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The World's Largest Peach Cobbler While the rest of us lie asleep in our beds early Saturday morning, Rich Bennett and his cohorts will slave away on Peach County's renowned culinary masterpiece: The "World's Largest Peach Cobbler."
And by 2 o'clock on the final Saturday afternoon of the Georgia Peach Festival , a substantial crowd will have already begun to line up for a taste, an annual event many consider to be the most anticipated highlight of the Georgia Peach Festival. Beginning with the festival's return in the 1980s, a county commissioner has traditionally headed the task of baking the marvel. Three years ago, however, commissioners appointed Bennett, the county's information systems manager, to the celebrated job. "I had to go through a one-year apprenticeship first," Bennett said. "That shows how serious they are about it." He and the other county employees convene at 4 a.m. on the final Saturday of the Peach Festival in Byron and Fort Valley, Ga., to begin their work on the yearly project, which takes roughly five hours to complete. For the next several hours, after the baking process ends, the cobbler will cool until it is ready to serve the masses. The colossal cobbler -- 11 by 5 feet and about eight inches deep -- is made from an extraordinary 90 pounds of butter, 150 pounds of sugar, 150 pounds of flour, 32 gallons of milk and, of course, 75 gallons of peaches courtesy of Lane Packing Co. The cobbler's other ingredients are purchased by Sunmark Community Bank in Fort Valley.
Bennett said the arduous process begins with dividing the ingredients into five work stations manned by six to eight people. Everything is mixed in large trash cans and stirred with boat paddles. Receiving attention from various news media, and even national television coverage, Bennett humbly admitted surprise at the acclaim the cobbler has received over the past few years. "I am amazed at how many people travel from all distances -- Florida, Pennsylvania -- just to see it," he said. "I even have people ask to take a picture with me when they come to eat it." Since taking on the job, Bennett has incorporated his own fresh techniques in preparing the giant, breaking the old habit of melting the butter inside the pan, a simple detail aimed to leave the cobber less "gooey." "I consulted a professional baker who told me I should melt the butter outside the pan," he said. "I'm always tinkering with the burner, it's always evolving. The new process has gotten a lot of compliments." Bennett reminds festival-goers to bring their own containers into which they can pile as much cobbler as they can handle. Further proving its enormity, the festival has never run out of cobbler, despite the large number of enthusiastic gobbles. "I really enjoy this," said Bennett. "It's a lot of fun. What I like best is the amazement from people when they see how big it is. That makes it worth the labor we put into it." (This story adapted from an article by News Editor Brian Shreve published in The Leader-Tribune, Wednesday, June 20, 2007. |
The giant cobbler is prepared in a brick oven located in the parking lot of the Peach County Courthouse, which was constructed especially for the cobbler. For a baking pan, the chefs utilize the floor panels of school buses donated by Blue Bird Corp.