Today is a celebration of the mouth-watering delight of deep dish pizza. Let’s take a walk through history and go back to the beginning of the cheese topped flatbread.

The delicious American staple began in the seaside village of Naples, Italy. In the 1700s and 1800s, working-class citizens needed a quick meal, so they threw together flatbread, sauce and cheese.

According to legend, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita were traveling through the country in 1889. Tired of their regular diet, they ordered several pizzas from the Naples restaurant Pizzeria Brandi. The queen favored pizza with tomatoes, basil and white cheese, which inspired the current name of margherita pizza.

Pizza stayed an Italian speciality until immigrants made their way to the United States. As Italians flocked to the cities, pizza rose in popularity throughout the 1940s. Before long, two distinct styles of pizza rose: New York’s thin crust and Chicago’s deep dish.

Celebrate this close-to-home holiday in town at:

Rosati's Sports Pub of DeKalb at 930 Pappas Dr.

Giordano's at 1840 Dekalb Ave. in Sycamore