Saturday, June 23, 2012

Cook sets one-handed egg-cracking world record

A steady hand, a focused gaze and a well-planned conveyor belt of hands and eggs helped Corey Peras to set a new world record. Peras, a veteran breakfast cook at Broadway Bar and Grill in Barrhaven, Ontario, Canada, set a new world record Friday for the most eggs cracked with a single hand in one hour. At 5 p.m. a Guinness official, with a timer in one hand and a counter in another, announced that Peras had cracked 3,031 eggs in one hour, beating the old record of 2,086.

“I was hoping to crack 3,600, not counting the broken shells. So I don’t know how many I cracked with broken shells, but I was hoping to beat it by at least 500,” he said. The idea came to Peras roughly a year and a half ago when one of his bosses saw a celebrity chef on TV break the world record for cracking eggs. “He came into work and he said ‘you’re way faster than that,’” said Peras.



Serious planning began around Christmas time, including flying in a Guinness World Record judge as well as planning logistics for speedily cracking eggs. In all, eight people where spinning around Peras, either pulling up cartons of fresh eggs, passing eggs from one hand to another or hauling away buckets of yokes and whites. Meanwhile, the judge and Peras stood face-to-face, neither budging for one hour as Peras cracked in haste with one hand behind his back and the judge kept a meticulous watch.

And what was on his mind for one hour? “Nothing. Just cracking the eggs, trying not to get any shells in. That’s all I was thinking about, just not getting any shells in,” said Peras. As for the eggs, all 3,031 along with hash browns and sausages were donated to the Ottawa Mission for breakfast this weekend.

Video.