Being a Chef is seldom given appreciation and credit. It’s as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. There are so many hurdles and challenges that most young people face when they’re trying to get into the food industry and Mr. Raj Mohan was no exception.

At 31 years of age, he’s already made history. Hailing from the state of Tamil Nadu, he possesses a lot of expertise in the south Indian cuisine and is making waves in the food world of India. Yes, he’s the winner of the Longest Solo Cooking Marathon by the individual and has set the World Record. He’s none other than the proud record holder of the year 2015.

What is the longest solo cooking marathon anyway? Well, the longest solo cooking marathon means that the individual has to cook continuously and can only take a break every one hour for five minutes. The entire cooking should be done by the individual alone.

He/she cannot stop and stand idle during the time of cooking. The participant is only allowed to move for the rest break after turning off the range burners. This is the general guideline but the competition alone comes with various specifics such as;

General guidelines

Allowed to prepare only one dish at a time. Only domestic appliances are allowed to be used.
I have permitted to take only five minutes break in every one hour but I took the accumulated rest breaks after I cook continuously for minimum 5 hours.
A detailed log book is maintained to record the each and every detail of the event, including the start and end time of the preparation, weight and photograph of the each dish is also taken. The entire event is video graphed.
This recorded event is adjudicated by a committee of 05 main and 24 sub-judges chosen by the Limca Book of Records and India Book of Records.
Food should not be wasted and it should be properly distributed to the public consumption.
No cooking range burner is left empty without cooking.
The entire cooking procedure is to be done by the participant, no pre-prep is allowed.
Only one sous chef level and commi level chef can be allowed with the participant for assistance.

With such rules and laws, it’s seemingly impossible to break the previous record. However, Chef Raj Mohan managed to set an impressive record of 48 hours; with 1204 dishes (257 non-veg and 97 vegetarian dishes), with the total weight coming up to 307 kg. He’s also, not surprisingly, the first Indian chef to have attempted the record and broken it.

The 307 KG consisted of 285 kg of vegetables, 34 kg of meat, chicken, and seafood and 10 litres of milk, 20kg of oil, and 300 eggs. All of this food was then distributed to the orphanages through a city based NGO organisation

So, it begs to be asked! What did it take for him to achieve this feat? It’s clearly no ordinary feat and not anyone can simply break a record.

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Well, it isn’t as easy as we think. Mr. Raj Mohan has a number of attempts under his name at record-breaking, each one having taken a toll on him. He even attempted the biggest parotta of 150 KG, but when that too failed, he moved on to the Longest Cooking Marathon, and success was sure to find him there.

As for the actual record, it sure takes energy and a lot of motivation. He maintained a strict diet of porridge thrice a day while cooking to keep him full; various fruit juices for quick energy and of course, the eternal lifesaver, coffee! He consumes a staggering 5KG of food during the competition. And when coffee gave way, he’d turn to ice-cubes to keep him awake.

Of course, once he won, all of that meant nothing! A success of this magnitude made him forget all of his worries and tiredness and he’s a proud record-holder, satisfied at all his hard work.

More than anything else, he says that this record attempt not only opened many opportunities for him but also gave him a chance to start work in Madurai, the boiling pot of various foods and cuisines. This recorded event also motivates the young chef community to come out to express their talents and skills across new platforms.

He hopes that it motivates many of them to create or break records of their own and highlights the potential of the food industry. It also brings forth the idea of making more varieties of vegetarian dishes.

So, what’s in store for the budding chef? Well, he’s planning on publishing a recipe book with the recipes of the dishes he made on the record. For now, you can check out a few of his dishes here and connect with his here.

Plattershare is glad to interview him and he happily shared few of his recipes.