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for the silly drawing on each box of an Italian chef doing “chef’s kiss” fingers and (one can only imagine) exclaiming, “Mamma mia!” Schwan’s frozen pizza portfolio would eventually expand to include Freschetta (which recently received a health-focused makeover) and the biggest pizza prize of them all — Red Baron. How invested was Schwan’s in Red Baron, you might ask? In 1979, as part of a seriously committed marketing campaign, the company formed the “Red Baron Squadron” of World War II-era biplanes. Over the course of 28 years, these stunt — and, presumably, pizza- loving — planes carried more than 80,000 passengers and became the longest-serving civilian aerobatic team in the United States. Today, Red Baron remains Schwan’s most popular frozen pizza. Red Baron might still be flying high, but for me, it was the company’s least famous — and now extinct — brand of frozen pizza that launched my love affair with grabbing a pie from the freezer. Created in 1983 under the (somewhat unfortunate) brand name Little Charlies, these 5-inch, deep dish pizzas were perfectly child- sized and made an ideal, do-it-yourself after-school snack for a ravenous little critter like myself. Whenever the “Schwan’s man” (as I called him, though of course he had a real name) would come by our house, I would ensure that, alongside the orange sherbet, my beloved pint-sized pizzas were on our order. And while I might’ve graduated to more thoughtfully topped, quasi-artisanal frozen pies now (and pizza rolls, which I still unabashedly adore), I’d be lying if I said I didn’t squeal with glee when I discovered an ancient Little Charlies pepperoni pizza in the back of my parent’s freezer several years ago. Time — and freezer burn — might’ve done a number on it, but I heated it up and attempted to eat it anyway. (What can I say? My commitment to nostalgia is strong.) Schwan’s also cornered the market on selling frozen pizzas to schools in the 1970s, using the federal subsidies for cheese and tomato sauce (which, famously, counted as a vegetable for quite some time) to make those little carpet-square-shaped slabs of pizza, something that millions of schoolchildren would wistfully reflect on years later. Even to this day, 70 percent of all school pizzas are from Schwan’s. (And if you’re a nostalgia-lover like me, yes, the “school lunch” pizza of your youth can be purchased on the Schwan’s website. You’re welcome.) Place the frozenpizzadirectlyon theoven rack and cook until golden brown: DiGiorno “In strictly frozen-pizza terms, the year 1995 was every bit as momentous as 1066 or 1492,” wrote Brendan Koerner for The New York Times in 2004. “Before that date, frozen pizzas were a

New York and Chicago might be the cities that initially come to mind when someone mentions destination locations known for their classic pizza styles, but if frozen pizza had a historical home base, it would be—of all places—Minnesota.

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