Four years after the historic announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN, a collaboration between INFN and CERN has declared 4 July 2016 “Higgs Boson Pizza Day”. 

The Novae Restaurant 1 at CERN will offer two special “Higgs Boson Pizzas” (one vegetarian and one ham and cheese), from 11.30 a.m. to 2.15 p.m., for the usual pizza price.

The idea was born in Naples (where else?), the hometown of Pierluigi Paolucci, who - while chatting with INFN president Fernando Ferroni - realised the striking resemblance between Higgs boson event displays and the delicious pizzas in front of them.

A specially designed pizza was then created by the chef of the historic “Ettore” pizzeria in St. Lucia, in time for the opening of an Art&Science exhibition on 15 September 2015 in Naples. The owner of the restaurant, Ms Iolanda Canale, has been invited by INFN to come to CERN and help Novae in the preparation of 400 pizzas on this historic day.

For all pizza lovers who want to learn more about the Higgs boson, here is the recipe and the explanation of the culinary physics behind the pizzas. Bon appetit!

What’s happening on my ham and cheese pizza?

A two asparagus (proton-proton) collision produces a spicy Higgs boson (chorizo) decaying into two high-energy salami (photon) clusters and a lot of charged (sliced ham) and neutral (olive) particles that are detected in the pizza (detector) entirely covered with mozzarella sensors.

What’s happening on my vegetarian pizza?

A two asparagus (proton-proton) collision produces a juicy Higgs boson (cherry tomato) decaying into four high-energy (charged) peppers producing a tasty signal in the artichoke (muon) chambers and a lot of charged (red and green peppers) particles that are detected in the pizza (detector) entirely covered with mozzarella sensors.