ITALY-PHILIPPINES: Pizza for Victims of Volcanic Eruption
MANILA, Dic 19 (IPS) - Baking the world's biggest pizza may earn Nino di Stefano another slot in the Guinness Book of World Records, but the Italian chef says he is doing it mainly because he wants to help the victims of a 1991 volcanic eruption in the Philippines.
Di Stefano, who has been living in the Philippines for the past 18 years, already holds the world record for baking the tallest cake.
He used to manage the Nino Di Roma and Cafe De Manila Italian restaurants in Manila, and now he is master chef and resident manager of the Grande Island Resort in the Subic Bay freeport, north of the Philippine capital.
The resort is located in one of the three northern provinces affected by the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo. Three years after the blast, the provinces have yet to recover from the disaster and are inundated by sludge from the slopes of the volcano each time it rains.
"I have been dreaming of breaking the world's largest pizza record which is 1,098 square metres and baked in Norwood, South Africa in 1990," said Di Stefano, who will also be opening an Italian restaurant in Subic.
"Now I will do it here in Subic not only to put the place and the Philippines in the world food map, but also to be able to help those suffering victims of Mt. Pinatubo," he said.
As Di Stefano envisions it, the giant pizza will be at least 1,200 sq m and weigh 40 tonnes. He plans to cut it into 120,000 snack-sized pieces that would be enough to feed "the whole student population of the biggest university in the Philippines or even army battalions".
The master chef said the pieces will be sold to selected patrons and sponsors. He expects to collect some 10 million pesos (400,000 dollars), which will then be donated to the victims of Mt Pinatubo.
Of some 31,000 families affected by the volcanic eruption three years ago, more than 11,000 remain in temporary evacuation centres. Experts have also said the volcanic deposits on Mt Pinatubo's slopes will continue to be washed down by the rains for the next ten years.
Di Stefano said he can start working on the pizza soon, since the ingredients donated by the Italian government have already arrived. Italy donated some five tonnes of flour and 250 kilos of corned beef for the giant pizza.
But Di Stefano added that making the pizza would take him and about 30 volunteer assistants three weeks to prepare and mix the ingredients and 30 days to bake it.
© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service