Ebenezer Smith, the Ghanaian chef who claimed to have broken the Guinness World Records (GWR) for the longest cooking marathon by an individual, has explained how he cloned the award.
Smith, fondly called Millennium Chef Smith, was detained at the La police station in Accra for faking the GWR award after he was arrested last Tuesday.
The cook had declared himself as the new world record holder, claiming he cooked for 802 hours and 25 minutes non-stop. He said he started the exercise on February 1, and ended on March 6, 2024.
He presented a certificate, which he claimed was given to him by the prestigious British reference book.
However, Alina Polianskaya, GWR spokesperson, told BBC Pidgin that Smith’s claims were “not true”, adding that the certificate he presented “was not ours”.
“The current and true record holder for the longest cooking marathon (individual) is 119 hours, 57 minutes, and 16 seconds, achieved by Alan Fisher (Ireland) in Matsue, Shimane, Japan, from 28 September to 3 October 2023,” Alina said.
The police arrested Smith following a disagreement with his sponsor, the Amadia Shopping Centre, Spintex, where he held his cooking marathon.
He was accused of breaching a contractual agreement by failing to inform the shopping centre about the alleged award.
The development generated for him serious condemnation on social media.
“I have been following GRW for long. They (GWR) have a lot of certificates on their online pages. So I just picked one and edited it with my details,” Smith confessed in an interview with GHOne TV.
Narrating how he carried out the deceit, Smith added: “After Hilda Bassey did it, I have been thinking about it. And then all of a sudden I decided, after Afua did her sing-a-thon, I decided to make a step.
“Tracking the history has always been sequential, like numbers with the application reference. So I landed on the application reference of Adu Safoa. And then I built something for myself.”
He also revealed that his assistant was not aware of his criminal act.
The chef said his sponsors spent more than GH¢300,000 on him, adding that he is ready to face any action from them.
“I can’t tell the exact amount my sponsors invested but it may be more than GH¢300,000,” he said.
“Words won’t be enough, at this point, I give my life out to my sponsors to do to me as they wish. I don’t even deserve to live because it’s too much for me to bear.”
Smith has apologised for his actions.
