Alan Fisher, a chef originally from Dundalk in Co Louth, is the new Guinness World Record holder for both the longest cooking marathon (individual) and the longest baking marathon (individual).

Fisher claimed the longest baking marathon (individual) with a time of 47 hours and 21 minutes, beating previous record holder Wendy Sandner's time of 31 hours and 16 minutes.

Between September 25 and September 27, Fisher baked 487 loaves of four different types of soda bread, without the assistance of a bread dough mixer. The nearly 800 pounds of soda bread were distributed for free from his restaurant Kyojin Stewhouse in Tokyo.

On September 28, less than two days after the baking marathon attempt, Fisher embarked on his longest cooking marathon (individual) attempt. He cooked for 119 hours and 57 minutes, beating Hilda Baci's previous record of 93 hours and 11 minutes.

For his cooking marathon attempt, Fisher used 32 recipes which included traditional Irish favorites beef and Guinness stew, lamb stew, Dublin coddle, boxty, colcannon, and bacon and cabbage.

Fisher cooked 3,360 portions of food, weighing some 1300 pounds, which were also distributed for free from his restaurant.

According to Guinness World Records, Fisher mounted the two attempts in an effort to share Irish food and culture.

Fisher was inspired to take on the attempts by previous record holders as well as the difficult period his restaurant endured during the pandemic. 

During his attempts, he wore a specially made shirt that featured his favorite Irish proverb, "However long the day, the night will come."

The Irish man is grateful to the local community's support of his efforts, including TV provider TSK, who agreed to film his attempts to submit as evidence.

Fisher said that he encountered back pain during his longest baking marathon attempt and battled fatigue during his longest cooking marathon attempt.

"I peeled roughly 300 kg of potatoes during the cooking marathon," Fisher told Guinness World Records afterward.

"For the first few days, I would look forward to this each evening as it gave me a chance to sit down.

"Towards the end of the cooking marathon however, as fatigue started to take hold, I would find it more and more difficult to stay awake whenever I sat down to start peeling. The rhythm of the peeling would almost hypnotize me. I had one hallucination on the second-to-last day. I turned to ask someone to pass me something, like I would on any normal day only to realize there was no one there."

He added: "It got to the point where I definitely couldn’t give up. In my mind, I was representing myself, my family, and Irish food, and through these attempts, I was sharing our story.

"As time went by it became clear that many people in Matsue were also wishing me well. As if I had been adopted into this community over 9,000 km from my home. How could I not persevere? That was the only option."

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Back in 2016, Fisher told IrishCentral that he had first arrived in Japan in 2008 and his plan was to work for an IT company for two years.

“Same old story I guess," he said at the time. "I met my now wife, Ai Tamura, and sure one thing led to another.

"We got married in early 2014 and together we started our own business shortly after.”

Not long after getting married, Fisher decided to pursue a new business venture and opened Kyojin Stewhouse, which not only serves up traditional Irish food but also hosts Irish events and encourages the promotion of Irish culture among the locals.

In 2016, his restaurant hosted Japanese musicians who performed a stirring rendition of "The Foggy Dew" in honor of the centenary of Ireland's 1916 Easter Rising: