Chefs aiming to roll into culinary history books with 8ft pizza

Chefs from a West Cork pizzeria are bidding to get into the record books next weekend with what they claim will be Ireland’s biggest ever pizza.

The monster 96in dish will be created by the Oak Fire Pizzeria in Skibbereen.

It will require 20kg of the restaurant’s special pizza dough, five litres of tomato sauce, 10kg of cheese and between 10kg and 15kg of topping, which includes everything from pepperoni, ham, spicy beef, parma ham, olives and onions to black pudding.

At noon on Saturday, the doors of the restaurant will be thrown open to display the finished product which is being baked under a veil of secrecy.

The giant 8ft pizza will then be cut into 30 monster slices, each of them 4ft in length and 12in in diameter — and sold for €20 a slice.

The hope is to raise an estimated €1,500 for the Irish Cancer Society, says owner Andrew Loane, who is confident it will be the biggest pizza ever baked in Ireland. “I’ve been researching this for the past few months to see if there’s evidence of one of these being made before, and the biggest I could find was a 54in pizza made by a pizzeria in Dublin.

“I decided to go for an eight-footer!”

“Each of the slices will be the equivalent of two large pizzas, so it is quite good value for €20,” he said. To date, around 20 of the slices have already been sponsored in advance. Sponsors can pick five toppings from a wide range of foods.

Loane is expecting an avalanche of sponsors on the day.

“There has been a solid stream of people in asking about how we will cook it,” says the restaurateur who refuses, however, to divulge the secret until the big day.

“People are very interested to see how we will bake such an enormous pizza,” he said.

Following the midday opening on Saturday, the restaurant is offering free teas, coffees, bread sticks and pizza samples.”

“We’re urging everyone to get involved — there will be lots of raffle prizes up for grabs. These have been donated by local businesses and all proceeds will go to the Irish Cancer Society.”

* Anyone who wishes to sponsor a slice of pizza can contact the Oak Fire Pizzeria at 028-51782