One sign that pizza is beating back the media assault on its status as the world's most beloved food: this take-no-prisoners victory by Neapolitan pizzaiolos against the planet's biggest fast-food brand, McDonald's.
The Washington Post reports when the worldwide hamburger king, which is enduring falling sales and profits, aired a commercial in March implying that Italian kids would choose a Happy Meal over pizza, Italians flashed their passionate sides — and we're not talking fries. In Naples, birthplace of the cheese-topped pie, where true Neapolitan masterpieces meet an exacting 11-page standard of rules, one renowned pizza-maker called the commercial "Blasphemy! When I first saw it, I couldn’t help laughing, for how ridiculous the commercial is,” recalled Eduardo Pagnani, co-owner of Pizzeria Brandi, one of the most famous pizzerias in Naples. “Then I realized that they were denigrating pizza to promote their product."
