Chefs cook 13-tonne Biryani

Sixty chefs cooked a rice dish weighing 13 tonnes in a bid to enter the Guinness Book of World Records, organisers said.

Three cranes dumped 3,000kg of Basmati rice, 85kg of chilli peppers, 1,200 litres of oil and 3,650kg of vegetables into a giant vat at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi in the presence of a Guinness observer.

The steel vat was mounted on a 3ft-high furnace while the chefs clad in fire-resistant outfits perched on a platform to stir the biryani with oar-like ladles.

The cooks threw a pinch of salt‌ weighing 86kg into the 16ft-deep steel vat, organiser Gurnam Arora said.

The sponsors used a hose to pour 6,000 litres of water into the vat and sprinkled 10kg of exotic spices and aromatic condiments to prepare the tangy biryani, Arora said.

This is a great activity to revive the feasting and celebration tradition associated with biryani in India,‌ New Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit 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 here to certify them for preparing the world's largest biryani weighing around 13,000kg,‌ Ishikawa said. Official recognition of the record is expected later in the year.

The dish would be divided and sent to city orphanages once Ishikawa certified the weighing of the cooked biryani, garnished with carrots and 750kg 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.

It's a unique event,‌ remarked Sushil Kapoor, one of the cooks. It's not easy to cook such a large amount of biryani. We started in the morning. We enjoyed doing it.

While the cooking was in progress at one side of the stadium, a cultural show was on at the other side to entertain the audience.

We were hoping that the biryani would be non-vegetarian but although it's not, we are excited to taste it anyway, said Abhinav Garg, who had come with his friends to watch the unique event.
Shambhavi Sharma, however, was more excited just to see the cooking in progress.

I have never seen such a big vessel...and the way the crane was lowering the vegetables, it was fantastic! I had come to watch the cooking and I must say it's impressive.

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