WATCH: Notts pancake stack batters world record

The Guinness World Record for the tallest stack of pancakes was toppled this morning in Notts.

Chef James Haywood smashed the previous record of 91.2 centimetres set in Holland in 2014, by almost a foot this morning at Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest, to the cheers of a hungry pancake house promised a world-leading breakfast.

The executive chef for the global group of family resorts took on the challenge of producing some 213 pancakes – which required 14 bags of flour, over 700 eggs and 26 pints of milk – as well as four chefs to cook and assemble.

And just in time for Shrove tuesday tomorrow, the 101.8cm stack stood unsupported for five seconds and was verified by an official adjudicator before being served to hungry guests at the resort’s Pancake House.

Centre Parcs Pancake House, World Record attempt.
Group Executive chef, James Haywood, and executive sous chef, Dave Nicholls have a nervous wait as adjudicator, Pravin Patel, from the Guiness Book of World Records, measures the assembled stack.Centre Parcs Pancake House, World Record attempt.
Group Executive chef, James Haywood, and executive sous chef, Dave Nicholls have a nervous wait as adjudicator, Pravin Patel, from the Guiness Book of World Records, measures the assembled stack.
Centre Parcs Pancake House, World Record attempt. Group Executive chef, James Haywood, and executive sous chef, Dave Nicholls have a nervous wait as adjudicator, Pravin Patel, from the Guiness Book of World Records, measures the assembled stack.

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Centre Parcs Pancake House, World Record attempt.
Group Executive chef, James Haywood, right and executive sous chef, Dave Nicholls build up the pancake stack.Centre Parcs Pancake House, World Record attempt.
Group Executive chef, James Haywood, right and executive sous chef, Dave Nicholls build up the pancake stack.
Centre Parcs Pancake House, World Record attempt. Group Executive chef, James Haywood, right and executive sous chef, Dave Nicholls build up the pancake stack.

Simon Kay, spokesman for Center Parcs said: “We had a fantastic response at the attempt. At the moment the adjudicator said we’d achieved the world record there were lots of guests cheering and taking photos - it was a really great atmosphere.”

Chef James, 43, who lives in Northampton and travelled to Sherwood Forest for the challenge, said: “It’s a complete relief after all the work that’s gone into it. I’m very proud.”

The previous record was set in the Netherlands two years ago, he added, and measuring in at 91.2cm, and Center Parcs shares its Dutch heritage with the origins of the pancake itself.

The chef added: “That’s one of the reasons why I did it - over the last three years I’ve been all over the world developing our menu and now I’m confident we have one of the best pancake brands in the world. But I wanted to go one better. sO I came up with this idea and thought it would be a doddle. Getting through all the run throughs we found when it got to 60cm, all it wanted to do was fall over.

“So we put a lot of physics into it, looked at Newtons laws of inertia and how skyscrapers are designed.

“The trick was to find a way to construct the stack without it falling over. It wasn’t just a matter of piling them up and hoping for the best – we’ve looked at it from a scientific, mathematical and engineering point of view, as well as developing a recipe for the perfect piling pancake.

“We used large industrial mixers and we wanted the pancakes as dense as we could get, so we left out the salt.

“For the structure of the base is tried all different sorts of flour to find the right one, and then it’s all about making the pancakes smaller and smaller as it gets higher to keep the weight in the centre.”

Centre Parcs Pancake House, World Record attempt.
Group Executive chef, James Haywood, right and executive sous chef, Dave Nicholls with their record breaking pancake stack.Centre Parcs Pancake House, World Record attempt.
Group Executive chef, James Haywood, right and executive sous chef, Dave Nicholls with their record breaking pancake stack.
Centre Parcs Pancake House, World Record attempt. Group Executive chef, James Haywood, right and executive sous chef, Dave Nicholls with their record breaking pancake stack.

It’s not long until the next attempt to break the record is being made – no sooner than tomorrow, in fact will a team of Australians be challenging James for the title. But he’s confident he’ll keep his record.

He added: “People are attempting this all the time, all over the world and not getting it. So I’m glad we’ve achieved it.”

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