The Pizza box and pizza table: How were they invented?

One of your most ordered food items on a Sunday or a party night is pizza. What has helped this Italian pie to attain popularity is its hotness and freshness as it arrives. The credit to keep pizzas that way goes to two important inventions: The pizza box and the pizza table. While the modern square pizza box that you see was invented by none other than the founder of your favourite pizza brand, Domino’s, Tom Monaghan, the pizza table was given to the world by an ardent pizza lover, Carmela Vitale.  

History of Pizza carriers 
In the early times, pizza bakers would put their pizzas in multi-layered copper containers known as ‘stufe’ to be taken to street vendors. These stufe were aerated so steam could escape, which would stop the pizzas from getting soggy. But they also kept the pizzas quite warm, as copper retains heat very well. However, despite the relative efficiency of stufe, they fell short in terms of their portability.  

When the takeaway option was much in demand, pizzas started to be sent out in paper bags. The pizza would sit on a piece of corrugated cardboard, which would act as an insulator to keep the base warm, and the whole thing would sit snugly in a paper bag, which still allowed steam to escape. But the problem was that the bags didn’t stack very well.  

So, pizza makers began using thin paperboard bakery boxes to transport their pizzas. But these had their own problems. Though they offered more support than paper bags and meant that multiple pizzas could be stacked and carried without the contents getting ruined, they were flimsy. The moisture from the heat would impact the box’s structure, causing them to collapse too easily.  

The invention of the modern pizza box  
Domino’s founder Tom Monaghan, who invented his pizza brand in 1960, came out with a solution. In the early 1960s when he worked with Triad Containers in Detroit, US, he gave the world the modern pizza box. He got sturdy insulated cardboard boxes designed which would support the pizza’s weight as well as would not easily break or sweat in the heat. The boxes also withstood grease and kept pizzas warm while releasing steam through strategically placed openings. Most importantly, the boxes were stackable not taking up too much space and helping in mass deliveries. The boxes were instantly a hit and helped Domino’s immensely in its huge success.  not taking up too much space and helping in mass deliveries. The boxes were instantly a hit and helped Domino’s immensely in its huge success.  

The invention of the pizza table  
Though the pizza was a blessing to pizza makers, one problem remained: The back side of the box cover would sometime stick to the top of the pizza spoiling all the pizza toppings and making it messy.  

This issue was resolved by former city council member and an ardent pizza lover, Carmela Vitale who invented the pizza saver in 1985. It’s a little white plastic tripod also called the pizza table that sits in the middle of pizzas to stop the box from sticking to the pizza keeping the cheese and toppings intact during the delivery journey.