Your first pizza...

[scampi]

I was 9 years old and decided to make a pizza. I didn't know how to make dough so I took an english muffin and spread some leftover sauce my mom had used for lasagna with a knife on the muffin, cut a slice of mozzarella and put it on top and then cooked it in the oven on a cookie pan. To my surprise, it was really good. My mom saw what I was doing and was shocked that I didn't burn the house down. Just curious what everyone elses first pizza was...

[piroshok]

Where I come from pizza was an everyday thingy that one can get to a pizzeria around the corner and get a slice of pizza easy. When I came to Australia I was angry that I couldn't find a pizza shop, then later found an Italian run the pizza joint  and some other pizza huts dispersed here and there in the outer suburbs did not have a car then so I decided to start making my own pizzas hmmm than was 1977 LOL! If I remember well that was the year of The Eagles playing Hotel California and our own Dragon singing April Sun in Cuba

[lilbuddypizza]

Geez.....I would have to guess that first pizzeria pizza was Bill's Pizza on 71st and Kedzie in Chicago. The first frozen was more than likely "John's Pizza".
Memories.
Here's how sick I am----I have dreams in which I am looking for these great places that no longer operate. I keep looking and looking and just can't find them.
I love pizza.

[Rick]

My first attempt to make a pizza was many years ago and the result was so steel hard that I almost broke my theeths!!!! 

Throught the years I've made good progress, and now that I'm attending a pizzaiolo's class I'm getting everyday better, but the more I learn , the more I understand that there are so many things that I have still to learn to become a good pizza maker....   and the more I fall in love with the PIZZA!!!!!   

[elsegundo]

My first pizza was a combination at the original Shakey's in late 1950's.  That is like your first song being by Elvis or your first kiss by Kathleen Turner or Kim Cattrall. It isn't likely to get much better. Must go; I'm all shook up.

[Irish Jimmy]

I think the first pizza I ever mad was just like Scampi said about 10 years old, english muffins sauce and cheese, man Ive come a long way. LOL

[ojuice]

I made my first pizza when I was about 13. It was a bagel, some ragu and string cheese.  I made my first pizza from scratch when I was 20 or so; It umm, didn't turn out so well.

[abc]

mine was when around 14yrs old maybe... allpurpose flour, hand knead, cake yeast... no pizza stone....  horrible.


as far as how I made my 'breakthroughs' (which I'd be interested in reading about everyone's individual breakthroughs) it came in stages....


i think by 1999, with the Internet maturing and people putting up some info...  and either king arthurs catalog or something... i got into bread flour and pizza stones.... by 2001 i got a kitchenaid mixer.  all these became major breakthroughs in my timeline.

[freshflour]

Pizza bagels by the dozen.  I eventually started making my own dough, with was really awful for about 10 years.  Always too thick and heavy, never cooked right, and was totally inconsistant.  I had no idea what I was doing wrong.  My bread was similarly bad.  I remember making a comment to someone on how I had been making bread since I was a kid, and in the back of my head I was thinking "but why doesn't it taste like it?"  So I made a dedicated effort to get my bread up to speed, and along with it, my pizza dough.  Here are the important milestones in my development as a pizza maker:

* KitchenAid Mixer
* instant yeast
* King Arthur flour
* measuring by weight, and using baker's percent
* pizza stone

My results are 100% consistant and controllable now.

[BrandnamePizza]

I had the great fortune of growing up with my mom's home  made pizza. Don't remember exactly when but when I was in high school I decided to give it a go for myself. I used my mom's recipe and I remember it turning out pretty good. The only difference was that I couldn't get it to spread out evenly into a nice circular shape. I ended up making a mishappen 3/4's the size of the norm but with a much thicker crust pizza.