Posted on 04/13/2012 12:37:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A CALZONE measuring 65cm wide and weighing more than two kilos is on the plate in front of me at Amici Pizza Restaurant in Holloway Road.
For 15 months the supersize feast has been taunting diners, and now I have taken up the calzone challenge.
Anyone who can finish the giant folded pizza receives a free dessert and coffee.
Simple.
Despite the restaurant taking, on average, 50 orders a week only one person has completed the challenge.
The traditional Italian calzone dough is hand-made on the premises and filled with tomato, mozzarella, goat’s cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, ham and olives.
The menu warns “big appetite required”.
“Everything has to be right,” Amici manager Sergio Cioara, 31, explains.
“The dough has to be right. First, it stays refrigerated for 20 hours and is then left at room temperature for 30 minutes and cooked at 350-400 degrees.”
The only issue is that just one giant calzone fits into the oven at a time, which can cause problems on busy nights.
“I can’t stop laughing at it,” says Sergio.
“We see how hard everyone is trying. Some guys are so convinced they can finish it. It’s like eating three pizzas at once.”
Despite this, I’m confident. “I wanna see the plate completely clean,” Sergio warns me as he delivers the mammoth meal.
Regular customer Michaela Hickey leans over for a closer look.
“I’ve never seen anything so big,” she says. “It’s like man versus food. Good luck!”
I’m definitely starting to doubt how hungry I am.
“If you want to eat it, go slow,” Sergio advises.
“A mistake people make is not to eat anything all day because then their stomach shrinks.”
Sergio moved to Islington from Romania nine years ago, though Italian food is definitely part of his heritage as his father is from Rome.
His first job was at the restaurant, where he has worked his way up from the kitchen to manager.
When asked what spurred him to make the oversized calzone, Sergio chuckles: “It was for fun.
We started the challenge as a promotion with regular-sized calzone but saw people finishing them so we started practising on how to make them bigger and fatter.”
While I tuck into my meal, a nearby table of eight can’t help but gawp, but nobody is brave enough to order one.
“Everyone takes pictures on their phone,” Sergio says. “Even people on the street stop and look at the calzone, amazed at its size.”
As a vegetarian, my ham-less calzone has all the ingredients I usually enjoy but with every word of encouragement from diners and staff I can feel my stomach shrinking.
One of my strategies was to fold it over on itself so it appeared smaller.
This does not work, it’s just taller.
At less than a quarter of the way through, I have to admit defeat.
If I’m honest, as soon as I saw it I knew I couldn’t possibly win my battle with the giant folded pizza.
Sergio is magnanimous as he passes me a substantial doggy bag with the leftovers, but then he does this at least four times a day.
The Tribune is keen to hear from the one man who succeeded where hundreds have failed.
We know that you were celebrating your birthday in March with your wife and astonishingly also managed to eat your complimentary dessert.
On the dough table it looks about 2 ft. The finished pic looks a good 3’+.
Suicide by pizza. Not a way I’d chose to go.
I’d want at least t-shirt. And some antacid. And better add a couple of XX’s to the size...
See, that’s the problem with the metric system. If she’d ordered it in the English system it would only be about 25 inches long.
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