Holy Pupusa! Chefs Create World’s Largest Pupusa During Latino Festival in Washington D.C.
If there is anything that Latino people are proud of, it is their food. Our cultures are filled with delicious and vibrant dishes passed down for generations.
We also love to show off our foods, and a group of chefs did that in a major way recently in Washington, D.C. Eighty chefs came together during Fiesta DC to make the world’s largest pupusa.
Chefs come together to break a world record for the largest pupusa
Washington, D.C., is home to 200,000 people of Salvadoran descent, the second-largest Salvadoran population in the United States. This also makes the Salvadoran population in Washington D.C. the largest immigrant population in the nation’s capital.
With such a large Salvadoran population, it is no mystery why pupusas are so beloved in the DMV. Honestly, what’s not to like about these pillow treats, often stuffed with cheese, chicharron, and loroco?
In honor of Fiesta DC, chefs from around the Washington D.C. area come together to bring this iconic dish to a massive scale. Standing around a custom-built, 20-foot griddle, the chef worked to break the world record and create something that can only be described as pure magic.
Fiesta DC is the perfect place for our community to make some history. It is the largest Latino festival in the country and brings thousands of people together to celebrate what makes our culture and community so spectacular.
Thousands of people showed up to witness, and taste, this history-making moment
According to The Washington Post, about 5,000 people signed up to help eat the massive pupusa, which was 20.2 feet in diameter. This pupusa beat the last world record pupusa made in La Paz, El Salvador in 2022. The pupusa made in El Salvador measured 18 feet wide.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser was in attendance and cut the first slice of the pupusa. For the mayor, this moment was a special testament to the culturally rich city and a moment in her own history.
“I’ve had the honor of escorting a mission to El Salvador where I made pupusas,” Mayor Bowser told The Washington Post. “I think this is just a wonderful testament to the culture that we’re building here.”
Washington, D.C., was the perfect place to make this record-holding pupusa
Iris Jimenez, one of the chefs involved in creating the pupusa, spoke with NPR to give a little more insight into why chefs in the DMV came together to make this pupusa happen.
“Specifically, we’ve always called D.C. the District of pupusas,” Jimenez told NPR when asked about the motivation to make this happen. “We have so many pupuserias – actually, 270 pupuserias in the DMV. So it only made sense that we all got together and figured out a way to do this and create this massive mega-pupusa.”
We don’t know about you, but this pupusa is making our mouths water. Seeing so many people come out to celebrate one of the most iconic dishes from Latin America is heartwarming and shows just one aspect of our larger Latino culture.
Now, who wants to go get some pupusas?
