The History of Stuffed Crust Pizza

Stuffed crust pizza was popularized by Pizza Hut in 1995 and the chain is often credited with creating the new style of pizza. However, there is evidence that Pizza Hut didn’t actually invent stuffed crust pizza at all. In 1987, a New York inventor named Anthony “Big Cheese” Mongiello patented a method for creating a pizza with a ring of cheese-filled dough around the edge. According to Eater, he got the idea while making a pizza at the request of a friend’s mother when he was just 18 years old. Mongiello accidentally used too much dough and after it was baked, the pizza came out of the oven with a huge, puffy crust. He noticed the air pockets in it and thought it would be great to have something inside them. At the time, Mongiello was working in construction and noticed the crewmembers would routinely leave the plain crusts from their lunchtime pizzas uneaten. He decided filling them with cheese would be a great idea. His father advised him to patent his idea in order to protect it. He was awarded his patent in 1987 and, since he didn’t have his own pizza chain, he reportedly began reaching out to the big players to pitch his idea to them. Domino’s, Papa John’s, and Little Caesar’s had no interest in licensing his patent, but Pizza Hut seemed interested. Mongiello claims that even sent his patent to the corporate R&D office, but was ultimately told the chain would pass on a partnership. Then in 1995, Pizza Hut unveiled its now-famous stuffed crust pizza. After a massive marketing blitz, most Americans associated the new type of pizza with the chain. Mongiello reached out to Pizza Hut thinking there had been some type of mistake and was reportedly offered $50,000 for his idea. He turned it down and sued Pizza Hut for intellectual property theft. According to Yahoo, Pizza Hut maintained that their stuffed crust pizza was developed in-house by the food innovation team. Ultimately, the courts sided with the pizza giant and ruled that Pizza Hut's method was distinct enough not to infringe on Mongiello’s patent; consequently, Pizza Hut got most of the public credit for creating stuffed crust pizza. While we may never know the details behind the creation of stuffed crust pizza for certain, it is clear that it was a massively successful idea. After Pizza Hut popularized the new style of pizza, various other pizza chains rolled out their own stuffed crust options. Today, stuffed crust pizza is extremely popular throughout the United States.