A team of Guatemalan chefs just pulled off something massive in the kitchen, chopping, slicing, and mixing their way into the record books. On October 24, 2026, at the Centro Comercial Cayalá in Guatemala City, a massive crew of cooks and volunteers built a mind-blowing 1,962.2 kg (4,325.9 lb) dish of fiambre – officially setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest fiambre salad ever assembled.Put together by Toledo Alimentos, the event wasn’t just a stunt to land a title. It was a massive tribute to one of Guatemala’s most cherished food traditions, right in time for All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
What goes into a 2-ton salad?
If you’ve never heard of fiambre, it’s not your everyday bowl of garden greens. It’s an elaborate, chilled salad traditionally made on November 1st and 2nd, with recipes handed down through families like heirlooms.To break the record, the team pulled together a staggering 52 different ingredients. We’re talking hard-boiled eggs, cured sausages, cold cuts, various meats, sweet corn, peppers, crisp lettuce, and onions, all tossed in a spiced, traditional dressing.The dish actually carries a lot of history. Legend has it that families used to bring their loved ones’ favorite foods directly to the cemeteries during Day of the Dead gatherings. Eventually, people started combining all those different cold dishes into one big shared feast, which is how modern fiambre was born.
Big paddles and hard work
Prepping nearly two metric tons of food takes serious muscle. Chefs worked for hours just getting the prep work done – chopping meats, pickling veggies, and getting everything ready for the main assembly.When it came time to mix, standard kitchen tools were out of the question. The team used giant wooden paddles to fold the 52 ingredients together inside a massive serving container, carefully arranging the final garnishes right before the official scale was brought out.The event turned into a full-on cultural festival, complete with live traditional music, weaving displays, and crowds cheering on the kitchen staff.As Juan José Gutierrez Herrarte from Toledo Alimentos put it, “Fiambre is much more than a seasonal recipe: it is family, unity, and pride in what is ours.”
Breaking the record for a good cause
Guinness World Records adjudicator Susana Reyes was on-site with a team of professional weighers to make sure everything was completely legit. The bar was set at 500 kg, but the Guatemalan team blew right past it, topping out at 1,962.2 kg.When Reyes officially declared it a record, the place went wild.Best of all, the salad didn’t go to waste. Festival-goers got to buy portions of the record-breaking meal on the spot, with local media reporting that the proceeds were set aside to fund culinary scholarships for aspiring young chefs across Guatemala.What started out as a giant cooking challenge ended up as a huge win for the community – celebrating heritage, breaking a global record, and helping out the next generation of local cooks.
