7 rules Faila must satisfy in her cook-a-thon attempt

Just like every other competition, the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous cooking attempt by an individual underway in Tamale has rules to follow. Abdul-Razak Faila alias Jah Bless is at 72 plus hours of cooking and must do at least 48 more hours to stand a chance. But what are the rules binding this competition? To answer that question, we present 7 rules Faila must satisfy in her attempt to break the record currently held by Alan Fischer.

1. Number of cooking hours

The single most notable rule is the number of cooking hours. Faila can meet all the others but if she fails to surpass the cooking hours of the current holder, she will miss out. Alan Fischer is the current record holder with 119 hours 57 minutes and 16 seconds. This means Faila must clock at least 120 hours to stand a chance of beating the current record.

Faila in a flyer indicating 72 hours of cooking done. — *Faila has done 72 hours already but according to GWR rules, she must beat the time of the current record holder.*

2. Break time of 5 minutes every hour

While the contest is to cook continuously for the period, participants can take a five-minute break every hour. They can accumulate the break time if they skip taking their break during particular hours. The break time is what the participant can use to clean, eat, rest or sleep. Outside of that, it is non-stop cooking.

3. Menu guideline

The food to be prepared during the cook-a-thon must follow a strict guideline. Guidelines are unique to each competition and are there to ensure standardization. There is a 35-menu guideline for the cook-a-thon that must be followed. All the ingredients needed for each recipe under the guidelines must be procured in sufficient quantities. However, extra can be procured while the event is ongoing to shore up stock.

4. No proxies but sous-chef allowed

You might be wondering why there is someone in the kitchen with Faila. Yes, there can be an assistant known as a sous-chef. His or her role is to assist the main chef but not to the work of the main chef. The sous-chef can provide support in the areas of clearing the tables, cleaning and other related support services. However, all the main cooking must be done by the chef, thus Faila must do the main work by herself.

Abdul-Razak Faila is assisted by her sous-chef — *According to GWR guidelines, no proxies are allowed but the chef can only be assisted by a sous-chef. Faila with her sous-chef during the cook-a-thon.*

5. Everything must be consumed

As much as this is a weird rule which though easy to comply with it, is possible that it can be missed. Per this rule, all the food items prepared during the event must be consumed. She can serve it to the public just as she is doing as shown on TV. However, when the public present is not able to consume everything, it must be donated to a charity of her choice.

Members of the public eating the food prepared by Faila during the cook-a-thon — *According to GWR rules, all the food prepared must be consumed. Leftovers should be donated to charity or people in need.*

6. Health assistants

Yes! Health is paramount and Guinness World Records does not want to be associated with people dying due to their decision to attempt to break certain records. In that spirit, it is a requirement to have a medical team available to offer assistance and ensure the person is in good health to continue at every instance.

7. Install CCTV cameras to record everything

After the event, there must be evidence submitted to the Guinness World Records for verification. These must be in video and any other forms as prescribed by the Guide to Your Evidence page of GWR. CCTV cameras must therefore be installed to capture every moment of the event from the start to the finish.

Those are the rules Faila Abdul-Razak must satisfy to stand a chance of breaking the record. After following these, she must then follow the Guide to Evidence to submit her evidence to GWR for verification. But how do you know which guidelines to use? The guidelines to use are unique to each contest. A cook-a-thon has its unique guidelines from a sing-a-thon though some rules like the 5-minute break, CCT cameras and Medical team may cut across multiple contest events.

Once an individual completes the application at the Guinness World Records website, the guidelines link will be given to the person under his/her dashboard. They can be downloaded and used to prepare for the attempt.