I Don’t Deserve To Live, Ghanaian Chef Exposed For Forging GWR Begs For Forgiveness

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – A Ghanaian chef, Ebenezer Smith, better known as Millennium Chef Smith, who was recently exposed for forging a Guinness World Record in a cooking marathon, has stated that he does not deserve to be alive because of his disgraceful actions.

Smith stated this in a recent interview with GHOne TV on Sunday.

It could be recalled that Smith was arrested and detained at the La Police Station after he forged a Guinness World Record for marathon cooking.

The chef had on Tuesday presented a certificate during a press conference and claimed to be the new world record holder for an 820-hour 25-minute cook-a-thon, which began on February 1 and ended on March 6, 2024.

However, the Public Relations Executive for GWR, Alina Polianskaya, disclosed to the BBC that the certificate was fake.

Polianskaya said, “No, this is not true at all. He does not hold the GWR title, and that is not our certificate. The current and true record holder is: The longest cooking marathon (individual) is 119hr 57 min 16 sec and was achieved by Alan Fisher (Ireland) in Matsue, Shimane, Japan, from 28 September to 3 October 2023.”

In the interview, Smith pleaded saying that he is disappointed with himself for his actions.

“I’m not fine because of the news out there right now. I feel so disappointed in myself for disappointing the people of Ghana, my loved ones, and everybody around the world,” the chef said.

According to him, his need to get a permanent means of livelihood through his cooking abilities made him do the fraudulent act.

He said: “As a young man growing up, I’ve been working for a couple of years in the hospitality industry, and I’ve always wanted a platform to showcase the good craft and skills that I have in me, because I’ve worked in a couple of places, both hotels and restaurants, and I feel like nothing is working out for me. I wanted a platform that I could get permanent something to do, which has to do with my profession – the culinary industry, hence the reason for this step.”

Speaking on how he started the cookathon without a genuine application filed with GWR, he explained, “After Hilda Baci, I’ve been thinking about it and then all of a sudden I decided, after Efya did her singathon. I decided to take a step. Tracking the history, it has always been a sequential one, like numbers with the application reference so I ended up with the application reference of Edus Safoa and then I built something for myself.

“I have read a lot about the Guinness World Record, it’s an application process. When you apply they will give you an application reference that would enable you to know who is a current record holder and the details prior to that; your time of break, the rules, and the guidelines. So apparently, I had read all that and gotten to know the rules, the guidelines and everything, but I don’t have an application with Guinness World Record, I did not apply.”

“Like I said, I built it on Edus Safoa’s application reference. It’s not normal, it’s not logical, but it is done because if someone’s application is index number one, then somebody will be number 2.”