SARAJEVO: Aromas of comfort food wafted through Sarajevo’s central square on Friday as Bosnian chefs cooked what they said was the largest ever chicken broth, in the hope of scoring a Guinness World Record.

Exactly 4,124 kg (9,092 lb) of “Bey’s Broth”, a national speciality first made for aristocrats known as Beys during the Ottoman era, was cooked in a 2.5 metre-diameter (8 ft) pot made especially for the occasion.

“We chose Bey’s Broth because it is Bosnia’s unique and most famous dish,” said Zaim Merdan, the chef in charge of some 100 cooks preparing the food: 1 tonne of chicken, 350 kg of vegetables, 120 litres of oil, 100 kg of flour, 50 kg of butter and plenty of milk, eggs and cream.

The idea was to promote Bosnian cuisine during a competition of chefs from southeast Europe, the Global Chefs Challenge semi-finals, taking place in Sarajevo on Friday.

The Bosnian Association of Cooks, which said the previous world record for the largest chicken dish was 4,036 kg, will send all data and recordings of the process to the Guinness judges, hoping to take the title.

Hundreds of onlookers watched the process, waiting to taste the broth. More than 16,000 portions will be handed out to visitors to the square and to soup kitchens.

“It must be good,” said Ferida Avdibegovic, a pensioner, carrying a plastic box to take the broth home. “This is a great idea, it promotes our cookery, our cuisine and our country.”

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

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