Mark Preston, food writer, blogger, and cookbook author, talks about his encounters with Italian cuisine while growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, and how this experience prompted him to travel to Europe, as he says, 'just to go to Italy to eat!' He also analyzes how the popularization of the Mediterranean diet may have caused a shift in preference from Thai to Italian in Los Angeles, where he now lives. Finally, Mark reveals his thoughts on what, in the fifties, caused the Americans to go crazy for pizza!