Maine Restaurants Help Set Pad Thai World Record in LA

Sourasay Senesombath and Anima Nikonthet run Asian Cafe in Winslow and Asian Noodle Bowl in Augusta, but last week they brought their skills to Hollywood Boulevard with a bold goal: help set a world record for the most pad thai served in one hour.

Senesombath, Nikonthet, and employee Chintana Louangvongsa joined 37 other restaurants at a Thai New Year celebration in Los Angeles. For many of their employees who made the trip, it was a rare opportunity to travel outside Maine and experience a large gathering celebrating their own culture.

The challenge was intense. The Maine team had exactly enough ingredients to make 48 orders of pad thai, and they needed a flawless system to pull it off in under 60 minutes.

Senesombath took orders and distributed them, Louangvongsa cooked while carefully monitoring chicken and shrimp temperatures, and friend Tiffany Green boxed everything up. They'd met with organizers beforehand to understand the rules and portioned their ingredients perfectly.

Things got chaotic fast. The restaurant next to them had equipment fail, and their shrimp overheated in the sun and had to be thrown out. Senesombath shared some of his shrimp with his neighbor and kept pushing forward.

His biggest frustration wasn't the pressure but the noise. He couldn't chat with customers while they waited, which he says is what Asian Cafe is known for back in Maine.

After 50 minutes of nonstop cooking, the Maine team finished all 48 orders. Senesombath looked around and saw other restaurants still working, uncertain if they'd reach the goal.

But they did it. Guinness World Record judges verified the results: 1,338 orders of pad thai served in one hour. The participants are now official world record holders.

The Ripple Effect

The record brought the team together in ways beyond the kitchen. After the festival, they spent the rest of the day sampling different pad thai recipes from vendors, discovering how each restaurant added their own twist to the classic dish.

On Monday, the Maine team invited festival organizers to their vacation rental and cooked for them. They made anything but pad thai after their marathon cooking session.

Back in Maine, the response has been overwhelming. People stopped Senesombath at Hannaford to ask about the record on his first day home. Even during his journey back, three customers from Maine recognized and congratulated him.

He's grateful for the experience and the chance to celebrate his culture at such a lively event, but he's equally happy to return to the community he and Nikonthet have built in Maine, where he can have real conversations with customers who feel like friends.