Saudi Al-Ula Celebrates Guinness World Record For Longest Hot Air Balloon Glow Show

Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website
Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website
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Saudi Al-Ula Celebrates Guinness World Record For Longest Hot Air Balloon Glow Show

Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website
Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website

Saudi Arabia's Al-Ula Province won the Guinness World Records (GWR) title for Longest hot air balloon glow show with 100 balloons having spread across 3km over the the desert.

Balloonists from 19 countries around the world completed the record breaking attempt as part of the ongoing Winter at Tantora festival in north west Saudi Arabia.

Glow shows are a regular attraction at Al-Ula ongoing Winter at Tantora arts, music and culture festival. An official adjudicator from GWR attended the event which saw the 100 balloons stationed 30 meters apart, to verify the official attempt as the hot air ballooning festival at Winter at Tantora came to an end.

For his part, Amr Al Madani, CEO of the Royal Commission for Al-Ula, and president of SAHAB, the Saudi Arabian Balloon Federation, said: “We are enormously proud to have been recognised by GWR for this achievement."

“This was a tremendously complex task in planning and coordination to ensure that it was achieved with maximum impact and it was truly a night to remember and demonstrates once again the extraordinary opportunities that Al-Ula has to offer in every sphere as a destination,” he added.

The balloonists who took part in the event were all certified experts who hold commercial pilot’s licences.

They offered festival attendees the opportunity to glide over and through Al-Ula's spectacular landscape and some of its 7,000 years of archaeological remains.

Winter at Tantora runs until March 7, and features a range of top-class entertainment, cultural, arts and sporting events, including concerts at the mirrored Maraya concert hall and the Fursan horse endurance race on Feb. 1.



White House Chef Retires after Nearly 30 Years

FILE - White House executive chef Cris Comerford, holds dishes as she speaks during a media preview for the State Dinner with President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 30, 2022. Comerford has retired after nearly three decades of making meals and cooking up state dinners for five different presidents and their families. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE - White House executive chef Cris Comerford, holds dishes as she speaks during a media preview for the State Dinner with President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 30, 2022. Comerford has retired after nearly three decades of making meals and cooking up state dinners for five different presidents and their families. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
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White House Chef Retires after Nearly 30 Years

FILE - White House executive chef Cris Comerford, holds dishes as she speaks during a media preview for the State Dinner with President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 30, 2022. Comerford has retired after nearly three decades of making meals and cooking up state dinners for five different presidents and their families. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE - White House executive chef Cris Comerford, holds dishes as she speaks during a media preview for the State Dinner with President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 30, 2022. Comerford has retired after nearly three decades of making meals and cooking up state dinners for five different presidents and their families. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

The White House's executive chef has retired after nearly three decades of making meals and cooking up state dinners for five different presidents and their families.

Cris Comerford is the first woman to hold the job, and is also the first person of color to be executive chef. Her last day was Friday. First lady Jill Biden thanked her for her service in a statement on Tuesday.

“I always say, food is love. Through her barrier-breaking career, Chef Cris has led her team with warmth and creativity, and nourished our souls along the way," Jill Biden said in a statement. "With all our hearts, Joe and I are filled with gratitude for her dedication and years of service.”

Comerford, 61, sharpened her culinary skills while working at hotels in Chicago and restaurants in Washington before the White House brought her on in 1995 as an assistant chef, The AP reported.

A naturalized US citizen and a native of the Philippines, she was named executive chef in 2005. Her responsibilities as executive chef included designing and executing menus for state dinners, social events, holiday functions, receptions and official luncheons.

She and pastry chef Susie Morrison — also the first woman in that job — formed a duo that has tantalized the taste buds of guests at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with their culinary creations for nearly a decade.

A lavish state dinner is a tool of US diplomacy, a high honor reserved for America’s longstanding and closest allies and the food is the signature event. Comerford's last state dinner was for Kenyan President William Ruto and his wife, Rachel, in May.

The team served a three-course meal of chilled heirloom tomato soup and a “best of both worlds” main course of smoked beef short ribs and butter-poached lobster. Dessert was a homemade white chocolate basket of raspberries, peaches and other fruit.

Chef and humanitarian José Andrés seemed to break the news Monday evening with a post congratulating her. “You are a national treasure, a culinary diplomat who has shown the world how an immigrant can celebrate American food & share it with the world’s leaders,” he posted. “Congrats on retiring, we love you Cris.”