In an episode of the sadly defunct Ideas Channel entitled “A History of Pizza in 8 slices”, host Mike Rugnetta makes two devastatingly potent observations about pizza that have stuck with me since. The first of these is the idea that takeaway pizza, pre-sliced in its grease-freckled box, is pizza at its most ontologically ‘real’; while we may rightfully scorn the Large Mac as a simulacrum of a homemade burger, even the lowliest of “Papa” John Schnatter’s pepperoni n’ racism pies represents a more authentic pizza experience than a considerably more delicious DIY alternative.
