What really is pizza? When and where did it begin? When was tomato sauce added to pizza? And how and why did pizza become one of America’s most popular savory foods? And will its success continue into the future? These and other crucial questions will be addressed by culinary historian Andrew F. Smith, who has enjoyed a wide variety of pizzas for more than 65 years. Come prepared to argue for your favorite pizza!

Andrew F. Smith is the author or editor of thirty-two books. His most recent works include the three-volume Food in America (ABC-CLIO, 2017), Savoring Gotham: Oxford University Press, 2015), and Fast Food: The Good, the Bad and the Hungry (Reaktion 2016). His most recent work is “Why Waste Food? Feed People, Save the Environment, Make Money,” which is scheduled for publication in 2020. He serves as the series editor for both the “Edible Series” and the “Food Controversies Series” at Reaktion Books in the United Kingdom. He has taught food history courses at the New School in New York City since 1996. He has delivered more than fifteen hundred presentations on various educational, historical, culinary, and international topics, and has organized more than eighty national and international conferences.