Frans Johansson author of the book, The Medici Effect,covering the intersection of ideas, concepts and culture, is one of the most talked about book published last year. Here Johansson writes about how the swedish pizza had evolved the way it did and finds intersection of culture and ideas contributing to the recipe mix.
Excerpts with edits:
During the 60s Sweden, like many Northern European countries, had a sever labor shortage and they hired guest workers from Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia. Some of guest workers ended up working together and setting up restaurants and dining places. Turns out that the pizza’s physical construction makes it an exceptionally easy item for all of these different people to mix and match their various food cultures. The pizzas is flat, cooks quickly, cheaply and easily and naturally allows for experimentation with food ingredients. Once the associative barriers around a traditional Italian pizza had been broken down the field was wide open. It, quite literally, became the place where the cultures mixed igniting an explosion of creative ideas.
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