Whether to promote a business or raise funds for a good cause, Americans have become obsessed with creating big food—from meatballs and bagels to carrots and cupcakes. And who could blame them? Not only are these culinary feats fun to engineer—often requiring the special help of friends and, in many instances, an industrial-size oven—each project often has a celebratory unveiling event that garners quite a bit of media attention. Plus, who could resist the idea of being a Guinness World Record holder? Below, check out some of the larger-than-life creations that have helped spur businesses, promote movies and, most important of all, fulfill a life-size—er, lifelong—dream. [via womansday]
World’s Largest Bagel
In August 2004, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Bruegger's bakery-cafes broke the Guinness World Record for its 868-pound bagel, which measured 6 feet in diameter and was 20 inches thick. Using 1,075 pounds of dough, 660 pounds of flour, 900 gallons of water, 53 pounds of malt, a nine-person baking team, a specially designed oven and a construction crane, the giant baked good was unveiled at The Great New York State Fair in Syracuse. After the judging, slices of the bagel were sold at the fair, along with T-shirts that read: “I saw history in the baking.” Proceeds benefited local food banks in Albany, Syracuse and Rochester, New York. Photo courtesy of Bruegger's Enterprises via Brueggers.com.
World’s Heaviest Carrot
John V. R. Evans, a mechanical designer who lives 40 miles north of Anchorage in Palmer, Alaska, holds nine world records for giant vegetables, which he’s yielded using his own fertilizers, biocatalysts and growing techniques—all taken from years of experimenting with climactic and soil conditions in six different countries. The carrot shown above, which is 18.985 pounds, was grown by Evans in 1998, and has been recognized as the World’s Heaviest Carrot by Guinness World Records. Photo courtesy of John Evans via WorldCarrotMuseum.co.uk.
World’s Biggest Cookie
In 2003, Immaculate Baking Co. created a 40,000-pound chocolate-chip cookie measuring over 100 feet in diameter to capture the record for World’s Biggest Cookie. Ingredients used were 6,000 pounds of chocolate chips, 12,200 pounds of unbleached flour, 6,525 pounds of unsalted butter, 5,000 pounds of granulated sugar, 3,370 pounds of dark brown sugar, 184 pounds of salt, 79 pounds of baking soda, 30,000 whole eggs and 10 gallons of pure vanilla. Engineered in Hendersonville, North Carolina, the cookie was baked in a structureless 7,850-foot oven—specially designed for the big cookie—in convective heat, for five to six hours. Following the event, the cookie was cut and sold, and 100% of the proceeds were donated to the Folk Artist's Foundation. Photo courtesy of Immaculate Baking Company via ImmaculateBaking.com.
World’s Largest Slab of Fudge
The world's largest slab of fudge was created by Chantelle Gorham, the owner of Northwest Fudge Factory, a fudge wholesale company located in Ontario, Canada. The photo above is of her third record-breaking slab (beating out her other two records), which weighed 5,050 pounds and was made of marbled white and dark chocolate fudge. It was displayed at the New Sudbury Shopping Center, also in Ontario, in May 2007 to promote her now-booming fudge-making business. Photo courtesy of Chantelle Gorham via NorthwestFudgeFactory.com.
World’s Largest Meatball
To promote its new animated movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Sony Pictures called on chefs Rainer Zinngrebe and Aldo Novoa to prepare a 72-pound meatball, which they unveiled at The Ritz-Carlton, Cancun on August 4, 2009. Packed between two stainless steel bowls to create the traditional round shape, the meat cooked for a total of 20 hours in a Rational Convection Oven at 80% humidity before being seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco. Measured by Guinness World Records adjudicator Carlos Martinez and confirmed edible by health inspectors, the meatball was then cut up and served for everyone to enjoy at the event. Photo courtesy of Ritz Carlton, Cancun.
World’s Largest Bowl of Pasta
The World’s Largest Bowl of Pasta was unveiled as the centerpiece in Lisa and Steve’s Italian-themed wedding ceremony held at a shopping mall in Utica, New York. As part of a promotion for the New York–based radio show Keeler in the Morning, 12 couples competed via a series of “Survivor-like challenges” to win the free wedding, which was aired on The Keeler Show (a supplementary 30-minute reality-themed TV show). Steve stood within the bowl, holding Lisa high above the dress-damaging garlic marinara sauce and 7,355 pounds of pasta, as they exchanged vows. Photo courtesy of Nancy Ford via NLFord.com.
World’s Largest Fish and Chips Serving
In 2004, The Black Rose (an Irish pub in Boston) and Icelandic USA (an American seafood distributor) were jointly anointed by the Guinness World Records for the World’s Largest Fish and Chips Serving. At a total weight of 77.75 pounds, the serving included a 34.21-pound cod fillet (which was 39.6 inches long) that was caught off the west coast of Iceland, and 43.54 pounds of chips. It beat the record set by an establishment in South Africa, and helped promote both the cod fishing industry in Iceland and one of Boston’s oldest pubs. Photo courtesy of Icelandic.com.
World’s Largest Cupcake
On August 15, 2009, GourmetGiftBaskets.com shattered the record for the World’s Largest Cupcake at the Woodward Dream Cruise car show in Detroit. Weighed in by Guinness World Record adjudicator Carl Saville at 1,224 pounds, the cupcake—which required 200 pounds of flour, 200 pounds of sugar, 200 pounds of butter and oil, and 1,000 eggs—was eight times bigger than the previous record holder. The self-dubbed baking “Dream Team” (we’ll say!), which included baker George Algarin and the crew from Monrovia, California’s Merengue Bakery & Cafe, told reporters on the scene that they hoped the cupcake would show people that GourmetGiftBaskets.com does what it takes to beat the best. Photo courtesy of GourmetGiftBaskets.com.
World’s Largest Gingerbread House
The World’s Largest Gingerbread House resides within the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Officially measured in by Guinness World Records representative Stuart Claxton at 67 feet tall on November 22, 2006, the gingerbread house, created by Roger Pelcher and a team of experts, took 1,700 hours, spread over nine days, to create. Ingredients included 14,250 pounds of gingerbread, 4,750 pounds of icing and nearly 5,000 pounds of embellishments, such as 1,800 Hershey's chocolate bars, 1,200 feet of Twizzlers and 100 pounds of large Tootsie Rolls. Photo courtesy of Mall of America.
World’s Largest Sandwich
On St. Patrick’s Day in 2005, the Guinness World Record was set for World’s Largest Sandwich. Weighing in at 5,444 pounds, the sandwich—whose ingredients consisted of 4,000 pounds of bread, 1,000 pounds of corned beef and 444 pounds of mustard, lettuce and Swiss cheese—was engineered by Steve Sgroi, the owner of Dooleys, an Irish pub with two locations in Eastern Michigan. Each slice of dough was rolled into an industrial-size oven on custom-made sheet pans and took eight hours to bake, while the total construction of the oversize creation required two weeks’ prep time. Photo courtesy of Frank Sgroi via DooleysIrish.com.
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