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Most pancakes made in one hour-Bob Blumer sets
world record
CALGARY, Canada-- "Glutton
for Punishment" host Bob
Blumer set a new world record for the most pancakes
made in one hour: he made 559 pancakes at the Calgary
Stampede's Fluor Rope Square.
Photo: Bob
Blumer of the T.V. show Glutton For Punishment frantically
flips pancakes in his attempt to set the world record for
most pancakes made in one hour, in Calgary. He broke the record
by cooking 559 cakes in an hour, besting the previous total
of 555. Ted Rhodes/Calgary Herald (enlarge
photo)
"The grills are really finicky. When you put
down pancakes, their temperatures cool down, so you have to
be fine-tuning them," he explained. "Every second you have
waiting for a pancake to cook after you have laid the whole
batch down is a second that you are losing."
Steven Hamilton held the previous record
at 555 pancakes.
Bob
Blumer had five days to prepare. He was anxious enough
about winning that he had started picking through the pancakes
in the discard pile and was planning to challenge whether
they should be counted. 
Photo:
Bob
Blumer set a world record in Calgary, flipping 559
pancakes in a single hour. (photo Chris Loach)-enlarge
photo
In front of a cheering crowd at Rope Square in downtown Calgary,
Blumer, who got off to a slow start, managed to pour, cook
and flip 559 pancakes in the alloted 60 minutes. He bettered
the old record by just 4. "The only thing tougher than bull-riding
in this town is flipping flapjacks."
"I've never had this big a crowd and I've never
felt so much pressure especially at the end," Blumer said.
"I don't think there's ever been a challenge that I've wanted
to succeed at as much as this one."
Ben Leblanc, the 30-year-old kitchen manager
at Nellie's,
a local breakfast institution, acted as his personal trainer
and mentor. He also created the ideal recipe for cooking contest
batter: Use cake flour and cut back on the sugar. That way
the flapjacks won't burn as fast and will take a little longer
to cook, giving Mr. Blumer the perfect pace to run between
griddles and buckets of batter.
"It took us a couple of trial and errors and
we figured it out, changed a few things and bam!" said Mr.
Leblanc. 
To beat the record, Bob
Blumer
would have to cook 9.3 pancakes per minute. Early on,
Mr. Blumer couldn't get the proper temperature on the massive
griddles positioned around him.
Photo: Bill Graveland/Canadian Press (enlarge
photo)
He also gave up on the two cookers set up behind
to work the ones up front. The flapjacks weren't cooking quite
right. His technique wasn't honed.
Then, he swept away crumbs, applied fresh cooking
oil with a squeegee, perfected the batter pour and was flipping
like a pro. "I finally caught my groove," Mr. Blumer told
the crowd with just 18 minutes left to make his mark. "I hope
it's not too late."
A health inspector was on site to oversee the
challenge.
Paperny
Films recorded the feat for an episode of "Glutton
for Punishment" - season three, which will air on
Food Network in Spring 09. Episodes from season one and two
currently air Friday nights at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT
on Food Network.
"This was one of the toughest challenges I've
had to date," says Bob
Blumer, host and co-creator, "Glutton
for Punishment". "It was a messy, physically demanding
and really close race to the finish, but it was well worth
it to now hold a new World Record."
The episode was shot against the backdrop
of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, the Calgary Stampede.
The flipping took place at Fluor Rope Square (aka Olympic
Plaza) in downtown Calgary, where over 30,000 free pancakes
are served during the week to Stampede visitors.
In "Glutton
for Punishment" host Bob Blumer seeks out the most
extreme epicurean challenges around the world.
In each episode, Bob
Blumer has roughly five days to learn the art of each
challenge before undergoing a trial by fire to prove his worth.
Whether it is haggis hurling in Scotland, the Medoc Marathon
in France or detoxifying a poisonous blowfish in Japan, there
is no challenge too intimidating for this glutton for punishment.
The series currently airs on Food Network Canada,
Food Network US, BBC Canada, UKTV in the UK, Discovery Asia
in Asian markets and SFINX Inc. in Japan. Season three is
currently in-production.
The previous record was set on June 23,
2006, by Steve Hamilton, a.k.a. Chris Cakes, at Universal
Studios in Orlando, Fla.
Friday,
July 11, 2008
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