Ebenezer Smith, a Ghanaian chef who claimed to have broken the Guinness World Records (GWR) for the longest cooking marathon by an individual has explained why he forged the prestigious award.
Gatekeepers News reports that on Tuesday, the cook, fondly called Millennium Chef Smith, was arrested and detained at the La police station in Accra for faking the GWR award.
Smith, who had publicly announced himself as the new world record holder, claimed he cooked non-stop for 802 hours and 25 minutes.
According to the Ghanaian chef, he started the exercise on February 1 and ended on March 6, 2024 — about 33 days.
He further presented a certificate he claimed was given to him by authorities of the prestigious British reference book.
However, a GWR spokesperson, Alina Polianskaya, on Wednesday, told BBC Pidgin that Smith’s claims were “not true”.
Polianskaya added that the certificate he presented “was not ours”.
The spokesperson said, “The current and true record holder for the longest cooking marathon (individual) is 119 hours, 57 minutes, and 16 seconds, achieved by Alan Fisher (Ireland) in Matsue, Shimane, Japan, from 28 September to 3 October 2023.”
Meanwhile, the police had arrested Smith following a disagreement with his sponsor, the Amadia Shopping Centre, Spintex, where he held his cooking marathon.
The Ghanaian chef was accused of breaching a contractual agreement by failing to inform the shopping centre about the alleged award.
This deception fetched Smith a chorus of condemnation on social media, with many Ghanaian users who supported his attempt, expressing shock and disappointment.
It, however, remains unknown if Smith has been released from detention or arraigned in court.
Confessing in an interview with GHOne TV, Smith said, “I have been following GRW for long. They (GWR) have a lot of certificates on their online pages. So I just picked one and edited it with my details.”
Narrating how he carried out the deceit, the Ghanaian chef said, “After Hilda Bassey did it, I have been thinking about it. And then all of a sudden I decided, after Afua did her sing-a-thon, I decided to make a step.
“Tracking the history has always been sequential, like numbers with the application reference. So I landed on the application reference of Adu Safoa. And then I built something for myself.”
He further revealed that his assistant was not aware of his criminal act.
The chef noted that his sponsors spent more than GH¢300,000 on him, adding that he is ready to face any action from them.
Smith said, “I can’t tell the exact amount my sponsors invested but it may be more than GH¢300,000.
“Words won’t be enough, at this point, I give my life out to my sponsors to do to me as they wish. I don’t even deserve to live because it’s too much for me to bear.”
The chef further apologised for his actions.
Meanwhile, Irish chef Alan Fisher, is the current world record holder after cooking for 119 hours and 57 minutes.
Last November, the GWR certified Fisher as the record holder for the longest cooking marathon by an individual after he surpassed Nigerian chef Hilda Baci’s record of 93 hours and 11 minutes.