"guiness book of world records" news and stories

While many of us awaited the fate of the Hendrix wives on last Sunday night's final episode of "Big Love," Sheldon Wiley was on his own high-octane multiples mission. The New York City-based mixologist whipped up 1,003 cocktails to break the Guinness World Record for the most cocktails made in an hour. The previous record of 937 cocktails was held by German mixologist Matthias Knorr. "I wanted this record to be about more than just speed," Wiley said via a press release. "I wanted to exemplify the integrity and craft of cocktails."

In what we can only politely presume was a blatant Rambo reference, Wiley wore a bandage cloth wrapped around his head as he double-fisted bottles of flavored vodka and mixers in – where else? -- the Empire State Building's Empire Room. He used four ingredients in each cocktail (three is the minimum Guinness World Records requirement), including dozens of fresh fruit juices and several Monin Gourmet flavored syrups, as well as eight flavors of 360 Vodkas. That schizophrenic selection of ingredients may seem like unnecessary sensory overload, at least until you realize which two corporations were the event's sponsors. Hint: It wasn't an orange juice company.

Early Thursday afternoon, there was a big batch of mac' n' cheese brewing down south. In a massive, 250-year-old sugar kettle, New Orleans chef John Folse made a reported 2,100 pounds (that's 6,500 servings) of it, beating the previous Guinness World Record of 414 pounds, five times over, reports WWL.com (check there for the video, too).

In case you're wondering how to make 2,100 pounds of mac' n' cheese yourself, you'll need ...

There was lots of finger lickin' in Louisville today.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Colonel's Original Recipe, KFC fried up 2,000 pounds of chicken in the heart of its hometown in an attempt to steal the Guinness World Record for the "world's largest serving of fried chicken." The outsized order was served up in a mega version of KFC's iconic bucket -- 8 feet tall and 9 feet wide.

Last month, the town of Brookville, Indiana, unofficially broke the record, frying up 1,645 pounds of chicken as part of its annual Canoefest. That attempt was also dedicated to the legacy of Colonel Sanders, who was born in nearby Henryville. A KFC franchise in Kuwait held the previous official record with more than 1,278 pounds of fried chicken served at one setting.

Last weekend in Lebanon, not one but two world records were broken: On Saturday the world's largest amount of falafel was prepared (over 11 thousand pounds) and the following day the world's largest amount of hummus was prepared (nearly 23 thousand pounds).

After all if you're going to stir up a giant batch of falafel -- those tasty fried balls made from ground chickpeas -- then you've got to have the traditional accompaniment with them which is hummus -- a garlicky, lemony dip also made from chickpeas.

The gargantuan batches were prepared because the Lebanese were irked that last year the Israelis had set a new world record and bested their old effort.

It turns out that food in that volatile region is also a fraught subject. Lebanon has accused Israel of co-opting traditional Arab dishes like falafel and promoting them as authentic Israeli dishes. Lebanon is trying to win approval from the European Union to register hummus as a national dish.