60 Indian chefs toiled over a giant vat filled with 13 tonnes of ingredients to make a very ‘beeg’ biryani in a new Guinness World Record attempt.
The steel vat was mounted on a three-foot high furnace while 60 chefs clad in fire-resistant outfits perched on a platform to stir the biryani – one of South Asia’s most popular dishes – with oar-like ladles.
The cooks threw “a pinch of salt” weighing 86 kilos, 4.87-metre deep steel vat, organiser Gurnam Arora said.
The sponsors used a hose to pour 6 000 litres of water into the vat and sprinkled 10 kilos of exotic spices and aromatic condiments to prepare the tangy biryani, Arora said.
Kaoru Ishikawa, a records manager from the British-based Guinness Book of World Records who was on hand for the 10-hour cooking session, said: “I’m here to certify them for preparing the world’s largest biryani weighing around 13 000 kilograms.” Official recognition of the record is expected later in the year.
The dish would be divided and trucked to city orphanages once Ishikawa certified the weighing of the cooked biryani, garnished with carrots and 750 kilos of creamy yogurt, Arora said.
“This event is a one-of-a-kind endeavour unmatched by any other past culinary activity,” Arora said to the cheers of hundreds of spectators. Currently, there is no listing for the largest biriyani in the Guinness Book of World Records, Arora said.