After mashing countless avocados, culinary students from four Miami-Dade high schools came up with a winner.

Or rather a World Record.

The students shattered last Sunday the Guinness World Record for the largest serving of guacamole.

The event, called the Holy Moly Redland Guacamole Celebration, at Schnelby Winery in Redland raised money for the culinary programs at John A. Ferguson, Robert Morgan, South Dade and Homestead high schools.

The students, guided by four local chefs, surpassed the previous record of 4,011 pounds, set in 2007 by the Mexican Avocado Industry in California.

It took about 500 pounds of tomatoes, 100 pounds of mayonnaise, 500 limes and 3,500 pounds of avocados. The ingredients were donated by Fresh King Farms and the Krome family groves.

The students worked frenetically -- some of them even squashing the avocados with their gloved hands instead of using the graters.

``We're doing this pretty quickly to make all of us look good,'' said Antonio Luna, a 16-year-old junior at South Dade.

The students began at about 8 a.m. last Sunday in a large tiki hut.

Each school worked separately but used the same recipe involving avocados, tomatoes, lime juice, a pinch of salt and mayonnaise.

Some students juiced limes. Others pealed and squashed avocados. A few mixed the ingredients together.

They worked until they filled a 13-gallon bucket with guacamole. Then they dumped it into a giant dumpster-looking cooler to be weighed.

And they started over and over. And over. Enough to produce more than two tons of guacamole.

The operation ran smoothly, according to Brandon Whitestone, a chef of Chef Allen's Restaurant in Aventura who helped the students from Robert Morgan.

``They seem very professional and it seems like their teachers have really done well with them,'' he said.

Chef Michael Schwartz of Michael's Genuine Food and Drink in the Design District supervised the students from Ferguson. He said they are on the right track toward becoming culinary pros.

``They're doing all the right things right now and if you're passionate and interested, that's all they have to do,'' he said. ``The culinary directors are doing a great job to keep them interested and involved. They're lucky.''

With the winery's owner and event co-founder Peter Schnelby directing a loud crowd in a chant of ``Holy moly guacamole!'' -- and kids cheering themselves on -- the students surpassed the world record at about 2:40 p.m. with 4,014 pounds of guacamole. They stopped once they reached 4,114 pounds.

They had their hands smothered in avocados for almost seven hours.

``We'll probably be dreaming about them,'' said Vanessa Sanchez, a 17-year-old junior at Robert Morgan.

But they weren't done yet.

An inter-school competition to see who could make the best guacamole, avocado ice cream and avocado cake or pie ensued, with the students working on recipes they developed with the chefs.

Robert Morgan had the best guacamole recipe, while Ferguson took the cake for best cake or pie. Homestead and Robert Morgan tied for best ice cream.

The fundraiser made about $4,800 from the finished guacamole that was sold to benefit the schools.

Schnelby said this year's event is only the beginning. He came up with the idea about a year and a half ago with Will Dukes, an agriculture teacher at Ferguson.

``Our dream was two-pronged: One is what you see now, which is to support the schools,'' said Schnelby. ``We also pictured a food and wine institute that we would like to start putting money toward next year.''

Dukes said the event was also created to raise awareness about an agricultural issue that is affecting Miami-Dade's avocados -- the Red Bay Ambrosia Beetle.

The beetle, which came to the United States from Asia, is deadly to avocado trees, according to Miami-Dade's Agricultural Manager Charles LaPradd, who was at the event.

``It forms a fungus inside of the trees,'' he said. ``And the fungus is deadly.''

Research is being conducted by the University of Florida to find a preventive measure. But Dukes said there hasn't been any major breakthrough yet.

``The biggest thing they're working on right now is trying to find varieties of avocado that are resistant [to the insect],'' he said.

But the beetle scare didn't overshadow the guacamole event, as parents cheered their teens on. Bands from the schools entertained with music -- with one playing the Mario Brothers theme song.

Kids knew they had a winning day. And it wasn't just earning a world record. ``I enjoy doing this,'' said South Dade's Antonio. ``I hope there are other opportunities like this that we can be involved in too.''

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