The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving and gyro fun facts. As we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.

We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Gyro Fun Facts

Gyro Fun Facts: A gyro is a Greek dish made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie, normally beef, veal, mutton, pork or chicken, or other alternatives such as feta or haloumi cheese, and usually served in a pita or sandwich, with tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce.

  • Though grilling meat stacked on a skewer has ancient roots in the Eastern Mediterranean with evidence from the Mycenaean Greek and Minoan periods, grilling a vertical spit of stacked meat slices and cutting it off as it cooks was developed in the 19th century in Ottoman Bursa.
  • In Greek gyros means literally  to turn.
  • In spite of its popularity, the Gyro is one of the most mispronounced of any food item. It has been pronounced “jee-ros”, “jai-ros” or “gee-ros.” The correct Greek pronunciation is ‘Yeh-ro”. There is no true letter G, in the English sense. In the Greek language and the Greek letter gamma is pronounced “yeh”.
  • The Gyro was first introduced to the American public by  George Apostolou in 1965 at the Parkview Restaurant, Chicago, IL.
  • Mr Sami Eid, a Cypriot Lebanese restaurateur who lives in Limassol Cyprus, made an 8866 lb gyro. It set the world record for the Largest gyro.

Check out this tasty treat! Recipe: Lamb Gyros

Key Date

  • September 1st is National Gyros Day.

Gyro Fun Facts We May Have Missed

Let us know about any Gyro Fun Facts we may have missed in the comment section or our food truck forum. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify the facts we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia facts about Gyros.

Find all of the National Food Holidays to spice up your food truck menu specials throughout the year.