover how a dirt-cheap street food from the back alleys of Naples conquered the globe, sparked endless fiery debates, and built a multi-billion-dollar empire. Along the way, you’ll cross paths with emperors, immigrants, hustlers, chefs, and royalty—the fascinating people who turned food into history. Grab a seat at the table. New episodes drop every Wednesday!
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAdrienne Cheatham· Host0:00
Hey, Eating History listeners. Quick question. Have you ever gotten into an argument about pizza? I mean, not do you like pizza. Everyone likes pizza. We're talking about a real argument. New York versus Chicago, pineapple or no pineapple, whether that slice you're eating even counts as pizza at all.
Stephen Bailey· Host0:16
Because here's what we've learned making this season. Pizza might be the most argued-about food in human history. And by the end of this season, you're gonna understand why. You're gonna meet a Roman foodie who literally killed himself when he ran out of money for fancy meals. A queen whose pizza order changed world history. A guy who jumped ship in New Orleans to marry a stranger, got violently ill, and used that motivation to invent what maybe is the most controversial pizza style of all time.
Adrienne Cheatham· Host0:47
You're gonna find out why Detroit pizza is baked in car parts, which both strangely does and doesn't make sense, why the first major pizza chain's founders weren't Italian, and why app-based delivery is destroying the soul of pizza, or saving it, depending on who you ask.
Stephen Bailey· Host1:02
But here's the thing. Pizza is not just a food story. It's a story about people and migration, about class, about what happens when something invented by the poor gets discovered by the rich, copied by businessmen, and turned into a global industry. And all of that started with one simple question. What happens when you put something on top of dough and apply heat? But to answer that question, we need to go back to the very beginning.