Daily Times

It is known for being the birthplace of pizza – and now chefs in the city of Naples have attempted to break records with their mouth-watering culinary skills.

A group of chefs joined forces and attempted to make the longest pizza in the world – stretching across more than one mile of the Italian coastline.

For the wood-fired pizza, which measured two kilometres, they used 2,000kg of flour, 1,600kg of tomatoes, 2,000kg of mozzarella, 200 litres of oil, 30kg of fresh basil and 1,500 litres of water.

It took 100 chefs 11 hours to make the pizza and they hope to beat the current record of 1,595 metres, held by a pizza baked at Milan’s food-themed Expo last year. Alessandro Marinacci from Naples’ Pizza Village, organised the attempt alongside local flour producer, Caputo.

“It’s absolutely a point of pride for our city, which is the home of pizza,” Marinacci told The Local. He added, “Our effort will be cooked in the traditional Neapolitan style.” The chefs also custom designed five motorised wood-burning stoves on wheels for the attempt.

The current record for the longest pizza in the world is 1,595.45m and was created by La Pizza+1 of Sante Ludovico, NIP food of Dovilio Nardi and Tomato World Week 2015, all from Italy, at Milan’s Expo 2015 world fair in Milan, in June 2015.

Made using 1.5 tonnes of mozzarella cheese and two tonnes of tomato sauce, the pizza weighed in at five tons and was made in 18 hours by more than 60 chefs.

More than 35,000 slices were cut for visitors to the Expo and some 300 metres of pizza were given to the food bank Banco Alimentare to be redistributed to charitable organisations that assist the poor and the needy.

The largest pizza on record had a total surface area of 13,580.28 ft² and was prepared by Dovilio Nardi, Andrea Mannocchi, Marco Nardi, Matteo Nardi and Matteo Giannotte from NIP food at Fiera Roma, in Rome, Italy, in December 2012.

The pizza was named ‘Ottavia’, a word of Roman origin for ‘eighth son’, in homage to the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus.

The largest pizza commercially available is 4ft 6in by 4ft 6in and is sold at the Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria in Los Angeles, California.

The square pizza serves between 50 and 100 people and costs of £137 plus tax and is deliverable within a certain area. Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria needs a minimum of 24 hours notice to be able to make the pizza, which is a popular choice for childrens’ and adults’ parties.

According to popular tradition, the Margherita pizza was first baked in Naples for the Bourbon Queen Regina Margherita by local chef, Rafaelle Esposito, in 1889. He used tomato, mozzarella and basil to represent the colours of the Italian flag, before naming his culinary creation after the Queen – Pizza Margherita.