Did the website pizzaamorestthomas.com that is mentioned in a 2015 email in the Epstein files look in February 2026 as it did in 2015 when the email was sent? No, that's not true: A prankster re-registered the expired domain name in 2026 after the Epstein files were released. The website currently features an AI or manipulated image of comedian Sam Hyde transformed into chef "Samolo Hyde", a reference to a long-running internet in-joke trolling Hyde by making him the perpetrator of various crimes.
The meme circulated online, including in a Feb. 11, 2026 TikTok video (archived here) on the @the.receipts.department account. It opened:
mama mia, this has gotten too spicey,
contact our head chef, Samolo Hyde
for any special orders.
Here's what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at TikTok account @the.receipts.department.)
Internet tricksters blame "Sam Hyde" when things go wrong
As part of a bizarre internet in-joke, comedian Sam Hyde gets blamed for almost every mass shooting, assassination or other bad news, often within minutes of the event. The joke originally started on 4chan and has been perpetuated for years by various troll accounts. You can read our previous fact checks mentioning his name here. Sam or Hyde are usually transliterated or altered to match the locale of the events for which he is being blamed.
In this case, because the Epstein file item mentions a pizzeria, the name on the meme is the Italian-like "Samolo Hyde."
A Real email mentions Pizza Amore pizzeria
Email (archived here) from 2015 found in the Department of Justice online library of documents about pedophile Jeffrey Epstein mentions Pizza Amore, which was a real pizzeria in St. Thomas, The Virgin Islands, at that time. The TikTok video's narrator opens the email from an Epstein associate. The narrator points to the body of the email, which reads: "Mr. Epstein would like to see the menu from the pizza place". The response provides the link: pizzaamorestthomas.com, which the narrator opens, showing the picture of Sam Hyde as a pizza chef. That page is a fake.
Here's what Pizza Amore's website looked like in December of 2015, when someone saved a copy of the site on the Internet Archive:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Internet Archive copy of Pizza Amore webpage.)
A fake Pizza Amore web page made 11 years later by an internet troll
To host the Sam Hyde meme, someone re-registered, on Feb. 1, 2026, a Pizza Amore web address, according to WHOIS.com. WHOIS is a public query protocol that permits internet users to see when a URL was registered.
At that re-registered web address, the prankster created a fake pizzeria page, featuring a chef photo built by swiping the image of Hyde found on Wikipedia and wrapping it in a chef's toque and neckerchief and jacket.
Below, Lead Stories provides a comparison graphic showing the Sam Hyde photo used on Wikipedia's biography page and the Samolo Hyde photo from the meme:
(Image source: Lead Stories graphic created from screenshots of Sam Hyde's Wikipedia bio photo, dated 2025, and the fake pizzeria website, dated 2026.)
