The Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr. Angelo Yossi Dogbe, has lauded the cook-a-thon attempt by Chef Failatu Abdul Razak which ended on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, at the Modern City hotel in the Tamale metropolis.
The female Ghanaian chef successfully completed a 227-hour cook-a-thon attempt after 10-days in the kitchen to break the current longest world cooking record of 119-hours held by Alan Fisher of Ireland and set her own record in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Chef Failatu showcased her exceptional cooking skills throughout the period, preparing over on hundred dishes [both local and intercontinental] and distributed thousands of plates to the enthusiastic fans and the underprivileged on the streets of the regional capital.
Speaking to THE CUSTODIAN on the sidelines of the event, Mr. Yossi noted his outfit was leveraging on the well-publicized event to market the region and the country at large.
“My core mandate here is to open up the north because we have so much resources over here, we have so talents and so much attractions, most of which not developed or untapped. Within the shot period that I have come, though, I am yet to tour the area, I have already collected some of the sites and taken efforts for its development” he said.
He added the Ghana Tourism Authority has also embarked on an initiative in collaboration with the Talen tourism to explore the tourism opportunities in the area.
“One of our core functions is marketing and promotion of the whole country and we’ve been doing that domestically, regionally and internationally. If our own has taken up this initiative and it’s not just within the region but before the country, before the sub region, for Africa and globally, then we need to leverage on that and support and encourage her” he stated.
He observed that, “Most of the promotions we do seem to end up in Accra or the south. We embarked on the Year of Return and also Beyond the Return; we were able to increase traffic and attract a lot of tourists here but when they come they end up in Accra.”
However, Mr. Angelo Yossi Dogbe intimated tourism is supposed to distribute whatever resources that come in to benefit all relevant players along the value-chain in the tourism ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Awal at the beginning of the cooking marathon directed the Northern Regional office of the GTA to donate a cash amount of ten thousand cedis, bags of rice, cooking oil and mineral water to support the efforts of chef Failatu Abdul Razak.
