While most cheese pizzas are topped with just two or three types of cheese, this pungent combination holds the Guinness World Record for the most cheese variations on a pizza, with 1,001 distinct types of cheese.
It was created by French pizza chefs Benoît Bruel and Fabien Montellanico, with assistance from cheesemaker Sophie Hatat Richart-Luna and YouTuber Florian OnAir, and beats Morgan Niquet’s previous record of 834 set in 2021.
The foundation of the pizza, which was topped with a two-gram cube of each cheese kind, had to be pre-cooked to prevent the dough from splitting under the weight. Softer cheeses were piled at the bottom, with firmer cheeses on top.
Many farmers and cheesemakers, according to Benoît, handed him their cheese for free because they enjoyed the notion of being part of a world record. In all, 940 of the cheeses were from France, while the remaining 61 were from different nations throughout the globe.
Benoît already set this record in 2020 when he cooked a pizza with 254 different cheeses. He has almost doubled that number after spending five months combing France for new cheese kinds.
His efforts won him a new record for the greatest exhibition of cheese kinds (1,001), unseating fellow Frenchman Philippe Marchand, who acquired a selection of 730 cheeses in 2016.
“It’s been a real feat being among the cheesemakers as well as being on the farms to meet the producers who are so passionate about their profession,” Benoît said in an interview with Guinness World Records. “I’ve been making pizza for 13 years. I created my own pizza recipes, and since starting my own company, my primary ambition has been to create pizzas with the most diverse cheese combinations.”
