There’s an ubiquity of tortillas throughout Mexico that borders on religious zeal. Mexicans call it “Vitamina T”: the ever-mighty foundation of tacos, tlayudas, tostadas, tetelas, and countless other “T” foods that can be easily and affordably procured on nearly every corner. And yet, for each beloved taqueria or torteria, there’s likely a nearby pizzeria preparing another one of Mexico’s most popularly consumed foods, replete with more toppings than a taco or torta can bear.
Despite originating centuries ago in faraway Naples, pizza has been a staple in the general Mexican diet for decades: Pizza Hut arrived to the country in 1958, while Giuseppis in Tijuana became the first Mexican-owned pizza chain in Mexico in 1968. Throughout my millennial lifetime as the son of Mexican immigrants, I’ve eaten as much pizza while visiting my family in the country as anything else. Yet eating pizza in Mexico throughout the 90s and aughts often meant the cheese had a certain tang, the dough was spongy, and the toppings were basic—and everyone insisted on putting ketchup (yes, ketchup) on their slices.
Mexican pizza has since undergone a renaissance, a change that began pre-pandemic and has fully blossomed in the past couple years. The current generation of pizzaiolos are reimagining slices and whole pies in the Aztec capital. From pizzas de chilaquiles—in which the typical tomato sauce is swapped for green salsa, and the fixings of the namesake fried-tortilla dish are thrown on top—to flor de calabaza-topped pies featuring the squash flower popular in Oaxacan cuisine, “Mexican pizza” is not only a real thing, but an evolving and increasingly popular one.
“Mexico is a bread-loving country, so we already have our ways with dough,” says Tanya Barragan, the owner and pizza chef at newly opened Prema. “Since the pandemic, there has been a huge increase in artisanal pizza. In Mexico City, pizza is the second-most consumed food, and with so many gastronomic options in Mexico City, you need to be creative and stand out—if you’re going to make pizza, you have to do it extremely well.”
Barragan, who grew up in CDMX, has been at the center of the city’s pizza amore for nearly 10 years. After learning how to prepare various doughs while working at Prosecco and Panadería Rosetta—an Italian restaurant and bakery, respectively—she was recruited in 2018 to help launch Pizza Felix, now among the city’s hippest pizza spots. Located on Calle Álvaro Obregón, Roma Norte’s lively corridor of restaurants, Felix converted itself from a relaxed bar and lounge into one of CDMX’s most sought-after pizzerias with Barragan responsible for creating their entire pizza menu from scratch.
Barragan followed Felix with Prema, which opened in Juaréz in February. There, her recipes emphasize local ingredients that Barragan procures from —the world’s largest wholesale food market, where the freshest Mexican products arrive daily from every corner of the nation. There’s the Amatripizza, for example, a savory combination of house-made tomato sauce, herbs, garlic, pepperoncini, pecorino, and thick slabs of guanciale—a fatty, three-months aged pork jowl. Prepared in a volcanic stone oven, the crunchy Roman-style pizzas at Prema are as good and creatively inspired as anything you might find in New York City or San Francisco; in other words, what was until recently a rarity in Mexico City.
