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Updated: Nov 04, 2017 23:33 IST

The World Food India fair notched a lip-smacking record on Saturday by rustling up 918 kilograms of khichdi, the largest ever serving of the traditional Indian dish, to make it to the Guinness World Record .

A team of nearly two dozen people, supervised by chef Sanjeev Kapoor, cooked the traditional rice-dal dish for more than nine hours before it was weighed and declared a world record.

“It gives me great pleasure to be here for the Guinness World Record title “largest serving of rice and beans” which in this case was served in the form of khichdi. We have done the weighing and I am happy to announce that this is the new Guinness World Record, weighing in at 918 kilograms,” said Paulina Sapinska, a Guinness World Record judge. The minimum quantity required for making a record was 500 kilos, she said.

The khichdi was cooked in a specially made stainless steel wok that weighed around 300kg and had a capacity of 1,000 litres. The wok full of khichdi was lifted with a crane to measure the total weight.

The cooked dish was later served to hundreds of people at the venue and also distributed for charity .

Earlier in the day, yoga guru Baba Ramdev added ‘tadka’ (tempering of spices) to the dish at the India Gate lawns, where the three-day festival is being organised by the ministry of food processing industries.

“It is a proud moment for us. Now khichdi, the Indian dish, has earned global recognition,” chef Sanjeev Kapoor said.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union minister of food processing industries, also lent a helping hand while the the dish was being cooked, suggested that khichdi be declared “International Super Food”. Union minister of state Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and chefs Imtiaz Qureshi and Ranveer Brar also helped in the cooking the dish that was made with 125 kilos of rice, 50 kilos of moong dal (beans), 200 kilos of solid ingredients such as millet, jowar and ghee and 700 litres of water.

“Khichdi is not just nutritious but it also symbolises unity and diversity of India, as it is consumed in one or the other form across the country,” yoga guru Ramdev said.

After weighing, the dish was sent for distribution to 10,000 children in Uttar Pradesh’s Vrindavan through Akshay Patra Foundation, an organisation which serves meals to underprivileged children, and also as ‘langar’ served at gurdwaras of Delhi to commemorate Gurpurab. The khichdi was one of the offerings at the ‘Great Indian Food Street’ at the festival that features street food from 20 states.

Even before being cooked, ‘khichdi’ had taken the centre stage at the food fair. The buzz started when it was announced that the dish would be showcased as Brand India food . The dish was selected as it symbolised India’s unity in diversity and is eaten by both the rich and poor.

Khichdi started trending on social media right after the announcement, with people whipping up a debate. On Thursday, Harsimrat Kaur Badal put an end to the rumours and tweeted, “Enough khichdi cooked up on a fictitious ‘National Dish’. It has only been put for a record entry in #WorldFoodIndia.”

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