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> The US also didn't actually invent putting cooked beef between two slices of bread.

If you're talking about ground beef, yes, they invented. The original prussian tartare steak was uncooked, made with horse meat and not served on bread. The american "Hamburguer steak" was invented in the Port of NY inspired but radically different from the dish served to immigrants coming from the Hamburg port.

> was popularized around the globe by the US, not by Italy.

Just no. São Paulo, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina, already had pizza before Americans "popularized" it, because they have Italian immigrants since the 19th century. And to this day their pizza is closer to the original than to the NY style.

> classic, bland Italian version of 'pizza'

Go to Italy. Go to Sicily, Basilicata, Liguria, Lazio, Sardinia, ... their pizza is very far away from "bland".

> Pizza, as with so many commercialized things, was popularized around the globe by the US, not by Italy. That's not something up for debate, it's not subtly the case, the US massively popularized pizza as the world knows it today

You need to back this up. It is far from obvious.

Do you have any idea how prevalent "chain-pizza" is compared with "locally owned", in countries throughout the world? I hardly believe it was US that spread pizza throughout Europe. It was much more likely migration.

There’s a word for this effect which slips my mind. But in essence it’s a phenomenon where something is made in a place and it’s just considered ordinary or unremarkable by them. Then that thing finds in a new life in another place which finds it extraordinary and the place it came from picks up on that and then finds it extraordinary too.

Pizza is thought to be one of those things. Italians had it, New Yorkers went insane for it, and then Italians followed suit and made it a significant cultural identifier.

There’s a lot of things like this.

Ha, it's actually named "The Pizza Effect"!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_effect

I don't know about around the world, but it seems like Italian migrants brought pizza to Germany[1]. Apocryphally, the first Italian restaurant which had pizza on the menu was initially serving mostly GIs, however they mostly requested spaghetti with meatballs.

I don't think many people here would associate pizza with the US, aside from pan pizza. If asked, people would probably say America invented the cheese-filled crust.

Chains exist, including Pizza Hut and Dominos and a few local ones, but the vast majority of sales are done by small, independent restaurants. Overall, the chain restaurant concept -- thankfully -- hasn't been working out in Germany, beyond bottom tier fast food.

[1] https://www.mainpost.de/aktiv-region/specials/lebeninfranken...

Not to mention Americans invented pepperoni.

fake news