What Made The World's Most Expensive Pizza Worth $10,000

How much should pizza really cost, anyway? What was once a fairly inexpensive meal has gotten pricier in recent years. While pizza chains have been able to keep their basic pies in the $10 to $20 range, specialty or artisanal pizza can cost $30 or more. Slices at major sports and music events can start at $10, and a $41 price tag for two slices and a can of Coke at Coachella made news this year. But all of these pale in comparison to a pizza made in Salerno, Italy, that cost $10,000.

The Louis XIII pizza was a 20-centimeter (almost 8-inch) pie for two made by pizza master Chef Renato Viola sometime around 2017, though the exact year isn't well documented. Though considered pan-size by industry standards, the Louis XIII was anything but average. It was a luxury dining experience that included exotic ingredients, expensive booze, careful craftsmanship, and flashy presentation.

Key to the pizza's ranking on the list (by Luxatic) are its toppings, which included cognac-flamed Norwegian lobster and three rare types of champagne-marinated caviar: Kaspia Oscietra Royal Prestige, Oscietra Royal Classic, and Beluga Kaspia caviar. The pizza was also topped with prawns and shrimp from the Mediterranean, Murray River pink salt from Australia, and seven types of cheese, including buffalo mozzarella (Mozzarella di Bufala), and Parmigiano Reggiano (which isn't just a fancy way of saying parmesan cheese). The crust was even lightly dusted with edible gold.

Placing an order for a Louis XIII pizza meant you were staying in for the lux version of pizza night. You hosted a trio of experts for the evening: pizza creator Renato Viola, a second pizza chef to prep and pre-cook toppings, and a sommelier, all to craft a gold-dusted, upscale pizza experience in your own home. Once the pizza was ready to cook, it was flamed with $3,000 Remy Martin cognac, creating a dramatic presentation (and again raising the question: Why is food considered fancy if we set it on fire?).

As the dinner event began, the two pizza chefs started with a dough that had already been through a 72-hour rising process (you can still get pizzas with this type of crust at Viola's Mister 01 pizza joints). The sommelier was the guide for the Louis XIII pizza experience, pairing it with expensive wines, champagne, and aged Louis XIII Cognac to highlight the upscale ingredients on the pizza itself.

If this experience sounds appealing, you may be out of luck. There doesn't seem to be a way to book it online, or any hint that Viola still offers it. No first-person accounts of the pizza appear to exist, either. In fact, most of the pizzas on the Luxatic list appear to be unavailable, including the Pizza for Lovers from Favitta's Family Pizzeria in New York, which cost $8,180 and came with a diamond ring, or Mazzou Pizza's Miss Verdun Pizza, a caviar-and-lobster pie topped with 24-karat gold flakes for a mere $4,250. So if you have a taste for the finer things and want an exclusive pizza event, you could always invest in a cooking class and learn to make your own one-of-a-kind pie. Gold flakes optional, of course.