Post by raychip on Jun 20, 2005 4:09:29 GMT -5
Iowa Falls can now call itself home to one of the world's largest pizzas, and its creators are cooking up plans to get it into the record books.
Twenty-six teams on Saturday turned 4,000 pounds of cheese, 700 pounds of sauce and 9,500 sections of crust into a gargantuan pie in the Iowa Falls-Alden High School parking lot.
"This has finally become a dream in reality," said Bill Bahr, organizer of the World's Largest Pizza Bake. "It is great to have a community-supported effort."
For Bahr, 47, a manager at the Pizza Ranch restaurant in Iowa Falls, the idea to make the 129-by-92-foot pizza came after his 16-year-old son Matt asked him how big he could build a pizza.
It wasn't a challenge so much as an idea that kept expanding. Bahr thought that building a 50,000-slice pizza could attract enough interest to raise money for the school district.
More than 200 people volunteered to help, and countless others showed up to watch the $42,000 worth of ingredients - all donated - transform into a pizza.
"We're curious just like everyone else," said Orma Warschkow, 88, of Iowa Falls. "It does not happen once in a lifetime."
Sharon Bell, who was smearing sauce on 20 dough pieces per minute, said she took part in the activity to show pride in her community.
"We should do at least 25 or 30 a minute," Bell, 52, said jokingly.
About $3,000 was raised. Bahr said the money will help special-needs students, like his son, Matt.
The pizza was assembled in production-line fashion. Teams with names like Pizza Pirates smothered a piece of dough with sauce, sprinkled it with cheese and ran a stack of pieces out to the oven.
The pizza took about two hours to assemble, and by the end, most participants were sporting blotches of tomato sauce.
"I like watching the volunteers and workers put the pieces together by section," said Matt Bahr, who helped put toppings on the pizza.
To be eligible for the Guinness World Records book, the pizza needed to be cooked and be edible once assembled.
The oven took up a large chunk of the parking lot. It was made of concrete blocks, perforated steel sheets and a 10-horsepower fan and burner.
"The key will be to regulate the air flow," said Steve Doering, an oven builder. "There's enough airflow here to raise this whole floor."
The current Guinness record was set in 1990 for a round pizza 122 feet, 8 inches across made in Norwood, South Africa. Bahr said he doesn't want to unseat that record but plans to submit his slightly larger pizza to the Guinness Book of World Records for a new record.
"We are now hoping for our own record - the world's largest square pizza," he said.
Twenty-six teams on Saturday turned 4,000 pounds of cheese, 700 pounds of sauce and 9,500 sections of crust into a gargantuan pie in the Iowa Falls-Alden High School parking lot.
"This has finally become a dream in reality," said Bill Bahr, organizer of the World's Largest Pizza Bake. "It is great to have a community-supported effort."
For Bahr, 47, a manager at the Pizza Ranch restaurant in Iowa Falls, the idea to make the 129-by-92-foot pizza came after his 16-year-old son Matt asked him how big he could build a pizza.
It wasn't a challenge so much as an idea that kept expanding. Bahr thought that building a 50,000-slice pizza could attract enough interest to raise money for the school district.
More than 200 people volunteered to help, and countless others showed up to watch the $42,000 worth of ingredients - all donated - transform into a pizza.
"We're curious just like everyone else," said Orma Warschkow, 88, of Iowa Falls. "It does not happen once in a lifetime."
Sharon Bell, who was smearing sauce on 20 dough pieces per minute, said she took part in the activity to show pride in her community.
"We should do at least 25 or 30 a minute," Bell, 52, said jokingly.
About $3,000 was raised. Bahr said the money will help special-needs students, like his son, Matt.
The pizza was assembled in production-line fashion. Teams with names like Pizza Pirates smothered a piece of dough with sauce, sprinkled it with cheese and ran a stack of pieces out to the oven.
The pizza took about two hours to assemble, and by the end, most participants were sporting blotches of tomato sauce.
"I like watching the volunteers and workers put the pieces together by section," said Matt Bahr, who helped put toppings on the pizza.
To be eligible for the Guinness World Records book, the pizza needed to be cooked and be edible once assembled.
The oven took up a large chunk of the parking lot. It was made of concrete blocks, perforated steel sheets and a 10-horsepower fan and burner.
"The key will be to regulate the air flow," said Steve Doering, an oven builder. "There's enough airflow here to raise this whole floor."
The current Guinness record was set in 1990 for a round pizza 122 feet, 8 inches across made in Norwood, South Africa. Bahr said he doesn't want to unseat that record but plans to submit his slightly larger pizza to the Guinness Book of World Records for a new record.
"We are now hoping for our own record - the world's largest square pizza," he said.