If you weren't around when pizza rolls came on the scene in 1968, you might not know that they are a direct descendant of egg rolls. It's right there in the name. They were developed by the entrepreneur behind Chun King, the producer of pre-packaged Chinese-American foods. That was Minnesota-born Jeno Paulucci, son of Italian immigrants. That short introduction makes it clear that pizza rolls are an American food, and an early experiment in fusion cuisine. But that's not what Paulucci was going for. He wanted to produce foods that were convenient, fun, easily mass-produced, and that people wanted to eat.
The story of Jeno Paulucci's pizza rolls has some comical moments, like his Italian mother spicing up Chinese food her way, and the pizza roll luau shish kabob you see on the grill above. Read the whole story of how your freezer came have pizza rolls ready for anything at Snack Stack. -via Digg