KINGSTON — Ross McCurdy may have created a new meaning for a stack of flapjacks in the Oak Table Cafe kitchen Aug. 13.
McCurdy, the owner of the Kingston restaurant, cooked 1,092 pancakes in one hour. The record holder is Steve Hamilton of Louisberg, Kan. with 956 pancakes in an hour, according to the Guinness World Records website.
“I smashed it,” McCurdy said of the record attempt.
McCurdy’s attempt has to be reviewed by Guinness officials before being accepted. Video and witnesses to the record will be factored into the decision.
If accepted, the pancake record will be McCurdy’s third held world record. He holds the record for most eggs cracked with one hand in one minute — 32 eggs — and the longest distance for a grape thrown and self-caught in the mouth — 68 feet, 1 inch.
McCurdy began breaking records as a way to fundraise. His 9-year-old daughter, Mira, has rheumatoid arthritis and uveitis, which is a swelling and irritation of the center of the eye, or uvea. The money he raises from his record attempt events are donated to various foundations, including The Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation, the Arthritis Foundation, and Seattle Children’s Hospital.
The pancake event raised just over $500, McCurdy said. The Oak Table Cafe opened it’s doors to the public for the event, where everyone got to eat as many of the record-attempt pancakes as they could, for free.
The pancakes had to be 5 inches or larger and edible. Because McCurdy was also making pancakes for the attendees, he made sure they would represent the quality of food at the Oak Table, he said.
Because he’s had more than a decade of experience in breakfast food, making quality pancakes wasn’t difficult for McCurdy. He had also done five-minute practice runs in the past, where he made as many as possible. The difficulty came with the time he had to actually spend cooking. The back of McCurdy’s left hand, which was continually holding plates to serve pancakes on, burned from being so close to the griddle. His right hand cramped from holding and flipping pancakes with a spatula for an hour.
“I knew I was fast enough,” McCurdy said. He began getting tired about 45-minutes into the attempt. “It just came down to endurance.”
McCurdy still has a few records he would like to set. He wants to attempt breaking the highest, standing jump onto a surface — currently 4 feet 10.27 inches — and building the tallest stack of pancakes — 2 feet 6 inches. He would also like to attempt running the fastest mile while carrying another person of one’s own weight.
“I’m definitely not finished,” he said.