Misunderstanding sparks internet meltdown over ‘world’s largest gathering of chefs’ in Putrajaya

KUALA LUMPUR: The controversy over a supposed Guinness World Record award for the ‘largest gathering of chefs’ at an event in Dataran Putrajaya on March 26 has been attributed to a ‘misunderstanding’.

Social media went into overdrive yesterday when the image of a certificate of accomplishment, bearing the Guinness World Record logo, was shared by Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor via his Twitter account.

The certificate was supposedly awarded to the iCHEF 2017 event, which drew the participation of 4,235 chefs to the gathering at Dataran Putrajaya.

Tengku Adnan, in tweeting the accomplishment, had shared an image of the certificate.

However, netizens were quick to point out that the certificate did not appear to be genuine, and was riddled with grammatical errors.

Matters came to a head when Twitter user @amrlrxrshd shared an image of the certificate with the official Guinness World Record (@GWR) account to ask them if it was authentic.

The official GWR account had replied: “Unfortunately, that’s not a genuine certificate issued by our records team.”

In a bid to clarify matters, iCHEF 2017 organiser, Finemen (M) Holdings Sdn Bhd, yesterday attributed it to a ‘misunderstanding’ during the announcement on the ‘Guinness World Record achievement’ at the event.

The organiser also clarified that the certificate was not actually from Guinness World Records, and was used purely as a gimmick for the announcement.