Pizzeria, WNBA team cook up 112-cheese pizza for Guinness record

Aug. 14 (UPI) -- A Connecticut pizzeria teamed with a WNBA basketball team to attempt a Guinness World Record by cooking up a pizza with 112 different cheeses.

Taso Vitsas, manager at Crown Pizza in Waterford, said he teamed up with the Connecticut Sun to cook up a pizza that would be topped with more cheeses than the current Guinness World Record of 102, set by an Oregon pizza chef.

Vitsas said he quickly realized that using so many cheeses would require a major sacrifice -- taste.

"Originally, I was going to try and make a good-tasting pizza which is obviously my goal being a pizza maker," Vitsas told WFSB-TV. "Once I got to 30-35 cheeses, I realized this is not going to be a good-tasting pizza."

The Connecticut Sun players helped Vitsas top his 42-inch pizzas with 112 cheeses cut by Christine Chesanek of Fromage in Old Saybrook.

"And he wanted just small bites," Chesanek said. "I didn't know 'oh is it going to taste good together? Is it not?' But it wasn't really for eating, it was for the magic of saying he really did it."

Vitsas said the mixture of cheeses caused problems for more than just the taste of the pizza.

"Some of these blu cheeses and goat cheeses from across the world, they have a very unique smell," Vitsas said.

The finished pizza -- or, rather, photos and videos along with written testimony about its contents and process -- was submitted to Guinness World Records for approval.

Vitsas said he attempted to sample the admittedly less-than-delicious pizza.

"I tried it," he said. "It wouldn't go down."