What is the story behind Chicago deep dish pizza?

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).

Deep dish pizza is synonymous with Chicago. A thick, bread-like base topped with layers of mozzarella and chunky tomato sauce is the perfect fortification, some might argue, against the notoriously long and cold Chicago winters. 

Not everyone appreciates it, however. “Chicago pizza is not only not better than New York pizza, it’s not pizza. It’s a fucking casserole,” comedian (and New Yorker) Jon Stewart once ranted on his TV programme, The Daily Show. And it’s true that for those used to a thin New York-style slice, or even more delicate Neapolitan pizzas, deep dish can seem a little… excessive. But who can resist the lure of so much melted cheese? Even Stewart saw the error of his ways and publicly repented.

Origins

According to the legend perpetuated by Pizzeria Uno, Ike Sewell, the original owner of Uno, invented deep dish pizza back in 1943. But this isn’t quite true, argues pizza historian Peter Regas, who’s been investigating the roots of deep dish for more than a decade. True deep dish was indeed invented at 29 East Ohio Street (the address of Pizzeria Uno’s first restaurant) in the autumn of 1943, says Regas — but not by Sewell. The actual mastermind was apparently Ric Riccardo, who discovered a pizza oven and round cast iron pans in the kitchen when he took over the place.

Recipes for deep-dish pizza vary from restaurant to restaurant, with Italian sausage seemingly the most common topping in Chicago today.

Photograph by Lauri Patterson. Getty Images

Riccardo named his restaurant Pizzeria Riccardo — but did he actually make the pizza? Possibly, but he was a businessman and an artist, not a cook. He’d also grown up in northern Italy, and pizza — at that time still a rarity in Chicago — was a southern Italian dish, the thin crust version originating in Naples and rustico, a hand pie stuffed with fillings including mozzarella and tomato, being a popular street food in Salento. Some sources credit Pizzeria Uno’s manager, Rudy Malnati Sr, or his son Lou, a bartender, with the deep dish’s invention, but Regas has found evidence that Malnati didn’t join the restaurant until a few years later. Meanwhile, Sewell, a Texan and a liquor distributor by trade, didn’t partner with Riccardo until early 1944, and his main contribution to the operation was money.

The first deep dish pizza, according to Regas, was about an inch tall — half the height of the modern product — and whoever was in Riccardo’s kitchen used standard pizza dough, made with flour, yeast, salt and water. The current fortified dough appeared in the 1950s courtesy of Alice Mae Redmond, a cook from Mississippi who thought the original wasn’t stretchy enough and incorporated elements from her recipe for Southern-style biscuits — namely oil.

Riccardo died in 1954 and Redmond and the Malnatis moved on to rival pizzerias, Gino’s East and Lou Malnati’s. Sewell, by this point the sole owner, changed the name to Pizzeria Uno. In 1977, he sold up to a Boston conglomerate, which simplified the origin story to give him all the credit. “[The CEO] told me, ‘Ike Sewell is our Colonel Sanders’,” Regas says, referring to the KFC figurehead. “The idea that they are the original is the most important thing.”

How it’s made

Crust recipes, topping selections and sauce seasonings vary from pizzeria to pizzeria, but all deep dish pizzas begin with a cast iron pan lined with a yeasty dough fortified with either olive oil or butter. It’s then filled with heaps of mozzarella cheese, covered with toppings and finished off with a layer of tomato sauce. Although the original Uno’s pizza was just cheese and tomato, one of the most dominant toppings in Chicago today is sausage.

Several variations have appeared over the years. Stuffed pizza, served at Nancy’s and Giordano’s, has a second layer of crust above the cheese. A variant known as pan pizza, invented at Pequod’s, has an extra sprinkling of cheese between the crust and the side of the pan, which caramelises during baking.

Several chains, including Uno’s and Lou Malnati’s, sell frozen pizzas in grocery stores and by mail order. The first recipe for home cooks appeared as early as 1945, according to Chicago Tribune archives, but most Chicagoans still prefer to get theirs from a pizzeria.

Created by the restaurant’s founder Burt Katz, Pequod’s caramelized cheese crust has a cult following.

Photograph by Pequods

Where to try it

1. Lou Malnati’s

Founded in 1971, Lou Malnati’s is the largest of the deep dish chains, with around 80 locations across the city, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Arizona, home to many expat Chicagoans. It’s famous for its flaky, buttery crust and enormous sausage patty topping; gluten-free offerings include a crustless pizza held together with yet more sausage.

2. Pequod’s

Pequod’s caramelised cheese crust, invented by its founder, Burt Katz, has a cult following among Chicago pizza connoisseurs. If you go at the weekend, be prepared to wait for a table, but very few visitors would argue it’s not worth it. The $7.95 (£6) individual pizza lunch special is one of the best deals in town.

3. Milly’s Pizza in the Pan

Newcomer Milly’s began as founder Robert Maleski’s pandemic project. He made just 20 pizzas a night and always sold out: Chicagoans loved his caramelised cheese crust and surprising topping combinations such as cherry tomatoes, jalapeños, bacon and pineapple. In 2021, he moved into a permanent space in the Uptown neighborhood, where his pizzas remain a hot item; it’s best to order in advance. A second location is scheduled to open this year.

(Liked ‘The Bear’? Eat your way around Chicago with these iconic dishes.)

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