ST. THOMAS — Downtown Charlotte Amalie became the site of a new world record Sunday as Brady Sweet, chef and owner of Café Amici, successfully created the world’s largest calzone, breaking his own record and selling $10 slices to raise over $4,000 for the Humane Society of St. Thomas.
The colossal Italian turnover weighed 468 pounds and measured 35 feet long.
The record-breaking attempt, held on Main Street, filled the air with the aroma of marinara sauce, pepperoni, and homemade pizza dough. Sweet and his team carefully maneuvered the massive calzone inch by inch through a custom conveyor oven, meticulously ensuring the dough remained intact.
“The game plan was to make a calzone, but the end goal was to raise a bunch of money for the humane society, and I think we did both,” Sweet said after directing his team of restaurateurs and volunteers through the intricate dance with dough.
The calzone’s preparation was supervised by a health inspector, and an official Guinness World Records adjudicator, Hannah Ortman.
“There are a lot of rules that need to be followed,” Ortman said. “One of the big ones is that the food must be prepared in the presence of a health inspector, everything has to be done hygienically and safely, and everything must be consumed afterward so nothing goes to waste.”
Months of coordination between Sweet and Guinness World Records officials preceded the event.
“There were several calls and different meetings that led up to this, with all the small details that had to happen, like getting the ingredients approved,” Ortman explained.
Sweet had to account for every aspect of the preparation from special ordering a brand-new conveyor pizza oven to building custom-made tables with food-safe tops that measured 35 feet long, as well as obtaining Guinness-approved scales to weigh the calzone. Despite some last-minute challenges, including a malfunctioning oven that threw sparks the day before the event, Sweet remained determined.
“After a few calls to a repairman and some tweaking, the oven got fixed,” he said. “And today, it made a world-record calzone.”
Once the calzone completed its journey through the oven, onlookers cheered as slices were sold for $10 each, with all proceeds benefiting the Humane Society of St. Thomas. More than $4,000 was raised for the humane society. Most of the ingredients were donated by local food purveyors, but the overall cost of the event was significant. Sweet estimated that between purchasing the oven, building the tables, acquiring the scales, and bringing the adjudicator to the island, the total expense was around $50,000.
Sweet previously set the world record for the largest calzone at Rulli’s Italian Restaurant in Middlebury, Indiana in 2014 with a 212-pound creation that measured 23 feet, 7 inches long. This time, he more than doubled his own record by weight. When asked why he chose to attempt the record again, Sweet said he wanted to bring something special to the Virgin Islands.
“Last time I did it in my hometown, so I thought it would be cool to do it in what is now my forever hometown,” he said. “I want the record to stay here.”
As for future record-breaking endeavors, Sweet teased, “The next one’s already cooking!”
