The Hidden Secret Behind Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza

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Photo by Yammile Garcia.

A suspiciously uneven Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza.

Yammile Garcia

We all know of Chuck E. Cheese’s — the ever-popular center of entertainment that lures children in with flashy games, prizes and, of course, copious amounts of pizza. This chain has now been around for 42 years, but recently it has been in the news for a rather disturbing question: does Chuck E. Cheese’s “recycle” their pizza?

On February 11, YouTuber Shane Dawson uploaded a video of conspiracy theories, one of which involved the pizza at Chuck E. Cheese’s. He stated that he would often go to Chuck E. Cheese’s as a kid, but he realized something odd about the pizza that made him question it. The pizza would never form a perfect circle. Some pieces would be longer than others, the pizza crusts would never align with each other, and the “cuts” seemed oddly off. He wondered if employees would grab the uneaten pizza slices from previous customers’ tables and simply “glue” them back together with cheese, only to re-serve the food to other customers.

Of course, Shane Dawson being Shawn Dawson, he headed into a Chuck E. Cheese’s and ordered a few pizzas to see if they were in perfect shape or not. The results were shocking. Sure enough, the pizza did not make a perfect circle; it seemed as if different pizza slices were put together to create a “new” pie.

This became the cause of much controversy between CEC Entertainment, Inc., the chain’s parent company, and Dawson. Once the company saw the video, they asked Dawson to take it down because it gave out false information. In an official statement send to media outlets, the company stated that the claims made in the video “are unequivocally false” and that their pizzas are “made fresh in [the] restaurant.”

Many viewers didn’t believe that, so they took matters into their own hands and took a trip down to their local Chuck E. Cheese’s. Sure enough, some pizzas came out uneven while others came out looking perfectly normal and evenly aligned.

My parents have always disliked Chuck E. Cheese’s — they always thought places like that seem oddly sketchy. They never allowed me to go there as a child for any of our relatives’ or friends’ parties, but recently the curiosity took over and I wanted to see if the pizza theory was true or not.

I wasn’t expecting much: I only knew that it would be the first and last time I would set foot into a Chuck E. Cheese’s. One thing that immediately stood out was that the place seemed oddly like a casino. (Come on! What are we teaching children nowadays?) The building was bright and loud, with children running back and forth and nonstop arcade sound effects.

My friends and I sat at a booth and ordered two pizzas. Deep down inside me, I was hoping that when the pizzas came out they would look, well, like regular pizzas. To my disappointment, when they came out the slices did not align at all and the pieces looked as if they had been glued together with cheese. I didn’t dare eat a slice. As we were leaving, we saw a family of four being served a pizza. Their pizza, however, seemed perfectly normal, which sparked even more questions.

Does Chuck E. Cheese’s actually recycle their pizzas? I can’t say for sure, but there are two things I know. Firstly, Chuck E. Cheese’s has probably been doing great business ever since Dawson’s video was released. And secondly, always be cautious with what you consume.