Pie Games: The Largest Pizza in the World

From the flatbreads of the ancient world – smothered in oil, cheese, vegetables or dates – to the deep-dish Chicago style pizza or the classic New York slice, pizza comes in all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of toppings. But there’s one thing many people can agree on. Pizza, any which way, is delicious! Everyone claims theirs is the best, but only a few are prepared to go the extra mile – literally and metaphorically – to attempt the largest pizza in the world.

Starting in the bustling streets of Naples, the kitchens of New York quickly embraced the trusty crust, and then the gorgeous gastronomic great went global. Our adventure takes us on a mouthwatering journey, visiting the audacious bakers, the boundary-pushing pizzaiolos, and the downright brave who have dared to redefine what ‘big’ really means!

Whether you’re a thin-crust connoisseur or a deep-dish devotee, prepare to have your mind stretched, topped, and baked to perfection as we find out the staggering size of the biggest pizza ever.

Your passport to pizza paradise awaits…!

Most of the contenders for the largest pizza in the world are one-offs for charity or for fun but not this titanic Texan table-topper. The Bus is believed to be the world’s largest commercially available pizza and it measures a staggering 2.43 metres long and 81 centimetres wide. If you’re local to Burleson, Texas and you’re very, very hungry, give it a go!

Very few people in the world take pizza as seriously as Florida restaurateur Lorenzo Amato. He has made the world’s biggest pizza twice! In 1987 he made a pizza measuring over thirty metres in diameter which he sold for $1 a slice, donating the proceeds to the American Red Cross.

Four years later, helped by 150 chefs from three countries, he made a pizza measuring almost forty-three metres across!

In 1990, a hypermarket in Norwood, a suburb of Johannesburg in South Africa made the biggest pizza the world had ever seen. It had a smaller diameter than Lorenzo Amato’s 1987 effort – at just under thirty-eight metres – but it was said to be the world’s heaviest pizza. It used 4.5 tonnes of flour, 1.8 tonnes of cheese, 900 kg each of chopped tomatoes and tomato puree, and 800 kg of mushrooms. All in, it weighed a little over twelve tonnes!

In homage to Roman emperor Augustus who was also known as Octavian, a former holder of the title of largest pizza in the world was named Ottavia. It was made by chefs Dovilio, Marco and Matteo Nardi, Andrea Mannocchi and Matteo Giannotte in Rome in December 2012.

The classic cheese and tomato margherita was gluten-free and had a total surface area of 1,261.65 m2. It was so big the dough was baked in 5,000 separate batches.

In June 2017, a team led by a California-based pizza oven manufacturer made the world’s longest pizza at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. A contender for the biggest pizza in the world, it measured a quite remarkable 1,930.39 metres, that’s almost two kilometres long. Imagine that, almost two thousand metres of delicious pizza…!

A special portable oven was created which cooked the pizza at a super-fast fifteen metres per minute blasting it at temperatures between 370°C and 537°C. It took almost five days to make by a team of more than 100 people. The pizza consisted of eight tonnes of dough, 2.2 tonnes of tomato sauce and 1.7 tonnes of cheese. What wasn’t eaten by the onlookers was donated to local charities.

Pizza Hut and YouTuber Airrack came together in the Los Angeles Convention Center in California in January 2023 to break the world record for the biggest pizza ever. It was a promotion for the re-release of Pizza Hut’s Big New Yorker. Like the previous record holder, it was so big it had to be baked in batches.

The world’s largest pizza had a surface area of 1,296.72 m2 and ingredients included 6.2 tonnes of dough, 2.2 tons of sweet marinara sauce, almost four tons of cheese and approximately 630,500 slices of pepperoni. As soon as the record was ratified, the preposterously prodigious pie was cut into 68,000 slices and donated to local food banks.

As we have seen, for some, pizza is not just about flavour and comfort; it’s about pushing boundaries and taking on gastronomic challenges. From the titanic Texan creation, The Bus, to Lorenzo Amato’s ambitious endeavours, and the massive masterpieces like the Ottavia and the record-breaking Pizza Hut & Airrack collaboration, pizzas have been reimagined and stretched to truly mind-boggling sizes.

These feats of culinary prowess aren’t just about setting records, though. They’re about coming together, sharing joy and food, and raising funds for worthwhile causes. Whether you’re biting into a piece of the world’s longest pizza in California or a slice from the most massive pizza ever in Los Angeles, the spirit of community, generosity, and a shared love for pizza is what truly matters.

So, as we celebrate the audacious bakers, innovative pizzaiolos, and the brave souls who dared to redefine what ‘big’ really means in the world of pizza, let’s also take a moment to appreciate pizza in all its forms – from the smallest personal pie to the record-breaking behemoths. Here’s to pizza – in all its delicious, boundary-pushing, community-building glory!