LEBANON: Chefs snatch back hummus title from Israel, win falafel record

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Maybe this is getting a little out of control.

After losing the title for whipping up the world’s biggest batch of hummus earlier this year, Lebanon stepped up efforts in its ongoing culinary battle with Israel over the weekend, regaining the title.

For the second time in a year Lebanon has proved it can make the world’s largest plate of hummus. It also bagged the Guinness record for making the biggest serving of falafel.

On Saturday, more than 300 Lebanese chefs gathered in Beirut in quest of culinary glory. Together they mashed up 10 tons of chickpeas to make the hummus dip, smashing the hummus record set in January by 50 chefs in the Arab-Israeli village of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem.

That four-ton hummus bowl broke the record set in Lebanon in October.

Saturday’s hummus broadside, however, was more than double the size of the Abu Ghosh plate and Guinness world records monitors confirmed its weight at 22,994 pounds, or 10,452 kilograms. It was made with 20 tons of boiled chickpeas, two tons of sesame paste, two tons of lemon juice and 154 pounds of olive oil.

An Associated Press video clip below from the feat shows a field of white-dressed chefs preparing bowl after bowl of Hummus mix and pouring it into a giant Terracotta-colored plate.

Lebanese claim hummus, which Israel produces and exports, as their national dish, and some Lebanese industrialists have previously demanded that Lebanon has exclusive rights to the delicacy dip.

Only a day after setting the new hummus record, Lebanese chefs joined together on Sunday and bagged the Guinness record for making the world’s biggest falafel serving.

The chefs cooked up five tons of the high-frying patty before Guinness records representatives and media reports say it marked the first time a country attempted to set such a record.

Falafel, like hummus and tabbouleh --- a salad made of parsley, tomatoes, scallions and bulgur wheat -- are fields of culinary competition between Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Egypt. Lebanon currently holds the record for making the biggest plate of tabbouleh.

-- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo and video: Hundreds of Lebanese chefs pour bowl after bowl of hummus mix into a giant terracotta platter on Saturday to set the world record for the biggest serving of the popular chickpea dip. The record-breaking hummus dish weighed in at 10 tons. Credit: Associated Press and YouTube