Lake Effect Pizza: The Commodification and Culture of Pizza in Toronto, Ontario and Buffalo, New York 1950-1990

This dissertation examines the history of pizza in Toronto, Ontario and Buffalo, New York, spanning a period from 1950 through to the early 1990s. Pizza, far more than its constituent parts of dough, sauce, and cheese, is used as a lens to explore the history of immigration, business, labour, urbanization, gender, culture, economics, consumption, and food in Toronto and Buffalo. Through an analysis of a variety of sources, including oral interviews, GIS-produced maps, and newspapers, this dissertation explores how pizza was commoditized as an item of popular urban consumption and culture, in a variety of sites and spaces within the cities.

The commodification of pizza, the development of pizza industries, and the culture of consumption in Canada and the United States paralleled currents in postwar life in Toronto and Buffalo. The central question emanating from these histories and which is explored here is the ways in which culture, ethnicity, immigration, and urban economies shaped the commodification of an ethnic food. Pizza was once confined to the foodways of Italian immigrants in Canada and the United States, but was eventually commoditized for sale to non-Italians. The commodification of the food item spread from small family owned businesses attributed to Italian ethnic economies to franchises and conglomerates owned by non-Italians. Moreover, the food item itself was modified based on availability of ingredients and to appease the taste preferences of non-Italians.

The Great Lakes cities, Toronto and Buffalo had similar sized populations, patterns of Italian immigration, industry and growth in 1950. However, by 1990, Toronto was the largest city in Canada, a multicultural metropolis with strong economic output, and Buffalo was a regional American city, which suffered greatly from deindustrialization and protracted population loss. Despite similar postwar currents, the staggering divergences between the economic capacities of two urban centres shaped different patterns of commodification and consumption of pizza.