An Ontario chocolatier family who once held the record for the world's largest Nanaimo bar is intending to reclaim the title after losing it to Vancouver Island University earlier this spring.
On May 17, VIU students established a new record with a 1,100-pound (500-kilogram), 70-foot (21-metre) Nanaimo bar, beating the previous record of 500 pounds (240kg) established in 2020 by the children of Chantelle Gorham, owner of Northwest Fudge Factory in Ontario.
Chef Aron Weber, chairperson of VIU's professional baking and pastry arts program, said it doesn't surprise him that VIU's record is being challenged, but he is a little disappointed since he thought it was fitting for Nanaimo to have it.
"The main reason we did it was to highlight our program and our students and just bring together the baking community and Nanaimo community together and the event was a huge success," he said. "We did quite well with raising money for replacing the [program's] ovens as well, so I think we met all our goals with that project."
On June 30, that record will be challenged in Sudbury, Ont., as Gorham's children and their cousins will attempt to build a 1,200-pound Nanaimo bar, bringing the record back to the family.
Gorham told Black Press Media she doesn't believe her family ever really lost the record, as VIU chose not to go through Guinness World Records to certify its 1,100-pound bar.
"There's a reason why you have a governing body like Guinness World Records to certify because they will decline you just as easily as they will accept your record," the Ontario business owner said. "You can't pay for certificates through them, they will hold your feet to the fire, and if you haven't followed all the protocol that is necessary, they will decline it."
Instead, she sees her family's new attempt as a fifth-anniversary celebration of earning the Guinness record in 2020, while fundraising for three charities in Ontario.
For this month's attempt, the family isn't seeking Guinness certification, Gorham notes that a 1,200-pound bar would make them "the unofficial and official world record holders, in case there is any confusion."
The Baking Association of Canada and the Culinary Federation confirmed the dimensions of VIU's Nanaimo bar last month and acknowledged it as the world's largest. Weber said it's fine if others don't acknowledge the university students' record as official, because he knows they made the largest Nanaimo bar ever documented.
"I'm not really sure why it is so important for them to have it in Ontario, but you know what, records are meant to be broken, I'm happy for them," the instructor said. "I think they're doing it for charity this time around, so all the best to them."
Weber said he would be supportive if someone else wanted to take the record on locally to bring it back home, but said VIU has "had enough Nanaimo bar this year" in the baking and pastry arts program.
"We proved that we can do it, we could make something bigger if we wanted to, but we're definitely not going to get into something where every year we make a different Nanaimo bar, it doesn't make any sense to me," he said.
He believes local residents should be proud, even if the record isn't held in the community.
"The Nanaimo bar is from here, and it's one of the very few items that is recognized as a Canadian food. Whether there is an official record here in Nanaimo or if it's in Ontario, it is just something that is going to be celebrated across the country."
