A Big Slice of History: Pizza, Preservation and Culture

As a part of our historic foods series – where we’re diving into preserving some of the most iconic foods and brands, we sat down with pizza historian Alexander Hughes to discuss his work chronicling the history of pizza in the United States and Canada and what is being done to preserve this slice of our history. Pizza, history and preservation are three of my favorite things – and it’s rare that they come together under one PreserveCast episode – but that’s what we’ve got in store this week; a topic and conversation made even sweeter by the fact that it is set in my hometown of Buffalo, New York where pizza historian Alexander Hughes conducted much of his research. Get ready for a big bite of food history on this week’s PreserveCast. More About Our Guest Alexander Hughes is a sixth year PhD Candidate in the Department of History at York University.  His soon to be defended dissertation, “Lake Effect Pizza: Pizza Culture and Consumption in Toronto, Ontario and Buffalo, New York 1945-1990” explores the commodification of pizza in two regional cities.  He served as the Curator of the History of Pizza Exhibit at the Canadian Pizza Museum. He has a Masters from Wilfrid Laurier University, where his thesis examined representations of US History in Disneyland Park.  His research interests include postwar Canada and the United States, urban, food, business, and cultural history.  Learn more at: https://mralexhughes.com/