Buca serves up giant bowl of pastaBuca serves up giant bowl of pasta

Molly Gise

GARDEN GROVE Calif. A Buca di Beppo restaurant filled a swimming pool with 13,786 pounds of spaghetti, including 100 gallons of marinara sauce, as it sought to break the record for the world's largest bowl of pasta last weekend.

The previous record was set last March when Wataniya Restaurants-Sbarro created a 9,767-pound pasta bowl in Doha, Qatar.

Six chefs at Buca supervised the feat at the restaurant in Garden Grove, Calif.

To celebrate, Buca's 83 restaurants nationwide offered on Monday free servings of spaghetti to customers who purchased a Buca Large or Buca Small pasta or entrŽe. The chain said it would match each spaghetti freebie with a donation of uncooked pasta to a homeless charity, with plans to donate at least 10,000 pounds of pasta.

Buca also noted that pasta from the weekend stunt would be donated and repurposed by the local agricultural community.

Contact Molly Gise at [email protected].