Guinness World Records deactivates its 'cookathon' category

On 1 February, Ghana began its second cooking marathon attempt with Chef Ebenezer Smith taking over from the unsuccessful Failatu Abdul Razak.

Chef Smith cooked for 35 days in Spintex, clocking 820 hours after ending his attempt on 1 March.

At a recent press conference, Chef Smith announced himself as the West African record holder, sparking yet another GWR frenzy in Ghana after Afua Asantewaa’s singing marathon.

However, In an official response email which was sent by GHone TV, Guinness World Records clarified the situation, stating: “No, this is not true at all. He does not hold the GWR title and that is not our certificate. The current and true record holder is: The longest cooking marathon (individual) is 119 hr 57 min 16 sec and was achieved by Alan Fisher (Ireland) in Matsue, Shimane, Japan, from 28 September to 3 October 2023.”

Another update on the Guinness World Records indicates that the cooking marathon record is no longer active.

GWR has a long list of records it deactivated for several reasons. For instance, the fastest violinist record was deactivated in 2017 because GWR said it could no longer judge the quality of renditions.

“As a good rule of thumb—if you can’t measure, weigh, or count it—then it’s probably not a record!” is GWR’s mantra for discontinuing records and applications.

Earlier, it was reported that Chef Smith had ended up at the police station after his controversial press conference, during which he claimed to be the new record holder for the longest cooking marathon by an individual.

Chef Smith, also known as Millennium Chef, is reported to have been chased out of the press conference by men in police and military uniforms.

The report indicated that the security personnel were brought to the conference venue by Nana Boroo over a supposed breach of contract between him and Smith.