Alan Fisher, an owner and chef of a restaurant in Japan, has broken two cooking-related Guinness World Records titles.
First up, the Irish chef claimed the longest cooking marathon (individual) after clocking in a time of 119 hours 57 minutes. That is more than 24 hours longer than the previous record held by Nigerian chef Hilda Baci.
Alan then claimed the longest baking marathon (individual), with a time of 47 hours 21 minutes. The previous record holder was Wendy Sandner (USA), with a time of 31 hours 16 minutes.
Alan took on both attempts back to back, meaning he worked in the kitchen for over 160 hours with just over a day of rest in between!
Alan said he learned about the longest cooking marathon record in March while participating in the “I Love Ireland” festival in Tokyo. During this festival, he said he stood inside a rented kitchen car and stayed overnight twice.
During a break, he searched the internet to find out that the record was held by Lata Tondon (India) with a time of 87 hours 45 minutes. Then, in May, Alan realized that Hilda Baci had extended the record to 93 hours and 11 minutes.
He said the record attempt proved challenging, even during the preparation phase.
Towards the end of the longest cooking marathon (individual) record attempt, Alan endured fatigue and sleepiness.
He said:
“I peeled roughly 300 kg of potatoes during the cooking marathon. For the first few days, I would look forward to this each evening as it gave me a chance to sit down.”
“Towards the end of the cooking marathon, however, as fatigue started to take hold, I would find it more and more difficult to stay awake whenever I sat down to start peeling.
“The rhythm of the peeling would almost hypnotize me. I had one hallucination on the second-to-last day. I turned to ask someone to pass me something, like I would on any normal day, only to realize there was no one there.”
Despite the challenges, Alan says it was the people of the town who supported his record attempt, which gave him the push to carry on.
After nine days of baking and cooking, Alan had made 357 kg worth of soda bread and 590 kg worth of dishes (3,360 portions consisting of 32 recipes). But it was all worth it when he received his two world record certificates.
