SU Lava Project grilling steaks

Syracuse University's Lava Project experimented with grilling steaks over molten lava last year, and the stunt has been going viral this month.

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Forget everything you know about grilling in your backyard, and bow down to the rock star geologists at Syracuse University's Lava Project.

SU's Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) professor Bob Wysocki and Earth Sciences professor Jeff Karson are co-directors of the facility, which mixes art and science in a man-made volcano. Molten basalt is used to make synthetic lava flows on various surface types next to the Comstock Art Facility in Syracuse, and now it can apparently be used for cooking steaks, too.

According to NPR, chef Sam Bompas teamed up with the Lava Project to create the hottest barbecue in the world. He previously tried to roast marshmallows over flowing lava from an active volcano in Japan, and wanted others to try the experience.

"Cooking with lava is simply the most spectacular way to grill a 10-ounce rib-eye steak," Bompas told the radio station. "You are standing before this molten lava that flowing out, and it is beautiful."

In other words, it's the grill that will make all the other dads jealous on Father's Day.

However, most ovens don't go up past 750 degrees Fahrenheit, while the volcano-style grill can reach 2,000 degrees. Plus, the furnace is about the size of a car and it takes as much as 70 hours to melt rock into lava.

But man, does it look cool -- and delicious.

"It was awesome - and totally delivers. In fact it was the best steak I've ever had in my life," Bompas told the Daily Mail in August.

The stunt and video are both 10 months old, but praise has been heating up this past week from Popular Mechanics, Boing Boing, Business Insider and Mental Floss. A writer at BuzzFeed even called it "badass" and said "this is how real men grill."

The Lava Project first earned praise from Wired in 2013 for creating cool bubbles or volcanic glass, as well as helping scientists study real volcanoes and how lava behaves when it flows on different terrains. The cooking experiment inspired Bompas to try launching a "lava banquet" service in London, according to NPR -- though it requires booking a month in advance and a minimum of 500 guests.