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The day Yucatan broke the Guinness World Record for Cochinita Pibil

- July 3, 2021

On January 25, 2016, a group of Yucatecan Chefs prepared the world’s largest serving of roasted pork in the form of Yucatán’s famous Cochinita Pibil in the quest to win back a world record, that should’ve never left the Land of Mayab…

A group of Yucatán chefs regained the Guinness World Record for Mexico that day, by cooking up the largest serving of roast pork the world has ever seen.

Following a record-breaking serving of 3,094 kilograms of the emblematic dish at the Expocampo Yucatán in 2010, chefs in Quezon City, Phillipines, beat Mexico’s record in November 2015 by preparing 4,045 kilograms of their traditional roasted pork, called lechon.  What does Cochinita Pibil have to do with the Phillipines in the first place ?

Pedro Cabrera Quijano, president of Fundación Produce Yucatán, announced at a press conference this week that 120 culinary students will be responsible for preparing the cochinita pibil the traditional Mayan way, by pit-roasting it. The event is being hosted at the Mérida convention center as part of the eighth edition of Expocampo Yucatán.

Students from the Universidad de Technológica del Poniente will be preparing an estimated five tonnes of Yucatán’s signature dish.

During the “Jalisco International Festival of Flavors” (Festival Internacional del Sabor de Jalisco), in the city of Guadalajara, a new world’s largest “cochinita pibil taco line” record was settled by Yucatecan Chef David Cetina (Photo: TYT)

This isn’t the first time Mexico has gone all-out for a food record. During the Jalisco International Festival of Flavors in February 2015 chef David Cetina and his crew created the world’s longest cochinita pibil taco line in Guadalajara. More than 200 people worked for six days to prepare 1,200 kilograms of roasted pork and 44,000 tortillas.

In 2014’s Expocampo Yucatán, 100 chefs and 40 helpers prepared more than 1,326 kilograms of octopus to earn themselves a Guinness World Record that still stands. The results were served to 15,000 visitors.

And it’s not just food-related records that have been earned by Mexico, which might be eligible for the record for the most Guinness records.

Cabrera believes that increased interest in the Expocampo and Yucatecan agribusiness will stimulate economic growth and produce more jobs in his state.

Cochinita pibil is made by marinating the pork in a bitter orange juice and slow-roasting it in a pit. Cochinita means suckling pig; pibil is a Mayan word for buried.

Source: guinnessworldrecords.com

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