Jul 5, 2022 - Food and Drink

When Columbus devoured the world's largest pizza

Tyler Buchanan

A news headline from 1974 about the world's largest pizza. — From the Salem News of July 5, 1974, via Newspapers.com.

Columbus pizza lovers once devoured a record-setting pie so big not even Joey Chestnut could've handled it.

Flashback: On July 4, 1974, hundreds gathered in Clintonville Park to gobble up the "world's largest pizza" at the time — as confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records.

By the numbers: Nine local pizza parlors worked together on the charity project, which took 50 minutes to bake in separate sections and another hour to assemble into one culinary behemoth.

The pie measured 31 feet across and consisted of 471 pounds of dough, 222 pounds of tomato sauce, 291 pounds of cheese and 75 pounds of pepperoni.

What they said: "I don't know about stomach aches," pizza assembler Brad Louis told an AP reporter. "I just know it was there and then it was gone."

State of play: The world's largest pizza record has since been smashed, most recently by an Italian group who prepared a 13,580-square-foot gluten-free pizza in 2012.

For reference, that's bigger than an Olympic-size swimming pool.

Our take: Columbus pizzerias need to get this record back to Ohio where it belongs.

Just please, please don't make it an Ohio Valley-style pizza.

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When Columbus devoured the world's largest pizza

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