Ah Pizza… food of the Gods, slayer of hangovers, scourge of football managers.
The food has come on leaps and bounds in recent years; we’re constantly reporting on a new topping or tweak, or even a cool new way to deliver pizza straight to your door.
But if it wasn’t for a tiny piece of plastic 31 years ago, this would all have been a pipedream, and takeaway pizza wouldn’t be the thing it is today.
As reported by the folk at Eater, this tiny bit of white plastic is what is known as a pizza saver, and it’s job is to stop the cardboard lid of your pizza box from getting too friendly from your delicious food.
A pizza saver stops disasters like this from happening.
Pizza fail #1 – Come get it fresh from #EJsPlace! #Pizza #Kosher #Delivery pic.twitter.com/n7u44egcNO
— EJ's Place (@EJsPlace) June 23, 2016
You see, when a hot pizza is placed in its cardboard box, steam rises, causing the cardboard to sag. The longer the pizza is in the box, the steamier it gets inside the pizza box and the softer the middle of the pizza box lid gets. Without the pizza saver, by the time your pizza reaches your door, you end up with disasters like this.
Thanks @PapaJohns. 90 mins to arrive and then 15 min hold to try and get a replacement #pizzafail pic.twitter.com/jVNoebb2uJ
— John Haugh (@jhaugh) August 6, 2016
So who do we thank for this life changing bit of plastic? One Carmela Vitale, a 46-year-old woman living in Long Island, New York.
Back in the 1980s, Carmela noticed the pizza problem and so filed for a patent that would change takeaways forever.
Check it out. Carmela thought out every detail, including the three pronged nature of the table.
The patent (#4,498,586) was approved two years later, on February 12, 1985 and Carmela was soon a millionaire…
Not quite.
While the pizza saver is now standard issue in the United States, as Eater reports, Carmela Vitale’s patent lapsed in the early ’90s and she passed away in 2005 aged 65.
She may have not been a household name, but whenever you order a pizza now that comes it stellar condition, pick out your pizza saver and say a word of thanks to an incredible woman.