The embarrassing “Tortilla de Vitoria” (Vitorian Omelet) affair. A never-ending story

This article was tranlated by Iustrans

The bizarre story of the “world’s largest potato omelet”, an initiative launched by Vitoria’s city hall on August 2, 2014, seems to have no end. In truth it seems that the omelet, as has been repeatedly stated, was made of cucumber instead of Araban potato.

As our regular readers may recall, a few months ago we talked about the fiasco of Vitoria attempting to cook an omelet that would be registered in the Guinness Book of Records, under “the biggest in the world” epigraph.

As we said, the attempt was a failure. Although the aim of focusing the international spotlight in Vitoria was achieved, the effort and 45,000 € involved only resulted in the attempt becoming an embarrassment for the city.

It seems that the Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz took Oscar Wilde literally: “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about“. It appears so because the omelet story has not been buried in a dark basement of the town hall, but is instead still doing the rounds to the delight of locals and visitors.

The City councilman in charge (?) remains committed to achieving the omelet record. It seems, however, that for now the only record that he has achieved is to stumble repeatedly with the same stone (omelet, we mean).

He has now sought two certifying bodies of records, which have assured that the omelet in question does comply with the appropriate parameters to become a record omelet. These bodies are the records verification associations RHR (Record Holders Republic) and OWR (Official World Record). Two associations that, with all our respect and without doubting their ability or competence, don´t have the public visibility of the Guinness Book of Records. Or, put differently, they are complete unknowns.

In addition to such efforts at defending what is hardly defensible, we have witnessed the mess of the closing of accounts with the entity in charge of annually naming the “Spanish Gastronomy Capital”. Let us not forget that this appointment is, in a substantive part, a question of money. It now seems that they do not want to pay organizers 50,000 € because the record has not been achieved.

We’d like to see the Mayor stop mulling over the record that was never achieved, and start explaining: How much has this organization been paid? (the organization is formed by the Spanish Federation of Hotels, and the Spanish Federation of Journalists and Writers of Tourism), and, especially, what part of the activities schedule has actually been carried out by the organizing body.

The Guardian headlined at the time “Record-breaking tortilla attempt turns into big embarrassment for Spanish city“. Now, thanks to the Mayor’s “persistence in his error“, The Irish Times is giving play to the story.

We don’t know why, but Marcus Tullius Cicero’s aphorism comes to mind: Any man can make mistakes, but only a fool persists in his error.

The Irish Times – 7/5/2015 – Irlanda

Spanish mayor refusing to pay for five-metre omelette

When the mayor of Vitoria, Javier Maroto, commissioned a platoon of chefs to cook the world’s largest Spanish omelette last year, he expected it to boost the Basque city’s international profile by entering the record books. Nine months on from the creation of the mammoth tortilla, it is being derided as a culinary white elephant, whose record-breaking status is under question and whose financing has led to legal action being taken against the mayor.

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El Diario Noticias – 5/5/2015 – Argentina

Sin Guinness: La tortilla de papas más grande del mundo

Pocas veces una tortilla de papas había dado para tanto. El intento de Vitoria de entrar en el Libro Guinness de los récords por cocinar la tortilla más grande del mundo ha desencadenado desde finales del pasado año un cruce opiniones y datos tratando de demostrar que el ejemplar preparado en la capital alavesa es merecedor del título.  El Libro Guinness no valida la distinción debido a que no acepta la forma en la que se elaboró, “en porciones precocinadas tipo puzle la víspera” que después se unieron en una sartén de la que salió la tortilla de cinco metros de diámetro. Ahora, los organizadores han conseguido el apoyo de dos organizaciones internacionales de verificación de récords en su cruzada por ratificar lo logrado el pasado 2 de agosto.

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Last Updated on Dec 20, 2020 by About Basque Country