How Rome Built a Pizzeria in Budapest

24 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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Joseph Zara at Neverland Pizza in Budapest created a pizza based on what Romans ate two thousand years ago, using ancient grains like einkorn and emmer, fermented fish sauce, duck, and pine nuts instead of tomatoes and mozzarella. He drew inspiration from a Pompeii fresco and the ancient cookbook De Re Coquinaria.

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A pizzeria in Budapest, is serving a limited edition pie inspired by ancient Rome, built with ingredients that would have existed two millennia ago. This was long before tomatoes or mozzarella arrived in Europe. Neverland Pizza's founder, Joseph Zara, said the idea was sparked by a 2023 Pompeii fresco showing a flatbread topped with items like fruit, herbs. He researched Roman culinary history, consulted a historian and used an ancient cookbook, de Re Cochorina, to compile historically plausible ingredients. The team had to rethink the dough itself, using grains like ink, corn and spelt I don't know what those are either, and even fermented spinach juice to help it rise. The finished product includes olive paste, gargum, fermented fish sauce, confit, duck, pine nuts, ricotta and grape reduction. The restaurant calls it a special niche experiment, one designed to be memorable.