Frankie Cecere stepped into uncharted territory during the early February cold spell when he crafted a Florida man’s dream: iguana pizza.
A social media post on Feb. 2 that shows him making pizza with the green, scaly reptile topping on it went viral with more than 5 million views. Cecere paired slices of iguana meat with venison, bacon and a ranch dressing drizzle and gave what he called “the Everglades pie” to a customer named Ryan, who goes by “Ryan Iz Fishing” on Instagram.
“Ryan reached out to me the night before and was like, ‘Hey, I have this crazy idea!. … I’ll bring you some iguana and you do an iguana pizza?’” said Cecere, who owns Bucks Coal Fired on Northlake Boulevard. “I was like, ‘Absolutely.’”
Green iguanas are considered an invasive species in Florida.
They can become temporarily paralyzed when temperatures dip below about 50 degrees, like it did in early February during a record-breaking cold front. Thousands of cold-stunned iguanas were turned in to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Feb. 1 and Feb. 2.
What does iguana pizza taste like?
A few people who tried the pizza said the iguana meat tasted like frog legs, which have a flavor often compared to chicken, Cecere said.
His restaurant became flooded with thousands of requests from people begging him to make them iguana pizza. The high demand exceeded his expectations, but a visit from the health department squashed immediate plans of putting iguana pizza on the menu.
The health department opened two cases of investigation into animal cruelty because they received complaints from people saying that live iguanas were being kept at the pizza restaurant, which Cecere wasn’t doing, he said.
“They had to come do their due diligence,” Cecere said. “They did say that they didn’t want me (making iguana pizza). It kind of falls into this weird gray area.”
“Cook your catch” in Florida means that someone who legally harvests a fish can bring it to a restaurant that is willing to cook it. Cecere assumed that his iguana pizza would fall under that standard.
Cecere consulted an attorney who couldn’t find a specific statute that prohibits cooking and selling iguana. But the health department told Cecere that he can only sell iguana meat if he purchases it from a vendor approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said.
Cecere is searching for a vendor.
“The state is actually pushing people to kill (iguanas) because they’re an invasive species and they are destroying the ecosystem,” Cecere said. “I just assumed that we would fall under the same structure because you don’t need a license to harvest them. Clearly that was, I guess, not the case.”
Maya Washburn is a trending news reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Iguana pizza? Palm Beach County restaurant went viral for making pie
Reporting by Maya Washburn, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
