The Big Bob's Texas Belt Buster History

The question I'm asked more than any other is why did I do this? Well we have been making big burgers since the day we opened with our Wagon Wheel Burgers. But it was not until surfing the internet one day looking for logos for our t-shirts that I came across a well know eatery in PA which at that time had a world's largest burger of about 9-11 lbs. I being from Texas was shocked that the record was not from Texas, because everything is bigger in Texas. It was at that moment I was personally challenged being a Native Houstonian to change this record.

The next step in my conquest was to learn as much as I could about the Guinness world records procedures and other Big Burger builders as to have a base of knowledge to start on. I then in early April 2006 made a claim with Guinness World Records. I will not go in to detail but only state that this is a complex and somewhat painstaking ordeal which is a must to obtain a record. You must follow all the rules and guidelines from Guinness which included a lot of waiting on our part.

While we were in the waiting mode we decided to start our production of our new big burger the Lone Star Legend. Initially we worked with a local bakery and finally received a bun that met our requirements. This new addition to our burger menu weighed in at a whopping 18 lbs. This would beat the record at that time of 15.5 lbs. However while waiting on our approval from Guinness, Fuddruckers in CT rolled out a 29.9 lb. burger so we knew we would have to go back to the engineering drawing board.

After some weeks or months we finally received the word we were waiting for, "you are approved to proceed with your challenge for the World's Largest Commercially Available Hamburger". We were provided with the details of the record including the current record holders stats which was the already known to be Fuddruckers of CT at 29.9 lbs. At this point I decided that I would join in the many celebration and events being conducted in the Honor of King of Thailand’s 60th year accession to the throne. For us this meant a 60 lb burger, we knew this would not be a easy task.

Our next step was to open our own in house Bakery. After reading all the controversial comments that Fuddruckers burger was not really a commercially available burger due to the 48 hour order time we thought that this is in someway true. So we wanted to be able to provide our burger within 12 hours or less with our motto being "If you order it in the morning you can pick it up in the evening". After a brief school lesson in bakery 101 from a former baker named Colin Stewart from Scotland we were on our way. For weeks we made many trial buns while waiting for our specialty made stainless tools and equipment to make the burger patty. I thought we had the bun down to a science but it was when we tried to lay the heavy meat patty on the bun for the first time that I realized it was back to the drawing board. The patty flattened the bun like a pancake. I knew it was time to call on my friend again Mr. Colin Stewart for help. Colin used his 20 years of experience in baking to finally help us produce a bun which would support the weight.

I will admit I was worried more about the meat patty than the bun, but as it turned out the meat was very straight forward thanks to good engineering and the right tools to handle it properly. So now it was putting it all together for the first time. We constructed the first burger by hand noting the quantities of all toppings. We then had a big party were many of our close friends and staff took part in eating the burger, well not all of it.

Finally the time had come to prepare a burger for the official Guinness World Record Attempt. The good news was the burger had already been sold for a party later the same day. The actual attempt was held behind closed doors because of a big event planned for the official public unveiling as well as other activities. On the big day July 31 2006 everything was going to plan and the witnesses showed up one by one being: General Manager of Ripley's Believe it or Not Thailand Khun Somporn, A team of 5 from the Pattaya City Health Dept., President of the Pattaya Rotary and editor in chief of Pattaya People media group Neils Colov, and finally the respected Engineer with honors from the UK Mr. Stephen Burton. The only thing that surprised me on this day was the health department. They used this opportunity to check everything in the place which was ok as we passed all checks. We officially weighed in the burger at 35.6 Kg or 78.5 pounds. The cameras were flashing and news cameras rolling. All in All it was glad to see this moment come and go. Later that day we went along with the burger and cut it up for the party goers.

Now after a few days of sleep and rest it was time to make another burger for the official unveiling event at the Carrefour Shopping Center August the 5th 2006. This was the big day for us as we had collected a lot of donations and was able to purchase many needed things for the Baan Jing Jai Orphanage. This day was indeed truly a moment to remember as all of the worlds eyes were upon us as the Deputy Mayor of Pattaya Ronakit Ekasingh cuts the ribbon to unveil the World's Largest Hamburger and to brand the name Texas style to the burger, The Big Bob's Texas Belt Buster. After many photos and interviews it was on to the Wagon Wheel Burger eating Contest which was one by Gavin Ireland of Ireland who finished his in 14.5 minutes. In conclusion of the days events the children had some of the burger and took the rest to the orphanage were I'm told it fed the entire street.

I hope you like the above story and if you have any comments please feel free to let me know. I have been asked if I would do it again and I must say I don't know. It is a lot of work and time and we are glad that we have accomplished our goal.

Bob
bob@bobs-bbq.com