The table in the pizza box was invented relatively recently
Everyone who has ever ordered a delicious and wholesome pizza has seen a small plastic table with three legs in the center of the box. It’s always there, but few people have ever wondered why it was placed there. It looks like toy furniture, but in reality it has a very serious purpose, and the answer to this question will surprise you more than you think. The history of this detail stretches back to the 19th century and is closely tied to the evolution of food delivery. We’ve finally figured out what it’s really for, and we’re sharing the answer.
The First Pizza Delivery in History
The tradition of delivering pizza to your door appeared long before modern courier services. In 1889, Italian Queen Margherita of Savoy found herself in a difficult situation — due to food poisoning from low-quality food in Naples, she urgently needed a safe and hearty dish.
They turned to the famous chef Raffaele Esposito for help. He prepared a special dish, decorating it with mozzarella and fresh tomatoes, and then personally delivered the first pizza to the high-ranking customer. It was this recipe that later received the name “Margherita,” becoming a worldwide culinary classic.
Margherita pizza was named after Queen Margherita of Savoy
The Problem with Pizza Boxes
The real boom in food delivery began in the USA only after the end of World War II. Demand for pizza was growing rapidly, and restaurants needed reliable packaging. In 1960, Domino’s founder Tom Monaghan created the flat cardboard pizza box we’re familiar with today. It was sturdy, perfectly suited for transportation, and allowed couriers to stack orders on top of each other.
However, restaurants soon encountered an unexpected physical problem. Hot baked goods release a lot of steam inside a closed package, causing the dense cardboard to quickly absorb moisture. The softened lid would begin to sag under its own weight and stick directly to the melted cheese, resulting in the customer receiving a ruined dinner.
Why There Is a Plastic Table in the Middle of a Pizza
This problem plagued the delivery industry until 1983. A Long Island resident named Carmela Vitale came up with an incredibly simple device that forever changed the standards of hot food packaging. This discovery was described by the authors of the Mental Floss website.
She filed a patent application for that very three-legged plastic stand. Couriers began placing it right in the center of the hot dish before closing the lid. Thanks to its height, the miniature table held the sagging cardboard at a safe distance, preventing it from touching the mozzarella.
The three sharp legs left minimal marks on the dough and didn’t damage the appearance of the appetizing baked goods in any way.
The stand takes on the weight of the soggy cardboard
The Mystery of the Plastic Pizza Table’s Creator
Despite the fact that this invention saves millions of dinners every day around the world, the identity of Carmela Vitale herself remains an absolute mystery. There is so little information about her that even patent attorneys have forgotten about this woman’s existence.
Patent attorney — an official representative for the protection and defense of intellectual property, means of individualization, and rights to the results of intellectual activity.
British researcher and culinary innovator Alison Grieve spent a full two years searching for any facts about Carmela Vitale. Grieve dreamed of finding the inventor to personally thank her and tell pizzeria owners about the person whose idea became an industry standard. Unfortunately, the search for Carmela has not yet been successful, and the details of her life remain hidden from the public.
In conclusion, it’s worth saying that the simple plastic stand is an excellent example of a simple yet ingenious invention. Next time you open a box of hot pizza, you’ll know exactly which engineering trick kept your dinner perfect.
