In June this year, Guinness World Records officially awarded Nigerian chef Hilda Bassey the record for the longest cooking marathon (individual) after attaining a time of 93 hours 11 minutes. The chef, also known as Hilda Baci, went viral across social media in May when she attempted to break the record that India’s Lata Tondon previously held.
The Indian set the initial record of 87 hours 45 minutes in 2019. 26-year-old Baci spent four days (May 11 to May 15) in the kitchen preparing over 100 pots of food, the organization said.
Baci’s initial target was to set a 100-hour cooking record, but Guinness World Records subtracted almost seven hours from her time because “she mistakenly took extra minutes for one of her rest breaks early on in the attempt.”
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Five months on, an Irish chef, Alan Fisher, has broken Baci’s record, Guinness World Records announced on Tuesday. It said Fisher claimed the longest cooking marathon (individual) after clocking in a time of 119 hours 57 minutes, adding that the time was “more than 24 hours longer than the previous record” held by Baci.
Fisher, who owns a restaurant in Japan, also claimed the longest baking marathon (individual) with a time of 47 hours 21 minutes, Guinness World Records said. The previous record holder was Wendy Sandner (USA) with a time of 31 hours 16 minutes.
“What’s even more impressive is that Alan took on both attempts back to back, meaning he was at work in the kitchen for over 160 hours with just over a day of rest in between!” according to Guinness World Records.
The previous cooking queen, Baci, received support from millions of Nigerians and other people during her cook-a-thon, with Guinness World Records reporting that its website even crashed for two days due to the “immense volume of traffic” they received from her fans.
