Turkey farmer Paul Kelly sets fastest carver record
Award-winning turkey farmer Paul Kelly has added another Guinness World Record to his name at the celebration event on Wednesday (June 3) for the 25th anniversary of the KellyBronze turkey.
Paul is now officially the fastest turkey carver on the planet! Stop watch in hand, adjudicators declared his time for carving 14 portions from a 5kg turkey was a mind- blowing 3 minutes 19 seconds.
Already the world’s fastest turkey plucker, he competed against Leigh-on-Sea Q Guild butcher David Harrison and delivered the portions — each weighing at least 150 grams — on to 14 separate plates way head of the expected time.
Last Christmas he beat celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to the fastest plucker title, when he plucked three 16lb turkeys ready for the oven in just 11 minutes and 30 seconds.
Paul, managing director of Kelly Turkey Farms, which breeds the famed KellyBronze turkeys, uses a technique he has developed — first cutting along the breast bone to remove the beast meat and then cutting this into slices. "It’s my own method that I’ve perfected over the years — and everyone should do it my way when they carve their Christmas turkey because it’s foolproof."
Paul set the world record at the party at his Howe Green farm. near Chelmsford, Essex, to celebrate 25 years of producing the award-winning KellyBronze turkeys — and of the revival of the traditional bronze-feathered birds now enjoying increasing popularity.
More than 150 guests attended the celebration party where Paul’s father Derek spoke about importance of flavour in developing the product and paid tribute to the contribution of his wife Mollie — and her ’fantastic taste buds’.
Special guest was cookery doyen Marguerite Patten, who advised the government on the nation’s diet during the war years and became a pioneer of promoting good food and a healthy diet. She spoke about the roles that individual family members had played in developing the business, speaking of them as becoming ’the Kelly dynasty’.
www.kellyturkeys.com
Pictures show Paul Kelly as he begins his Guinness World Record attempt and the plating up of the 14th portion
