I don’t know what it is about food and eating that makes people around the world stop and take notice. Eating contests draw as many stares as a flipped vehicle on the Golden Gate Bridge. And monster portions, such as the world’s largest cheesecake, can attract crowds from the far reaches of the globe.
That said, I suppose it’s no wonder all eyes were on the quiet Amish region of northeastern Ohio a few weeks ago. According to news reports, restaurants, bakeries and family cooks in the popular Amish community united to break a Guinness record for the world’s largest buffet. (The current record is held by the Las Vegas Hilton—it served up 510 dishes last year to earn the title).
Unfazed by the task at hand, Amish organizers planned three two-hour sittings for 1,000 people each at $11 apiece at the Amish Flea Market. (Proceeds from the spread will help feed the needy.) The buffet included nearly 600 dishes from Hungarian sauerkraut soup and corn casserole to garlic mashed potatoes and sweet potato soufflé.
Pictures of the massive buffet and other documentations, including witness statements have been sent to Guinness World Records officials so a determination of a new record can be made.
While the Amish were working on the buffet record a New Jersey baker had his hands full with his own larger than life task. Frank Formica doesn’t fool around when he bakes bread—even when his customers have four legs, a trunk, and two large ears. Formica’s business has a standing contract with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to bake 300 jumbo-sized loaves of special-recipe whole wheat bread for the massive animals that perform in the show when they are in town.
Formica makes 100 loaves of bread a day for three days to feed the performing pacaderms. But, these are not just any loaves of bread, the Atlantic City baker whips up two-foot long high-fiber loaves that weigh three pounds each and are designed to help the elephants with their digestion.
Formica told reporters that it takes about 3 1/2 hours to mix and bake the bread, whose only ingredients are whole wheat flour, salt, yeast and water.
The price for the elephant bread: about $500 to $600 total.
Who knew the circus had such a big bread budget?
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