Marisol Doyle is a Mexican-born pizza chef and founder of Leña Pizza + Bagels, considered among the top pizzerias in the United States. Her work blends Latin American roots with Neapolitan technique, refined through training in Italy with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. In 2024 she entered the “Top 100 Best Pizza Chefs” list.
Originally from Sonora, Mexico, Doyle grew up far from the world of dough. Her path began in 2016, when she launched a small bagel business in Mississippi. What started as an experiment soon turned into a calling: eager to deepen her craft, she traveled to Italy to train with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana in Naples and at the “Scuola di Pizzaiolo,” where she learned the fundamentals of wood-fired Neapolitan pizza and tray-baked doughs.
With over twenty years in the hospitality industry across various roles, she eventually opened her first brick-and-mortar concept: Leña Pizza + Bagels, located at 331 Cotton Row, Cleveland, Mississippi, co-founded with her husband, photographer Rory Doyle.
Leña quickly stood out for its bold, artisanal identity—an approach that merges the chef’s Latin American background with the discipline and technique she developed in Italy. This distinct style drew national attention: the pizzeria was included among the best in the United States, and in 2024 Doyle was named one of the Top 100 Best Pizza Chefs.
Her culinary philosophy centers on the idea that dough is a vessel of memory and cultural identity—“a space where stories become food,” as she shared in an interview. Outside the kitchen, Marisol and her husband work to reshape the rural Mississippi food landscape, emphasizing local sourcing, fermentation projects, and ancient grain experimentation. Their aim is to give new value to the idea of “American pizza,” distancing it from stereotypes while preserving craftsmanship.
