Yangzhou's fried-rice event was a publicity push that just went to waste

Someone forgot to tell those Guinness-record-hungry chefs in Yangzhou that it's quality, not quantity that counts.

Last week, city organisers in the eastern province of Jiangsu attempted to cook the world's biggest helping of the famous fried rice that bears its name.

Chefs cooked up 4,192kg of the dish, according to news reports, as part of a city-wide commemoration of the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the city.

After the stunt, organisers promptly fed the massive amount of fried rice - to pigs.

Perhaps the chefs who cooked the rice didn't think it was good enough. Or their bosses just didn't care about the waste so long as they made it into the record book.

In any case, they suffered, deservedly, a media backlash, which prompted an abject apology.