Benihana Celebrates First-Annual National Fried Rice Day By Breaking The GUINNESS WORLD RECORDStm Title For The Longest Cooking Marathon

AVENTURA, Fla., Sept. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Benihana's first-annual National Fried Rice Day is Officially Amazingtm after achieving a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title! The nation's leading operator of Japanese-inspired Teppanyaki and Sushi Restaurants is hot off an astounding 42-hour cooking marathon that culminated today with breaking a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title.

The event kicked off Tuesday at two of Benihana's flagship restaurants, its Midtown location in New York City and its Michigan Avenue location in Chicago.

Benihana worked with the National Day Calendar to officially designate September 20th as National Fried Rice Day. To commemorate the new holiday, Benihana master chefs Andrey Shek (New York) and Raymundo Mendez (Chicago) battled a 500-degree grill for the better part of three days.

"We're beyond proud of our amazing chefs who dedicated their time, talent and tenacity to make this world record a possibility," said Benihana Chief Executive Officer and President Tom Baldwin. "We look forward to celebrating National Fried Rice Day each year with new traditions while continuing to build upon our legacy of great food and a great dining experience for our guests."

An impressive donation of 576 servings of Benihana Fried Rice will benefit Cornerstone Community Outreach, who serves nearly 500 low-income men, women and children daily in the city of Chicago and 560 servings will benefit City Harvest, New York City's largest food rescue organization.

"Cornerstone Community Outreach works hard to ensure we are providing food daily to the hundreds of people in Chicago who would otherwise go hungry, said Beth Nicholls, Development Director at Cornerstone Community Outreach. "We are excited to partner with Benihana on this event and be able to help our community with this donation."

"Forty percent of New Yorkers don't earn enough income to meet the city's basic cost of living, meaning many families struggle on a daily basis to make ends meet," said Racine Lee Droz, Associate Director of Food Sourcing at City Harvest. "City Harvest works to ensure no New Yorker goes hungry by rescuing food that would otherwise go to waste, and delivering it to food programs across the city. We're thrilled to partner with Benihana on this one-of-a-kind event to provide our neighbors in need with a delicious meal."

Today, customers at select Benihana locations nationwide will receive a complimentary serving of the famous fried rice with the purchase of an entrée.

About Benihana
Benihana Inc. is the nation's leading operator of Japanese-inspired Teppanyaki and Sushi restaurants with 104 nationwide Benihana, Haru Sushi, RA Sushi and Samurai restaurants, including 10 franchised Benihana restaurants operating throughout the United States, Caribbean, and Central and South America. To learn more about Benihana Inc. and its four brands, please view the corporate video at www.benihana.com/about/company-video/. To download the Benihana Sticker Pack, please visit http://apple.co/2lml8Dg.

SOURCE Benihana