Sarajevo's chefs tried to break a world record on Friday, cooking 4,124 kilograms of soup for around 14,000 people.

It took eight hours for the cooks to prepare the traditional Bosnian delicacy, also known as Bey's soup.

"We needed 1,000 kilos of chicken meat, 150 kilos of carrots, 50 kilos of celery, up to 30 kilos of onions, 15 kilos of okra, 100 kilos of flour as well as 100 liters of oil and 50 kilos of butter," chef Zaim Merdan told the AFP news agency.

Dozens of volunteers helped the cooks chop meat and vegetables.

Thousands of onlookers gathered at Sarajevo square to witness the spectacle and some even got a taste of the stew, which was distributed among the crowd. Organizers said the rest would be distributed to soup kitchens that fed Bosnia's poor, who comprise nearly one-fifth of the country's population.

Judges said they were sending the details of the event to Guinness officials who would verify their claim of the world's largest soup.

The current record is also held by Bosnian cooks, who brewed a massive 4,026-kilogram broth made of fish last year in the northern city of Prnjavor.

mg/bw (AP, AFP)