” I am proud. » Benoît Bruel, pizza maker from Déliss’Pizza, in the 3rd arrondissement of Lyon, has just broken the world record for cheese on a pizza. With 1,001 different cheeses, “from all over Europe”. All on a piece of dough 30.5 cm in diameter and 24 cm in cookie cutter form. With this record, Benoît Bruel downgrades chef Julien and his 834 cheese pizza made during the Sirha in September 2021. “It took him fourteen months of training, I needed five,” he says, a bit teasingly.
Why 1.001? “I said to myself that it was a good number, there is a Bugatti Verona with 1,001 horsepower, I like the cartoon 1,001 legs and then, it’s better than 1,000,” replies the pizza maker, smiling.
A tribute to Brice Guilbert and a second record in sight
Since May 7 exactly, the day he made his decision, Benoît Bruel has trained tirelessly, “except in August, I needed a vacation because it’s exhausting.” The pizza maker traveled all over France in search of 1,001 different varieties of cheese. He managed to get everything, notably thanks to the help of his cheesemaker Sophie Richard Luna. “The hardest part was the organization. We had to classify each product carefully because no duplicates are tolerated, and she helped me a lot with that. »
After more than twenty-four hours of work, “we ate everything and had a great time,” confides Benoît Bruel. The ten cheese platters that were used to make the pizza were then distributed to the people present on site and to “passersby” in the neighborhood. “All the evidence will be sent to the Guinness Book but it will be validated”, affirms the chef, ensuring that he has respected all the conditions, in particular the “two grams of each cheese”.
Benoît Bruel is already thinking of achieving a second world record with this same pizza, “soon in the South, with friends,” he says. In addition to being “proud” of himself and his team, the record holder wanted to dedicate his success to his cameraman friend Brice Guilbert, who died in the helicopter crash during the filming of the show. Dropped in March 2015, in Argentina: “it was he who had this idea. »