There's a strong entomological connection between the Italian name "pizza" and the Greek "pitta" - both being thin, flat breads. Both have been in existence for centuries. I've always associated pizza with the thin, crispy bases cooked in a traditional oven, with a tomato covering, and to which can added a variety of meats, fish, vegetables, and - always - cheese. As is so often the case, other nations grab a good product and change it to suit their own agendas. As anyone who has eaten a pizza made by a Naples (that's the Italian one) chef will vouch, the base is very thin, and the toppings are lightly applied. Every pizza that I've eaten in either Italy or in the South of France (remember, Nice was once Italian!) has been to the same proportion. An old Sicilian friend once told me that on his island, they often have thicker bases and more toppings, but admits they are more like focaccia with toppings than the Neapolitan "original." I have no evidence to back-up a thought that as so many Sicilians emigrated to America in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Sicilian style married well with American appetites to evolve into the "deep pan" variety promoted by the chain outlets.
Italians too enjoy more toppings at times, but for those occasions, the half-moon shaped calzone and the tubular stromboli might be ordered instead - the bases would generally be the same thin dough filled much more generously with tomato, cheese, and meat etc.
Elsewhere in Italy, specifically around Turin, you can find a deep pan variety they call pizza al padellino - and this too could easily have emigrated to the States. Back in Naples though, there is a famous deep-fried pizza which some claim has more flavour than the baked type, and in the south they like panzerotti - another deep-fried variety looking rather like a smaller calzone.
Pizza and other so-called fast-food that is "known" to be the catalyst for obesity in many places seems not to carry the same stigma in Italy, where the typically Mediterranean ingredients eaten in moderation provide a healthy diet, not something usually claimed by the thick-base, heavy-topping purveyors - or by their fans' cardiographers!
I don't think that if I took a well-risen cottage loaf dough and covered it in tomato, cheese, along with ham and olives before shoving it in an oven that I'd call it a pizza though. Because of that,
I'll stick with places like Tam Tam for the traditional article.
Another gem of an Italian restaurant that serves amazing pizzas from a wood fired oven is Café di Maria,
3/2 Sukhumvit 79, Bangkok. Don't miss it if you're anywhere nearby!
https://www.facebook.com/Cafe-Di-Maria-211434625662295/
If you don't you do not survive in the business very long here.
