Kenyan chef hopes to cook her way to a Guinness Record

Kenyan chef Maliha Islam Mohammed was overjoyed after stirring pots and serving up hundreds of dishes for 75 hours as she plans to set a new Guinness Record for marathon cooking.

The 36-year-old self-taught chef challenged the current record held by American Rickey Lumpkin of California, who cooked for 68 hours, 30 minutes, 1 second in December 2018.

“I’m a self-taught chef, I taught myself through internet and social media, YouTube channels, Pinterest, anything that related to cooking. For the youth out there, if you have a talent in anything, let alone cooking, you have to be persistent in yourself, you need to be relentless of your own dream because nobody can fight for your dream but yourself,” she siad.

The challenge was held in the port city of Mombasa where she lives and was sponsored by local brands. Her biggest supporters are evidently her proud family.

“This is Chef Maliha Islam, my mother, who broke the Guinness World Record of non-stopping cooking, 75 hours, and I can walk proudly in front of anyone and say that,” said her daughter Zahara Rashid.

“We are very happy to see her achieve her goal for 75 hours continuous cooking. My advice for her, I told her that you know we all here to support you but there is only one who will help you and that is our creator, Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala, and we’re just happy that she has managed,” added Mohammed’s aunt, Shamim Rustam.

Kenyan Chef Cooks for 75 Hours dailynation : https://t.co/kQ97LOwZZ8 #Kenya pic.twitter.com/I7SXiEu3gV

— allAfrica.com (allafrica) August 20, 2019

Guinness officials will take two weeks to review her photos and video and officially announce if she indeed clinched the title.
Mohammed has caught the fascination of people in a country where world record holders are mostly middle-to-long distance runners.

Reuters