Hilda Baci, the Nigerian Jollof Queen, has set an incredible feat by cooking for 100 hours straight.
Her impressive achievement has earned her a new Guinness World Record for the longest cook-a-thon, also called a cooking marathon.
Hilda had been cooking nonstop since 4 p.m. on Thursday, 11 May, later stopped cooking at 8 p.m. on Monday.
The foodpreneur, however, pushed herself a little more by extending the time by an extra four hours after finding renewed strength. At precisely 8 p.m. on Monday, the 27-year-old chef set the new world record of goal of 10 hours and 40 minutes.
Chef Lata Tondon set a record of 87 hours and 45 minutes in India in 2019; the Nigerian chef blew past that record at 7:46 a.m. on Monday, 15 May 2023, clocking 87 hours and 46 minutes.
The chef, who targeted a 100 hours cooking marathon, has spent at least the last four days showcasing her culinary skills using various local and intercontinental recipes to put Nigeria on the global culinary map.
President Buhari congratulates Baci
President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated 27-year-old gourmet chef, Hilda Bassey Effiong, aka Hilda Baci, who made history by breaking the world record of longest hours of cooking.
The Akwa Ibom State-born broke the record which was hitherto held by Indian chef Lata Tondon on Monday.
Reacting, Buhari in a statement issued by his spokesman, Bashir Ahmed, on Monday lauded the young culinary expert for turning her talent and passion into a career.
He commended her for running a restaurant in Lagos that trains other talents on entrepreneurship, and now leads the world in resilience, perseverance, and consistency in cooking.
”The antecedents of the restaurateur, who dazzled at the Jollof Face-off Competition, 2021, preparing mouth-watering dishes that won the choice prize, and settled an age-long rivalry with Ghana on which African country should own the trademark for cooking better jollof- rice,” he added.
Akpabio visits Hilda Baci
Meanwhile, Senator Godswill Akpabio in his Facebook post wrote ”I was this morning accompanied by my colleagues Senators elect, on a solidarity visit to an Akwa Ibom child, Hilda Baci, who is set to break the Guinness Book of record as the Chef with the longest cooking duration in the world. I pray for her success and I promise to reward her at the end of the event.”
The former Akwa Ibom governor added ”I thank her for exhibiting the Can Do Spirit of the Akwa Ibom child.
FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER!”
In less than three hours, the statement attracted more than 2,200,000 comments and 547 shares.
Dana Air offers Baci one-year free tickets
Dana Air has announced its support for the world record-breaking chef, Hilda Baci, with one year of free tickets for all her domestic travels.
This is as the airline also gifted Baci’s mother three months of free flight tickets.
peaking on the support for Hilda Baci, the Chief Operating Officer of Dana Air, Ememobong Ettete, said that the airline has and will always support the craft, creativity, efforts and innovations of young Nigerians who embody the true Nigerian spirit as a proudly Nigerian brand.
According to a statement by the airline, “We have always blazed the trail in terms of support for the arts and entertainment industry, health care, and culture and our corporate social responsibility has been all-encompassing.
“We will be supporting Hilda’s local travels for one year and we are inspired by her strength and determination for greatness.
“We understand her mum is also a chef and she must have gotten this inspiration from her in light of this, we shall be supporting her mum with three months of local flights for free.
“We thank Hilda’s mum for giving us an amazing daughter and for being a huge support system to Hilda. We thank all those who came out to dispassionately support one of our own,” he said.
Guinness World Record reacts
Guinness Book of Records has acknowledged the effort of Chef Hilda Baci who has been cooking for close to 100 hours now but said it will need to review associated evidence before officially confirming the record.
A Twitter user identified as Alexander had inquired why the Guinness Book of Records was yet to acknowledge Baci’s feat.
The user had tweeted “Why is Guinness World Records not showing or talking about Hilda’s cook-a-thon? Can’t see anything on their pages (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube).”
Responding, it wrote, “We’re aware of this amazing record attempt, we need to review all the evidence first before officially confirming a record.”
Before Baci’s cook-a-thon, chef Lata Tondon, held the record for completing the task in 87 hours, 45 minutes, and 00 seconds in Rewa, India, in 2019.
