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| Type | Pizza |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States |
Pan pizza is a pizza baked in a deep dish pan or sheet pan. Turin-style pizza, Italian tomato pie, Sicilian pizza, Greek pizza, Chicago-style pizza, and Detroit-style pizza may be considered forms of pan pizza. Pan pizza also refers to the thick style popularized by Pizza Hut in the 1960s. [1] [2] The bottoms and sides of the crust become fried and crispy in the oil used to coat the pan.
A notable early version of pan pizza is sfinciuni, born in Sicily circa 1650.[ citation needed ]
Another version is the pizza al Padellino from the city of Turin, in northern Italy, with historical references since the beginning of the 20th century. [3] [4]
Dan and Frank Carney opened[ when? ]a pizza parlor in Wichita, Kansas, which would later become Pizza Hut. At first, the brothers focused on a thin-crust pizza which included cheese, pepperoni or sausage. The pizza parlor franchised into Pizza Hut in 1959 and added a thicker-crust pan pizza. [5] [6]
Other pizza companies also later included pan pizza. In 1989, Domino's introduced its deep-dish or pan pizza. Its introduction followed market research showing that forty percent of pizza customers preferred thick crusts. The new product launch cost approximately $25 million, of which $15 million was spent on new sheet-metal pans with perforated bottoms. [7]
