Khaleej Times

DUBAI, Jan 20: Over 150 staff from five Dubai-based hotels broke the Guinness World Record for the ‘World’s Largest Buffet’ as they served 515 dishes at the Zabeel Park yesterday as part of Dubai Shopping Festival’s (DSF) Food e-Tainment. The world record was previously held by Las Vegas Hilton, which served a 510-item buffet in celebration of Alka Seltzer’s 75th anniversary in March last year.

Referring to the efforts made for the buffet, chef Uwe Micheel, Director of Kitchens at the Radisson SAS Hotels and the main architect of the mega buffet, said they have actually conceptualised the creation of the world’s largest buffet as early as January, 2006. Unfortunately, following the cancellation of the last year’s festivities, the project was shelved until it was revived in October 2006.

‘The preparation didn’t really take that long. It only took us about two months to discuss the coordination aspect of the project. This involved concerns on how to set up the buffet and the types of dishes to be served,’ he said.

The element of teamwork, Micheel said, goes beyond the circle of chefs as it extends to other members like the local authorities, organisers, sponsors, and even the table-setters.

‘We also focused on each hotel’s specialties so as to present unique dishes. For instance, The Radisson presented Arabic and Central European cuisine, the Metropolitan served Italian dishes, Marco Polo offered Indian food, Kempinski focused on Chinese and Far Eastern, while the Renaissance served American dishes,’ he explained.

Bobby Krishna, Food Inspector at the Dubai Municipality’s Food Safety Unit, said that they have overseen the preparation of the dishes to ensure its safety and sanitation.

For hygienic purposes, the dishes were prepared in the respective hotels and transported to Zabeel Park. ‘Basically, cold foods should be kept in cold storage below 5 degrees Celsius and hot food should not be kept in a storage with a temperature of about 65 degrees Celsius,’ he said.

A thorough documentation of yesterday’s event has been conducted and will be forwarded to the Guinness World Record Office for evaluation, Micheel said.