Gastronomic Guinness records of Andalucía

The idea for a book of facts came about in the early 1950s. Sir Hugh Beaver, then managing director of the Guinness Breweries, attended a shooting party in County Wexford, where he got into an argument about the fastest game bird in Europe and failed to find an answer in a reference book.

So in 1955 a book was released with the intention of solving arguments in pubs. The first edition topped the bestseller list in the United Kingdom and was launched internationally. The 2025 edition has been published in 100 countries and 40 languages, and maintains over 53,000 records in its database. Several of them hail from Andalucía, where a couple of records have been set with local delicacies.

The capital of Andalucía has entered the Guinness Book of Records thanks to its speciality - the ‘serranito’. This is a hot sandwich with chicken or pork loin, cured ham, fried green peppers and sliced tomatoes. The origin of this typical dish is believed to date back to the 1970s. Later, former bullfighter José Luis Cabeza Hernández patented the term ‘serranito,’ and in 1983 opened his first establishment called Mesones del Serranito in Seville.

In honour of the 40th anniversary of Mesones del Serranito, it was decided to make the world's largest ‘serranito’ sandwich. A 'record'-gastronomic event took place on Seville's iconic Isabel II Bridge over the Guadalquivir River on 29 September 2023. It took about 15kg of pork fillet, 80kg of peppers, another 80kg of tomatoes and about 400 slices of bread. In the end, the planned length of 150 metres was exceeded by 8.7 metres, as a few more portions were added at the last minute to cover the entire length of the bridge. The 158.7-metre-long ‘serranito’ was cut into 80 portions and sold, with the proceeds going to social projects.

The province of Huelva is famous for its Iberian ham, especially the Jabugo variety, which is considered among the best in the world. This is because the holm oak forests in the Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche regions are the ideal environment for breeding Iberian pigs, which feed on acorns.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the capital of the province became the site of the world's largest plate of jamón. The Huelva gastronomic association Comando Ibérico, in collaboration with the Port of Huelva, arranged an event to break the Guinness World Record.

On 9 November 2024, 85 ham carvers gathered in tents on Avenida de Andalucía to break the previous record of 640.71 kilos. Between 8am and 3pm, 165 hams were carved. Finally, 686 kilograms of sliced ham were laid out over an area of 206 square metres. (The total area of a tennis court for singles play is 195.7 square metres). This was enough to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest plate of ham in the world. All the numerous participants in the event were able to taste the high-quality 'jamón'.