How rare it is for me to have the opportunity to laud a local Ottawa event in this space! The annual Ottawa Shawarma Festival created the World’s Longest Shawarma, setting a new Guinness World Record!
The Festival rallied a small army of Shawarma pros and volunteers on June 7 to create a ‘train’ of 2,451 wraps totalling over 350 metres in length. The previous record was set in London, Ontario, in 2019, with a string of 2,287 shawarmas. It wasn’t hard to find more than enough shawarma pros to oversee the event. Ottawa has more than 200 shawarma restaurants! Which attests to the vitality of the Mid-dle Eastern community here in Canada’s Capital, as well as the universal appeal of the legendary Levantine wrap.
In fact, in 2024, Ottawa City Council officially proclaimed the city the Shawarma Capital of Canada.
A truly national event
According to a Yahoo! Life story, “A seven-judge panel also ranked several entries for the best sha-warma in a blind tasting test. First place went to Boustan, which operates locations across Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Manitoba. Local restaurants Three Brothers and Shawarma Palace took second and third place, respectively.”
No one knows how many fans turned out for the mega-shawarma event… But Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe wrote in his official social media account: “What a great day at Shawarma Fest 2026 in the ByWard Market! […] York Street was packed with tons of people enjoying amazing food and enter-tainment.”
Proceeds to charity
The proceeds of the shawarma-building event literally went to charity. Some 2,000 of the record-beaking wraps were donated to the city’s Shepherds of Good Hope shelter. It runs feeding programs for the needy across the city.
“A shared meal is more than food,” the organization wrote in a social media ‘thank you’. “It is comfort, dignity and a reminder that people care. What begins as a citywide celebration will end with 2,000 meals shared with people who need them most.”
My take
I’ve never met a shawarma I didn’t love. Anywhere I’ve ever ordered one…
In fact, Shawarma may be the Middle East’s ‘most nearly perfect food’. It certainly checks nutrition best practices boxes – even fermented foods, with those unique purple pickled turnips!
Congrats to Shawarma Fest kingpin Moe Mosalam and everybody who made the day such a huge, delicious success!
~ Maggie J.