Ogbomoso-born chef and entrepreneur, Prince Tope Adebayo, popularly known as Tope Maggie, is on his way to breaking the Guinness World Records for the ‘longest cooking marathon by an individual’.
This is coming after the chef hit the 100-hour mark at 10:30 on Monday evening with just 20 hours remaining to set a new world record.
He kick-started the 200 hours cooking marathon in Ogbomoso on Thursday, 9th November at exactly 6:30 pm after he turned on his cooker.
Chef Tope aims to beat the 119 hours and 57 minutes record set by the current Guinness World Records holder, Alan Fisher, an Irish chef who a few weeks ago took over from Hilda Bacci
The event, which is taking place at the Ogbomoso Recreation Club, is being live-streamed on Facebook, and Instagram page and several celebrities, and notable politicians have been visiting the venue to cheer him up.
The 200 hours Cooking Marathon has garnered attention both online and at the physical venue where celebrities, students and members of the public are also trooping in to support the chef.
In a chat with Journalists before the event, the Ogbomoso-born chef said he is supposed to bring the World record title back to Nigeria “I am not just bringing the title back, I want Nigeria to retain it for a longer period that is why chose the 200 hours so that it will be difficult for anyone to break.
I started the dream even long time ago, and I think the time is ripe for me to achieve the feat, I took all the necessary steps and met with requirements from the Guinness World Record before I embarked on the marathon cooking.
Bashorun Akinwale Solomon Akinwole, chairman of AA Luxury who was at the venue on Monday said “The efforts being made by Prince Tope to beat the current Guinness World Record for cooking for 9 days nonstop shows the true Nigerian spirit of hard work and resilience. I applaud his determination and focus on the goal, which is inspiring many Nigerian youths to live their dreams through hard work and dedication. I wish him well on this noble journey to pen her name in the golden book of history.”
President, of the Ogbomoso Recreation Club (ORC), Dr Akin Oladeji Johnbrown, said they are hosting the event as part of the club’s way of improving the lives of individuals in the community. He added that if Chef Tope Maggie can set a new record, the development will bring prestige to Ogbomoso town, Oyo State and Nigeria.
The Operation Manager Mr Niyi Olaleye said the record-breaking attempt started at exactly 6pm last week Thursday when he turned on his gas and ever since he has been cocking, all the food are served free, and people are happy to be here we also have Djs on standby and a music stand for live performances, it has been awesome, the support is overwhelming and I am optimistic that Chef Tope won’t let his fans an admirer down.
Some of our big brothers and friends have reached out to us on this project, and the majority of them have even been coming since we started the marathon, On Sunday Hon Olusegun Dokun Odebunmi, a three-time member of the National Assembly was around with some of his friends and supporters to cheer him up.
Packaged by Mayowa Owogbade
