A long time has passed, but due to publicity or selective memory, the image lives in the minds of many Madrilenians as something more recent. It was the year 2001 when a handful of cooks prepared in Moratalaz, Moratalaz the world’s largest paella (20 meters in diameter), with which they fed 100,000 people.
The record (cooking for so many people and making it paella) will not be broken, but it will constitute a new record in the Guinness Book of Records. Peruvian chef Edwin Castro will make the world’s largest chaufa rice: “unity is strength and we will work to make history,” says Castro, who has four Chifa Doromari restaurants in Madrid (Josué Lillo, 22; General Ricardos, 102; Lope de Rueda, 9; Centro Comercial Alcalá Norte) and another in Barcelona.
There is no specific date or location for the celebration of the event, although as Madrid Secreto has learned it is something that will be announced soon. It is known that it will be free, that there will be more than one hundred cooks participating, that it will feed more than seventeen thousand people, and that has the “blessing” of Ferrán Adrià.
On the way to the Guinness World Record
The goal is to cook 4,500 kilograms of rice in a recipe consisting of 1,800 kg of rice, 450 liters of egg, 600 kg of chicken, 100 kg of Chinese onion and 50 liters of soybeans. The vessel in which the rice is cooked will be fifteen meters long by six meters wide. In interviews with peruvian media castro said the total cost of the event is €25,000 – without taking into account the additional requirements imposed by Guinness World Records.
Chaufa rice is a recipe born from the crossbreeding of Chinese and Peruvian gastronomy produced in the second half of the 19th century. If it resembles anything, it resembles Chinese fried rice, although it does incorporate elements, ingredients and flavors from Peru. And although you can wait until October to try it, you also have the option of visiting some of the best Peruvian restaurants in the capital, which are close at hand in this link.