Irishman Alan Fisher unseats Nigerian Hilda Baci as cooking marathon record holder

An Irish chef has broken the world record for cooking non-stop, beating the previous record holder by more than 24 hours.

Alan Fisher, who is based in Japan, cooked for 119 hours and 57 minutes at his Irish-themed restaurant in Matsue, Guinness World Records (GWR) said.

Mr Fisher's new record means Nigerian chef Hilda Baci has been dethroned as the world record holder.

She won the title earlier this year, causing a sensation in Nigeria.

Her closely followed world-record attempt kicked off a craze in her country with people trying to get themselves in the record books by doing things like crying or singing non-stop.

The Nigerian's record stood at 93 hours 11 minutes.

"I just knew that I need to do something that is… out of the ordinary to put myself on the map, to put Nigeria on the map, to put young African women on the map," she said at the time.

"Lata (a previous record-holder) and Hilda's achievements served as an inspiration," GWR quotes Mr Fisher as saying.

But now Ms Baci's record has been replaced by Mr Fisher - who peeled 300kg of potatoes as part of his cooking marathon.

"As fatigue started to take hold I would find it more and more difficult to stay awake whenever I sat down to start peeling," he said.

"The rhythm of the peeling would almost hypnotise 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 realise there was no one there."

Incredibly, Fisher then went on to break the non-stop baking record with a time of 47 hours 21 minutes, GWR said.

After both marathon sessions, Fisher had made 357kg worth of soda bread and 3,360 portions of food.

Ms Baci has been magnanimous in surrendering her crown.

"Huge congratulations to Alan Fisher!" she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"I'm so happy to have held a record so prestigious and profound I will forever be honored and grateful for all the love and support."

Article and image originally appeared on BBC News