CHENNAI: At the bustling patio of Piano Restaurant at Hotel Savera, shutterbugs clicked away in a frenzy, friends and relatives cheered on excitedly, and Chef Damu took a generous bite of his tastiest preparation, before letting out a broad, boyish grin.
There’s a lot to smile about for this star chef of Vijay TV’s Samayal Samayal. For starters, he just set the Guinness World Record with the ‘Longest Cooking Marathon’— Individual in 24 hrs and thirty minutes.
He cooked, shallow-fried, boiled and served 617 dishes in one day and 30 minutes; his only breathing time being a five minute break every one hour.
With everything set to perfection a day before the ceremony by the students of Asan Memorial, MP Institute of Catering and MGR College of Catering, Chef Damodaran was set to start immediately.
Presided over by MP Nirmala, Anthony Michael, General Manager of Savera Hotel, Nina Reddy and Lucia Sinigagliesi, from the Guinness World Record, UK, the ceremony commenced on a grand note at 8 am on this Tuesday morning.
Chef Damu started his cooking expedition with full zeal and completed 190 dishes in approximately seven hours and 50 minutes.
With six burners available at any given time, the chef had to be ready with two dishes simultaneously; which meant a total of 20 dishes in an hour.
Samples of the food were passed on to the guests, chefs and relatives in fine little ceramic bowls.
Doctors and physiotherapists were also stationed at the hotel to take care of the chef during his breaks.
The dishes spanned a wide variety including Emu biryani, Papaya halwa, Emu masala, Pepper gobi, Prawn balchao, Prawn pepper fry, Mint with crab meat in South Indian style and Chettinadu chicken biryani.
Nearly 30 varieties of biryani were cooked — both vegetarian and non-vegetarian.
The chef also presented his own signature dish — the Manoor mutton, which was also flavoured by the guests at the ceremony.
Most dishes were handpicked from the best of Indian cuisine, particularly South Indian cuisine.
Once in a while during the marathon, Chef Damu would often save up his recesses for a few hours at a stretch, so that he could take a prolonged break of about 20 minutes every four hours.
But then again, the magnitude of this laborious exercise would take over only too soon, as these little breaks of quick massages and gulps of water would come to an end as quickly as they had arrived, and our man would run back to his kitchen counter and be at it, once again.