Alan Fisher, an Irish cook, set a new world record by successfully completing a nearly 120-hour cooking marathon at his restaurant in Japan, the Guinness World Records (GWR) stated on Tuesday.
In doing so, he has dethroned Nigerian chef Hilda Baci, who set the record this spring by cooking for about 93 hours. Fisher beat that previous record by over 24 hours.
"Nigerian cooking queen Hilda Baci has been dethroned. Alan Fisher from Ireland cooked for an incredible 119 hours and 57 minutes at his restaurant in Japan," GWR said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).
Baci, however, wasn't cheesed off and congratulated her colleague.
"Huge congratulations to Alan Fisher! 119hrs 57mins is a huge achievement, and I wish him all the best as the new world record holder!" she wrote on X.
A key thing to note is that Fisher became the titleholder of two world records simultaneously: the longest cooking marathon (individual) and the longest baking marathon by an individual (47 hours 21 minutes) and it's absolutely bananas that the Irish chef took on both attempts back to back, which means that he was cooking for over 160 hours with just over a day of rest in between, according to the official Guinness World Records website.
Both chefs, however, had different motivations for joining the cooking marathons.
According to a story on the GWR website, Fisher, as a restaurant owner in Japan, had a hard time coping with the COVID-19 restrictions. He had to take a loan just to be able to pay the bills.
"I was broke and heartbroken. To have worked so hard for so long, to give up your own savings, your own salary and then still need a loan simply to stay in business with no guarantee things will recover. That was a tough pill to swallow," he said.
The Irishman wanted to channel his negative emotions and experiences into something positive, and therefore decided to try to set a new world record.
Hilda Baci, in turn, wanted, as the GWR quotes her, to "put Nigerian cuisine on the map" and inspire young women to do great things.
"I feel like it's very important for me that young girls my age or even younger than me see that they can actually dream big and do really big things. [...] It's almost like I'm trying to set a precedent for those that are coming after me to be able to dream bigger," Baci said in an interview to a local channel.
Here we see that these records serve as a testament to the fact that when properly motivated, people are ready to accomplish truly awe-inspiring feats.