In different sources, one can find a legend that the most famous pizza in the world got its name thanks to Queen Margarita Savoy, who highly appreciated the recipe. We tried to figure out whether it corresponds to historical facts.

Although in different publications the details are slightly different, in general terms the legend is as follows. In 1889, King Umberto I and his wife Margarita were supposed to arrive in Naples. The monarch couple is allegedly tired of exquisite cuisine, and the organizers of the visit decided to surprise the guests. They asked the master Raffael Esposito to prepare three different pizzas for the queen. At the audience, Margarita gave preference to pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, repeating the colors of the Italian tricolor. An employee of the royal court even sent Esposito a letter of thanks, which still decorates the wall of his pizzeria (now it is called Pizzeria Brandi). In one form or another, the legend is mentioned in "Wikipedia", and c Advertising materials of restaurants, and on tourist sites, and c Culinary books.

Similar stories, widely represented in popular sources, often attract the attention of researchers. In 2014, a historian Zakhari Novak From Harvard University published article, in which he not only collected the already well -known facts about the appearance of Pizza Margarita, but also supplemented them with finds that he made in Italian archives. Novak identifies the main elements of the legend, the consideration of which will help to conclude that it actually happened.

Firstly, archival data put under the big question the Korolev attributed the desire to dilute the bored high French cuisine with simple local food. Banquets arranged by Margarita were considered one of the most refined in Europe, the best cooks worked at court, and the menu was printed exclusively in French until 1908.

Secondly, at the end of the 19th century, even by the standards of poor southern Italy, Pizza was considered the food of the poor and was not at all a traditional dish in any Neapolitan family. Moreover, the region constantly suffered from cholera epidemics, which makes a story with a tasting of dishes of unknown origin even less likely. Finally, why the order was made precisely with Esposito - it is also not clear, because about 60 pizzerias worked in the city at that time and the establishment of Esposito did not stand out against their background.

Thirdly, great doubts are the authenticity of a letters of thanks from the servant of the royal court Camillo Galli, which to this day decorates the wall in an institution that previously belonged to Esposito. Although such papers were not rare in Italy at the end of the 19th century, the researcher failed to find information about this letter in the archives. The search for traces of the fact that Esposito and Galli was generally corresponded at all, although all such correspondence was carefully documented. Moreover, the handwriting on the letter does not coincide with the samples of Galli's handwriting, and the seal, only reminiscent of the royal, is located in the wrong part of the sheet where it was on similar papers. Finally, the letter was written by a ballpoint pen, and not more widespread by a feather, on a regular sheet of paper instead of a special form.

Fourth, the visit of the royal couple to Naples in May-June of 1889 was documented in detail. We know all their movements, meetings and events attended, but pizza tasting is not mentioned anywhere. Novak concludes that a beautiful story is nothing more than a myth, but it doubts that it was created “from above”: “Taking into account the culinary culture at court, the pizza was too simple and far from the queen to create a convincing plot for propaganda purposes.”

Where did the legend come from? The researcher draws attention to the fact that the story of Esposito is not the only one and the stories about how monarchs or aristocrats eat a dish of non -political poor - part of local folklore. A logical question arises, why then this story was replicated. The fact is that in 1932 the pizzeria Esposito passed to his nephews, the Brandi brothers. Apparently, in the midst of the great depression, they decided to draw attention to their restaurant, creating a family marketing myth. Hence, apparently, the appeal on the gratitude letter to “Senor Raffaele Esposito Brandi” - in Italy, the men of the late 19th century, men were not signed by double surnames, and the correspondence of Esposito confirms this. The legend was distributed thanks to the flyers of the pizzeria, which presented a retelling of the story about a meeting with the queen allegedly from the 1929 newspaper - it is strange that the restaurant was called Pizzeria Brandi three years before the brothers began to own them.

Thus, the story of the queen, admiring the food of Italian poor, was, in fact, it seemed to be the story of a skilled marketing course that allowed the Neapolitan pizzeria to survive difficult times.