WINDSOR – The town that brought us the world’s largest pumpkin pie and the biggest apple pie in America was shooting for the longest BLT sandwich on Sunday.
At the Windsor Farmers Market, students from the Windsor High School Culinary Arts program slathered chewy French bread with mayonnaise and layered the tasty bed with juicy heirloom tomatoes and mixed lettuce greens.
And on top, 120 pounds of sliced, hand-cured, pork belly bacon.
“To me, it’s all about the sweet taste of the tomato and the salty, smoky flavors of the bacon,” said Jeff Mall, chef and owner of Zin restaurant in Healdsburg, who cures his own bacon and donated it to Sunday’s cause. “And good bread and good mayonnaise just make it.”
Marie Ganister, director of the culinary program, said the students will apply to Guinness World Records for the largest BLT ever. Sunday’s was 146 feet.
A check of the record-keepers’ Web site had no listings Sunday for a bacon-based sandwich. A “largest sandwich” entry details a 5,440-pounder made at Wild Woody’s Chill and Grill in Roseville, Mich., in 2005. It gives no indication of what was inside the behemoth.
With a line of hungry Sunday brunchers lined up, Ganister readied her students for the final step, putting both sides of the sandwich together.
“OK everybody,” she said, a length of BLT for as long as she could see to either side. “Close your sandwich!” At $5 a slice, the potential history-maker served as a fund-raiser for the 160-student culinary program.
“How sweet it is,” said Windsor Town Councilman Sam Salmon, tucking into the BLT’s
ceremonial first slice. “I like good bread. I like tomatoes. I like lettuce. Mmm, mmm, mmm.”
Windsor’s BLT record attempt follows on the heels of 2006’s 500-pound apple pie and what was billed as the world’s largest-diameter pumpkin pie in 2003.
The sandwich fest was part of the summertime Windsor Farmers Market, which celebrated the seventh Annual Tomato and Pepper Festival Sunday.
Market attendees also were able to escape the heat — at least in fantasy — with Beach-Boys-style tunes from the California Beach Party band.
