This Is The World’s Best Lasagna, According To The Internet

This right here is the recipe for the world's best lasagna. That title is not up for debate. It's literally called the "World's Best Lasagna." Calling it otherwise would be like calling a cat a fish. It's the product of John Chandler, a Dallas home cook who submitted his recipe to Allrecipes.com 11 years ago. With over 12 million pageviews in the last five years, 33,000 Pinterest shares, and 7,600 reviews, it's by far the most popular recipe on the site.

There's nothing surprising about it, nor are there any far-flung ingredients — no mozzarella di bufala, no splash of Barolo. So, what makes it the world's best? Apparently, Chandler’s girlfriend at the time encouraged him to post the recipe online, and not wanting to simply call it "John’s Lasagna," he settled on "World’s Best Lasagna." And so it was written.

Now, we're not trying to say this isn't the world's best lasagna. It might be! We haven't tried it. And, in order to retain ethical integrity, this writer must confess that he hates lasagna. Hates, hates, hates it. Many have tried and all have failed to convince him otherwise. So, this report is necessarily biased.

But let's get back to this lasagna. The Internet is an imperfect overlord, in part due to the ubiquity of search engine optimization (SEO). A few years back, Food52's Amanda Hesser noted how SEO-fied recipe sites like Allrecipes.com, which happens to be the largest English-language food site, get a leg up over smaller food blogs. With a staff and technical know-how, they can ensure proper keywords and metadata are embedded in every recipe.

Allrecipe's Google cred is so high, in fact, that just searching for "lasagna" puts Chandler's recipe at the top. No small feat, considering lasagna's Wikipedia article ranks third. Basically, by adding"world's best" to the title on a site with high search-engine authority and top-notch SEO practices — read this and this if you don't believe how serious Allrecipes is about its Google game — Chandler inadvertently ensured his lasagna would top all others.

All of this is to say that, with zero disrespect to Chandler, his lasagna may or may not be the world's tastiest, but it is unquestionably the world's most googled. It's the edible Most Photographed Barn in America. And that, reader, is food for thought. (ABC News)