On Aug. 9, Chef Jason Dunn of Lewis Station Winery, Lake Mills, Wis., and four assistants built a U.S. record-breaking 32-foot-long caprese salad. Made with fresh Wisconsin ingredients, the salad included 35 pounds of award-winning fresh mozzarella from Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics, Waterloo, Wis. The salad also featured 34 quarts of locally sourced tomatoes, 3 pounds of locally grown basil (four different types), 2 quarts of olive oil and 1 quart of balsamic vinegar, Crave Brothers said.
“The previous caprese salad record-holder was a 24-foot-long version, made in San Diego,” Dunn said.
The 150 people attending the salad-making event enjoyed $10 servings of the salad, with each serving paired with a glass of rosé wine, Crave Brothers said. A portion of the evening’s proceeds was donated to Club 55 at Lake Mills Senior Center.
Dunn said the idea for the creating the record caprese salad in the United States came out of a conversation he had with cheesemaker George Crave last year.
“I really love to work with Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese,” he said. “George and I threw the idea around because we have such beautiful tomatoes here in August, and we enjoy serving Crave Brothers fresh mozzarella weekly on our menu.”
A licensed cheesemaker, Crave oversees the making of all the Crave Brothers handcrafted artisan cheeses.
“Caprese salad is such a good way to use our fresh mozzarella that we thought it would be fun to do it in a big way,” he said.
Crave Brothers’ cheese is sustainably produced in the family’s own farmstead cheese-making facility, which practices water conservation and recycling, and uses 100 percent green power. An anaerobic biodigester produces enough electricity to power the Crave Brothers Farm, the farmstead cheese-making plant and more than 300 homes in the community, the company said.
