Lava-Fired Pizza

Objectively, a top-five human creation is the pizza.

It helps when one of the constituent parts is also an all-timer, the wheel of the culinary world, a miraculous building block: bread. Whoever figured out, accidental or not, how to create bread is one of the greatest humans to have ever lived.

Paired with a sauce’s complex mixture of sweetness and acidity, the gooeyness of melted cheese, and an infinite palette of toppings, the pizza is a perfect creation.

In recent decades, baking pizzas in a wood-fired oven has gained cachet. Though the wood-fired oven is not a new invention, its popularity among chefs has grown worldwide. The wood-fired pizza cooks more quickly, resulting in a crispier crust, sometimes delicately charred, while also imparting a smoky flavor to the cheese and toppings.

Though this method is not everyone’s box of pie, it adds to the pizza artist’s armory.

Could more variety exist in the fueling of pizza ovens?

In the unlikely pizza Mecca of Guatemala, Mario David Garcia realized the answer was a fiery yes.

On the Pacific side of this Central American nation sits Pacaya, a volcano that rises 8,373 feet above sea level (2,552 meters). Since 1961, Pacaya has been in a nearly constant state of eruption. Though a few flares have been more intense, this volcano has become a tourist attraction because its spewings are relatively tame. Unlike the apocalyptic eruptions of others, such as Krakatoa or St. Helens, Pacaya sometimes produces what we imagine volcanoes to be when we’re children, bright, slow rivers of lava.

Pacaya is so relatively “predictable” that it’s become the site of a marathon, with runners traversing the lava field.

Circa 2013, Garcia visited Pacaya and watched a curious tactic deployed by tour guides. As they ushered visitors up the flanks of the volcano, they whipped out sticks, impaled some marshmallows, and let nature’s open-air oven go to work.

Garcia’s mind lit up with a pyroclastic eureka.

He could combine his love of pizza with this unique source of cooking heat.

The result is Pacaya Pizza. Restaurants line a decent number of the world’s mountains. You can fill your stomach on top of New England’s highest peak, Mount Washington. Europeans have erected fine dining on some particularly gnarly alpine shoulders. These eateries take advantage of our love for mountains and their views, but Pacaya Pizza might be the only restaurant in the world that can say it’s not only on a mountain but is the mountain!

After the initial idea, Garcia spent the next five years tinkering with ovens, recipes, and timing. As he told Connecticut Public Radio, “There is no manual on how to make a volcanic pizza”, so he had to make his own.

Eventually, he managed to nail down the proper algorithm, utilizing “caves” within the hot, volcanic rock or smoldering beds on the lava field. Like a wood-fired pizza, Garcia’s creations have an extra ingredient. The remnants of the Earth’s innards, according to Garcia, produce a unique flavor in Pacaya Pizza.

The success of his restaurant seems to confirm this claim. Sampling lava-fired pizza requires reservations, which have become a hot ticket. Garcia serves between 200 and 400 customers each week, who drop $35 for a regular pie and $55 for a large.

Guatemala’s volcanic pizza chef and his lava oven | AFP

When it comes to active volcanoes, Pacaya is relatively safe, even for someone who slings pizzas on a daily basis.

Still, Garcia notes two occasions where his familiarity with the mountain avoided potential danger.

He told CPR: “I was with a family, and the volcano started acting weird. And you get to know volcanoes while being there for so long. So I told my partners, pick up your stuff and let’s go. And the mother asked why. And I said please just trust me. Let’s go. So we ended up walking away. And as soon as we got to the safe place, the volcano exploded. And those rocks going all around us. And the kids were like, ‘Oh no, we’re gonna die.’ And it’s like ‘no, don’t worry, we’re in a safe area.'”

Another time, Pacaya “exploded” while customers were munching, causing ash to fall on the party.

To date, Pacaya Pizza has a perfect rating when it comes to pizzeria safety.

Has Garcia discovered the perfect place for the lover of both pizza and mountains?