MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay sets new Guinness record with a 12 ton barbecue

Uruguayan cooks barbecue meat in an attempt to break a record for the world's largest barbecue in Montevideo

Over a thousand grill chefs helped Uruguay establish a new Guinness record when on Sunday they prepared the biggest barbecue in the world, 12 tons of prime beef and thus beating the previous 8 ton record from Mexico.

"It's all so beautiful. It's a record" said Guinness World Records judge form the United States, Danny Girton who was present to register the event. Army personnel set up the grill nearly 1.5 kilometers long in the shape of a metal spiked flower in the grounds of a park in Montevideo which normally hosts cattle shows and other camp related activities. Contrary to tradition and for practical reasons six tons of charcoal was used to barbecue the beef. Normally in Uruguay barbecue is prepared on embers of hard wood, a slow process that can take up to an hour but which also enables the meat to be smoked. The barbecue was so big that firefighters were called in to light the grills and make sure the flames did not get out of hand. When Judge Girton confirmed the barbecue record had been broken the cooks and crowd of 20.000 cheered and celebrated with joy. The crowd of 20.000 was made up of 4.500 school children, 500 officials and special guests plus 15.000 visitors who paid the equivalent of 3 US dollars for a helping of barbecue and a soft drink. The barbecue was organized by Uruguay's National Meats Institute, INAC, which is responsible for promoting the country's beef sales overseas. Uruguay with a herd of 12 million, mostly Hereford, exports in the range of 900 million US dollars of beef annually. "Uruguay is very small, it's not known for many other events, possibly football, so we have to use these kinds of gimmicks so people find out where Uruguay is and what it has to offer," said INAC's vice president, Fernando Perez Abella.