The Unique Ingredient Elvis Presley Topped His Pizzas With
The King of Rock is still loved by many, and because people like to have a connection to their heroes, his stories are shared by countless individuals and establishments in the U.S. And just like tales of his preferred haunts and most desired foods, his favorite ingredient for topping a pizza also has a history. Elvis adored Bar-B-Que pulled pork on pizza during his later years. BBQ pizza isn't anything out of the ordinary nowadays, but when the Big E was gracing restaurants around the country with his presence, putting such a topping on a pizza — which in the '50s was still considered an "ethnic food" by many — was uncommon. It was a beautiful fusion of Italian food and the Southern fare Elvis grew up with, and once he discovered it, he couldn't get enough.
He and his entourage would frequent a notable Italian restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, and get pizzas to bring back to his home in Graceland. The idea of BBQ pulled pork or chicken on pizza was initially experimented with to encourage those unfamiliar with pizza to give it a shot. The restaurant Elvis frequented to get his pies — Coletta's Italian Restaurant — had a hand in making this once-unique dish a popular staple in pizza joints around the country.
The Elvis Pizza is a Memphis staple
Coletta's Italian Restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, began serving pizza after WWII when sailors at a local naval base started asking for the then somewhat unknown dish. Chicago and New York were serving pizza with significant success, but elsewhere throughout the U.S., pizza had yet to gain a foothold in restaurants. Locals who had not served overseas were still unfamiliar with pizza in general, and to entice them to try it, Coletta's started putting a BBQ on top. It wasn't long until the dish became a popular Memphis staple. Unsurprisingly, with his notorious appetite for rich and savory cuisine, Elvis couldn't help falling in love with this unique pizza topping.
Following acclaim in Memphis, the idea of putting Bar-B-Que on pizza spread throughout the United States. The Elvis Pizza eventually became so well known that the pizza chain Dominoes came out with their own version of the pie — the Memphis BBQ Chicken Pizza. To this day, Coletta's is a well-known location to get the best barbecue pizza in the Memphis area, with Elvis' wife, Priscilla Presley, still visiting from time to time for a slice of what is now history.
Elvis might have loved contemporary pizza toppings
In the 1980s, California Pizza Kitchen produced a version of a Bar-B-Que chicken pie that transformed barbecue on pizza from a regional treasure to a nationwide staple that exploded into popularity all over the U.S. soon after. Considering his affection for rich Southern cuisine, little succulent pieces of chicken on top of a BBQ and mozzarella-laden dough cooked to perfection might have been well-received from Mr. Sideburns. But what else might have caught Elvis's attention as a delicious pizza topping today?
Notoriously despising seafood, smoked salmon on a pizza would be something he would have pushed away, but some pizza toppings fashionable today Elvis might have burned for. A variety of pizza that gained popularity in the 1970s that Elvis might have enjoyed would be a Hawaiian pizza. One of the King's favorite desserts as a youth was pineapple cake — a yellow sponge cake drizzled with pineapple syrup. Cured ham and mozzarella fused with the sweetness of pineapple he enjoyed may have been something The King slept on, especially considering his fondness of combining sweet with savory flavors in his infamous PB Banana sandwiches. Or maybe BBQ-pulled pork was his one true pizza love. With most Americans enjoying pizza as much as they adore BBQ, it's fitting that a legendary American icon ate the two together, and played a small part in making the dish as popular as it is today.