A strange little side quest
Put Cooking next to the history of food history and a few unexpected connections appear. Tomatoes helped turn Naples' flatbreads into the food we recognize as pizza, which had become an important food for poorer Neapolitans by the 18th century. That is only half the story. By the 1890s, department stores and mail-order catalogs were selling mass-produced ready-to-wear clothes in standardized styles and price ranges. That gives Cooking a little more company than it first appears to have.
