In Budapest, Neverland Pizzeria is inviting diners to experience what pizza-like food might have tasted like in ancient Rome, using only ingredients available to Romans two millennia ago. Founder József Zara and head chef Gergely Bárdossy created the limited-edition flatbread without tomatoes, mozzarella or any ingredients from the Americas—products unknown in Europe until centuries after the Roman Empire.
The project, sparked by a 2023 archaeological discovery in Pompeii, illustrates a growing interest in how ancient culinary practices can inform contemporary food culture. The experiment demonstrates the intersection of archaeology, history and modern hospitality.
The ancient Romans did not eat pizza as it is known today. Tomatoes arrived in Europe centuries after the empire had fallen, and mozzarella did not exist during that era. Some histories trace the invention of pizza as a modern dish to Naples in the 1700s, when the discovery of mozzarella led directly to its creation.
Ancient Rome’s Flatbread Heritage
But Romans did eat oven-baked flatbreads topped with herbs, cheeses and sauces. These breads were direct ancestors of modern pizza, and were often sold in ancient Roman snack bars called thermopolia. The image became tangible in 2023 when archaeologists uncovered a fresco in Pompeii depicting a focaccia-like flatbread topped with what appear to be pomegranate seeds, dates, spices and a pesto-like spread.
A Pompeii Discovery Inspires
That discovery sparked the imagination of József Zara, founder of Neverland Pizzeria in central Budapest. “Curiosity drove us to ask what pizza might have been like long ago,” Zara said. “We went all the way back to the Roman Empire and wondered whether they even ate pizza at the time.”
Zara began researching Roman culinary history, consulting a historian in Germany and the ancient cookbook “De re coquinaria,” thought to have been authored around the 5th century. Following his research, he compiled a list of historically documented ingredients and presented them to the pizzeria’s head chef, Gergely Bárdossy.
“We sat down to imagine what we might be able to make using these ingredients, and without using things like tomatoes and mozzarella,” Zara said. “We had to exclude all ingredients that originated from America.”
The Challenge of Ancient Ingredients
Bárdossy and his team spent months experimenting. “The fact that there wasn’t infrastructure like a water system at the time of the Romans made things difficult for us, since more than 80% of pizza dough is water,” Bárdossy said. “We had to come up with something that would have worked before running water.”
The solution was to use fermented spinach juice to help the dough rise. The dough itself used ancient grains such as einkorn and spelt, which were widely cultivated in Roman times. The resulting dough was slightly more dense than that of most modern pizzas.
The finished flatbread is topped with ingredients associated with Roman aristocratic cuisine: epityrum, an olive paste; garum, a fermented fish sauce ubiquitous in Roman cooking; confit duck leg; toasted pine nuts; ricotta; and a grape reduction.
Where Tradition and Innovation Meet
“Our creation can be called a modern pizza from the perspective that we tried to make it comprehensible for everyone,” Bárdossy said. “Although we wouldn’t use all its ingredients for everyday dishes. There is a narrow niche that thinks this is delicious and is curious about it, while most people want more conventional pizza, so it’s not for everyday eating. It’s something special.”
For Zara, the project reflects Neverland Pizzeria’s broader philosophy. “We’ve always liked coming up with new and interesting things, but tradition is also very important for us, and we thought that these two things together suit us,” he said.
However, he added, there is a modern boundary the restaurant will not cross. “We do a lot of experimentation with our pizzas. But of course, we definitely do not use pineapple,” he said.