If there is one meal that has achieved virtual world domination it has to be pizza.

From humble beginnings in Naples, Italy there are now over 60 countries where American pizza chains Dominos and Pizza Hut can be found.

But for me the best pizzas are not those produced by pizza giants or supermarkets but made in the traditional way – hand stretched, spun out in the air and baked on a hot stone.

I enjoyed one of my most memorable pizzas ever on holiday with my husband Milan in Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast of Italy over ten years ago.

It boasted a crispy base, a crust complete with blackened bubbles you could pop your fork through and was adorned simply with fresh tomato sauce, milky buffalo mozzarella and torn fragrant basil.

I don’t know if it was the Mediterranean sunshine, the breathtaking scenery or the fact the Italians have been making pizza forever but it tasted “bellissimo” and became my benchmark for a perfect pizza.

Nowadays pizza comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes with an endless list of toppings combining meat, seafood, vegetables and cheese.

But it started out in its simplest form as a peasants meal in Naples in the 16 century where the poor often had just flour, olive oil, lard, cheese and herbs to feed their families. They used the simple ingredients to bake a bread on the stones of a fire and topped it with oregano and olive oil to create the original focaccia bread.

It could be used as a plate, covered with any other scraps of food available and eaten without utensils.

Tomatoes were later added to create the first ‘Marinara Pizza’ named after the fishermen’s wives “la marinara” who made it for fishermen in the Bay of Naples.

Another pizza classic was born in 1889 when an Italian restaurant owner created a dish in honour of the Italian Kings wife , Queen Margherita featuring the colours of the Italian flag.

He topped focaccia bread with red tomatoes, white mozzarella cheese and green basil to create ‘Pizza Margherita’.

The dish made its way to America with the Italian immigrants who settled in New York and Chicago and its popularity grew when American soldiers stationed in Italy during World World II returned home with a taste for pizza.

After tasting that pizza in Italy my husband Milan was determined to make the perfect pizza and I spent many a night eating pizza at home as Milan fine tuned his recipe.

The finished product now features on the menu at Riverbank where we use the best Italian dough, hand-stretched and thrown in the air to shape before topping with out own pizza sauce and mozzarella.

We’ve even had customers tell us they’ve not tasted a better pizza outside of Italy.

All those nights eating pizza in the name of research were clearly worth it.

Buon Appetito!