Trying to top world record- 27 1/2 inches -for tallest pancake stack
ohn Montanile, left, and Mark Williams, from the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, measure a stack of pancakes as they try to build a record-setting stack, Tuesday. The attempt did not surpass 16 inches, which fell short of the 27 1/2 inch sta The Associated Press
September 27, 2006
You can forget the syrup.
Chefs at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago tried to build a record-setting stack of pancakes Tuesday, but the wiggling, wobbling stack of flapjacks refused to stay put.
Organizers wanted to nab a space in the Guinness Book of World Records, but after nearly an hour of work, the crumbling stack of buttermilk pancakes never made it past 16 inches.
“It’s not easy,” said John Montanile, the department chair of the school’s baking and patisserie department. “It’s like stacking Jenga blocks here.”
The tallest recorded pancake stack was made in France in 2003 and measured in at 27 1/2 inches tall, said Lynne Fotias, a spokeswoman for Disney on Ice, which co-sponsored the event with the culinary school. That tower used 980 pancakes.
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A spokeswoman for the Guinness Book of World Records did not immediately return a call for comment.
Montanile said the school made 400 pancakes for the event, but discovered that their inconsistent width, weight and height made them architecturally unsound.
