No less than 914 people gathered at Gerry-Boulet Park in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu set a new Guinness record on Saturday by cooking, all at the same time, sausage on the barbecue.
The local company Dalisa, which mainly produces sausage, crowned its 25th anniversary year with this ambitious challenge.
“We love you. It’s crazy! Good barbecue afternoon,” exclaimed its president, Fernand Pascoal, just before kick-off.
The thousand visitors present immediately started cooking the sausages for five to twelve minutes around one of the 104 charcoal barbecues installed on the site.
“I feel feverish and emotional. I’m always impressed to see that everyone responds so well when we call everyone,” said Alexandra Pascoal, commercial director of Dalisa.
Coming from London, a representative of the Guinness World Record organization, William Munfad, was present and formalized the record on Saturday. He presented a plaque testifying to this feat to members of the Pascoal family, who said they were grateful.
According to him, the record to be broken was recorded in Hong Kong in 2019 when 579 people cooked on the barbecue.
“It’s never easy to set a new Guinness World Record! The challenge must be the biggest ever in the world,” commented Mr. Munfad, who was visiting Canada for the first time.
This representative had trained about twenty independent witnesses responsible for carrying out surveillance on the site, where the smoke from the charcoal barbecues hovered. These disqualified eight participants who did not respect the rules.
Proud to participate
Dalisa graciously provided her popular combo containing six flavors of sausages to the ten registered teams. Like many mothers, Jessika Dufour, took the initiative to bring together her loved ones for the event.
“For my children, I found that it was a beautiful event that they were going to be able to tell later”, she reported.
Once the cooking was done, people shared a feast, with friends or family, picnicking under the sun. Even if it had rained, Marie-Christine Grégoire and her group promised to be present, proud to participate in this record.
According to Alexandra Pascoal, this challenge is in line with the family values, pleasure and authenticity of the company which regularly organizes such parties, in particular for its foundation.
“We always participate! It’s always very, very well organized,” commented Josiane Beaucage, a mother from the region.
Saturday, all income from the activity, more than $ 10,000, was paid to Sainte-Justine Hospital.
With elected officials and municipal administrators, the mayor of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Andrée Bouchard, took part in this unifying meeting which, according to her, sowed good humor.